A North Carolina man was fired from his job after a video of him racially profiling a black woman at their private community pool went viral.
Adam Bloom, a white man, called the Winston-Salem Police Department on July 4 to complain that a black woman was using the community pool without authorization, the New York Times reports.
In the viral video recorded and posted on Facebook by the woman, later identified as Jasmine Abhulimen, Bloom can be seen questioning whether she had proper access via her pool access card.
Bloom, also the pool chairman, reportedly asked Abhulimen for her address and ID to prove she was a member. She freely offered her address but refused to provide her ID given that, as the sole black person there, she had been the only asked to identify herself.
“Nobody else was asked to see their ID,” she says in the video. “I feel this is racial profiling. I am the only black person here with my son in the pool.”
The police officers, who were clearly uncomfortable, were able to determine that Abhulimen’s pool access card worked and that no crime was committed.
“If she has a card to get into the pool, I believe that should be enough,” one of the officers tells Bloom in the video. “It turns green, and it unlocks.”
Bloom responds that “they kind of make their way around sometimes … but that’s good enough for me today.”
Abhulimen, who had come to the pool with her son, accused Bloom of racial profiling and demanded an apology. Bloomed refused to apologize.
Two days later, Sonoco Products, the company that Bloom worked for, released a statement saying that he had been fired. Their announcement came after the video that Abhulimen recorded went viral.
“Our core values at Sonoco are built on dignity and respect for all, and we do not condone discrimination of any kind, inside or outside of the workplace” the statement, released Friday, reads.
Bloom has also been relieved from his duties as pool chairman while also being labeled “ID Adam” by social media, the Washington Post reports.
On Friday, he was interviewed by NBC Nightly News and issued an apology for his actions.
“It’s just really hard for me to know I made another person feel that way,” Bloom said. “I express my sincere regret for the actions I took that day.”
As for Abhulimen, her lawyer has called the incident “traumatizing” to their entire family, WXII-12 reports.