Silicon Valley actors tweeted story of how two Trump supporters accosted them and accused them of being ‘cucks’ at a bar in Silver Lake neighborhood of LA

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The comedians Kumail Nanjiani‏ and Thomas Middleditch said they were accosted by supporters of President-elect Donald Trump on Friday, in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Silver Lake.

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The actors, best known for their roles in the HBO satire Silicon Valley, wrote on Twitter that they were at a bar in the gentrifying neighborhood when two white men in their 20s approached them.

“We’re big fans of you guys,” the men said, according to Nanjiani, with one telling Middleditch: “I trolled you on Twitter yesterday.” The man then began telling the comics that their anti-Trump politics were “wrong”, Nanjiani said.

“I go, ‘Hey we don’t wanna discuss politics right now,’” he continued, but said the men began to use a slang word of the far right that merges “conservative” with “cuckold”.

“His friends goes, ‘Oh they’re cucks.’ Then starts yelling at us. ‘CUCKS CUCKS CUCKS!’

Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) We can't let hate/racism/bigotry/sexism be normalized. If something happens, be safe, but let it be known we won't stand for this.

“He starts getting in my face. Thomas puts his hand on the dude’s chest to stop him. ‘Don’t touch me you cuck. Wanna go outside?’

“At this point, the bouncer runs over, grabs them, kicks them out. The bartender is awesome & apologetic. Thomas & I are stunned. This happened at a bar in LA surrounded by [people]. I can’t imagine what it must be like to be someone who looks like me in other parts.”

Middleditch described the same events on his own Twitter account, saying: “For no reason two dudes came at us with Trump right wing shit, calling us ‘cucks’. Never in my life. I hate this. Week 1.”

When someone accused Middleditch of fabricating the story, he answered: “Damn you. It’s real. Wake up. Bouncer removed these people. Shame on you. What is happening?!

“This was in Silver Lake. Gentrification central. Unbelievable.”

Nanjiani‏, a Pakistani American, has been outspoken in his criticism of Trump and the Republican’s campaign, which used racially charged and divisive rhetoric and whose supporters include former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

“We can’t let hate/racism/bigotry/sexism be normalized,” Nanjiani‏ wrote on Twitter. “If something happens, be safe, but let it be known we won’t stand for this.



“Many [people] are like ‘just cuz I voted for Trump doesn’t mean I’m racist/sexist’. OK, but at best, you ignored it, you overlooked it. We thought internet would give us access to ppl w different points of view. Instead it gives us access to many ppl w the same point of view.”

Reports of hate crimes, racist graffiti and attacks on Hispanic people and women wearing hijabs have increased in the past week, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a left-leaning organization that monitors hate groups.

On social media, dozens of stories surfaced: African American high school students shared stories of being called “cotton pickers”, transgender support groups reported a huge increase in claimed attacks, and a Hispanic reporter for the New York Times said she was aggressively confronted simply for speaking Spanish in Arizona.

“I think this is absolutely clearly a result of Trump’s election,” SPLC senior fellow Mark Potok told the Guardian on Friday. “Donald Trump has ripped the lid off Pandora’s box.”