Of course, racism and hatred are very real issues, and ones that we must discuss in order to make progress. But with all the coverage of people behaving badly flooding our awareness through the media and online, it can be easy to write-off humanity entirely. To believe that the world is inherently a divisive, dangerous and ultimately declining place to live. When in reality, not everything is so bleak.
That’s what makes sharing this story so important.
A Black woman named Jo’lee Shine was stuck in her overheated car in front of a stranger’s house, waiting for a tow truck to arrive.
When a white man, the homeowner, began approaching her, Jo’lee immediately started recording the interaction. And thank goodness she did, because this was a moment worth immortalizing.
“I’m so sorry, my car ran hot,” she says in the clip, and begins trying to start the car to prove her situation.
And then, in the sweetest southern accent you ever heard, we hear “don’t try to crank it baby.”
When then hear him offer to put water in the car, made sure Jo’lee had coming to pick her up, and then…wait for it…asked if she wanted lunch.
“We’ll be eating lunch shortly. While we wait on [the tow truck] if we get everything set up I’ll come get you and we’ll have dinner,” he says.
This brings Jo’lee to instant tears. “That was so sweet,” she whimpers.
With a chuckle, the man replies, “that’s the way we are.” he then shared how he just had 22 people over at his house the night before for “a family gathering.”
Jo’lee declines the lunch offer, but profusely thanks the kind stranger as she wipes the tears that continue to fall. Just before he goes, the man says that he’ll check back in, joking that the tow truck “might be delayed” and she might change her mind.
In her caption, Jo’lee wrote, “I wasn’t going to post this, but I wanted people to know that they’re still good people in this world.”
Seems like that mission was accomplished. The video, which has gotten over 176,000 likes on Instagram, gave everyone a little dose of hope. Just take a look at some of these lovely comments:
“This is who we are…it sucks that movies have put fear in people to that level. That makes me sad that there’s fear and division keeping us all from sharing love that I KNOW is in all of us.”
“The media works to divide us, don’t believe their lies. We love all people.. God Bless.”
“I’ll come get you when we get dinner on the table?!!” ❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹🔥🔥🔥🔥🙌🙌”
“The way he called you baby without a mean tone in his soul.”
“This renews my faith in humanity. He tried to help her without any thought of race.”
“Just when we think humanity has died, this happens ♥️. Human kindness for the win.”
Indeed, the world has its’ Karens…and even worse characters. But it also has people who invite strangers to dinner, just because it’s a nice thing to do…because it’s the “way they are.” It’s the way a lot of us are, when we let ourselves be.
This article originally appeared on 3.23.24