‘She Is Furious’: White Woman’s Bizarre Rant Over Seeing Black Woman Sitting Poolside at Posh Hotel Gets Deleted After Major Backlash
Did you hear the story about a Black woman quietly dipping her toes in a hotel pool when she was secretly photographed and posted on social media? If you haven’t, a white woman is facing fierce backlash for ranting on Threads about a fellow hotel guest in Panama City, whom she had never met before, but was certain harbored deep resentment for her.
In a seven-part series, Sharon O’Dea targeted a bikini-clad Black woman taking selfies on the steps of a rooftop infinity pool with a stunning skyline in the background.
Instead of letting the woman enjoy the moment, O’Dea eviscerated her online. Her first post began: “Being given death stares at a rooftop pool because I swam in it. I understand her frustration. I have disrupted the surface. I have introduced ripples into what was, until my arrival, a flawless simulation of leisure. I am, in the most literal sense possible, making waves. She is furious. I am delighted.”
You might think this sounds like ramblings from a private diary entry, but O’Dea chose to publicly vent her frustrations about influencer culture and used the Black woman as a symbol of everything that is wrong—potentially upending the woman’s vacation, or even her life.
“She hasn’t got into the water once. She has, however, taken forty minutes to construct photographic evidence that she is the kind of person who is near water,” went the condescending rant.
View on Threads
Implying the woman was having a “hollowed-out experience” and couldn’t “sit with a sunset” without the validation “of a like,” O’Dea, who is based in Amsterdam, spoke of herself in contrast: “Actually having a good time, which I accept is now a radical act. When performing your life has become the default, just living the f*cking thing is almost punk. I’ll take it.”
Many commenters on Threads found the play-by-play borderline stalkerish, not to mention completely unfounded.
One commenter, Jaki Dee, told Atlanta Black Star the post really “pissed” her off. “As an introverted Black woman, people always interpret it as anger or aggression when I’m just to myself,” she said. “That lady in the picture wasn’t bothering anyone, yet Sharon made her out to be a horribly shallow person, as if she didn’t deserve to be there or enjoy herself on her own terms.”
Following the uproar, the April 5 post has reportedly been removed, but many outraged Threads users are keeping it alive through screenshots and boosting its virality with sharp criticism.
Over on Threads, “hey_manderss” wrote: “You saw a Black woman quietly enjoying her time alone. You decide that because she’s not swimming, she must be FUMING with anger that you are. You create an entire narrative in your head and slam a woman’s character on social media because she’s not diving in the water.”
Threads user “castinggurlwonder” also did not mince words when taking O’Dea to task: “I hope the Black woman who was taking photos & minding her business at a pool—while being judged by an insecure woman (yes, she is) who took her photo and used it as content without her consent—sees the post and responds.”
Oh, the irony of venting about someone else taking selfies just to get your own sweet clicks!