A viral video has captured the essence of gentrification after a white woman called the police on a school of whales hanging out in their own neighborhood, minding their own whale business. Advertisement According to Time, Darren Lucianna and his family were on a boating trip in Puget Sound when they encountered a whale suffering from a severe case of spinal blubber. While most people refer to them as “humpback whales,” we choose not to use such derogatory terms. The family immediately began freaking out. You can hear one person hyperventilating and another person blubbering (pun intended) as the person filming tries to calm the group down. As Darren tries to convince his dad to drive away (curiously, after begging him not to start the motor) a woman informs the family that she is calling 911. “I’m out in Puget Sound and there’s three grey whales underneath our boat,” the woman informs the operator. “I’m afraid we might get flipped over. I’m really scared.” The family eventually speeds away from the sea stalkers, still excited about their encounter with the thugged-out mammalians. While the Lucianna story has been met with both derision and laughter on Black Twitter, no one has bothered to find out the other side of the story. Advertisement Until now. In the name of objective journalism, The Root has obtained an exclusive interview with Orca Swimfrey, one of the whales in the video. Advertisement The Root: Let’s start at the beginning. Have you seen the video? Orca Swimfrey: Of course. It’s all over Whale Twitter. I’m an internet celebrity now. I got grouper groupies sliding in my Fin-stagram. Octopi hitting me up on Fishbook. What’s funny is, when this whole thing happened, me and my homeboys were just chilling in the hood, headed over to school when we saw... Advertisement The Root: Wait, whales go to school? Orca: Oh, you think we are all uneducated? I’ll have you know that I come from a long line of hard-working sea mammals who run our own seafood restaurant as well . Advertisement The Root: No, I’m not saying that at all! Orca: I’m just kidding, bruh. Actually, we mostly just swim around and hang out. But a group of whales is called a school. Unless they’re killer whales, which are actually dolphins. We call them a “gang.” Advertisement They’re not even that mean, though. I’m not into inter-species dating (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but I hooked up with a Killer Whale when I was in college. It didn’t work out. The Root: A college is a group of whales or something? Orca: No, dummy, it’s where I got my Ph.D. in human studies—University of the Pacific. Anyway, that’s when we noticed the boat. Because I am a scientist, I really wanted to get a close look at the humans, so I swam over. Advertisement The Root: Were you afraid? Orca: Not at all. We just wanted to scare them a little bit because we know what happens when the coral-colored people show up. We don’t see the darker ones that much anymore. I don’t even see them water-skiing or scuba diving. I can’t figure out why. For some reason, after the late 1800s, they seemed to have stopped taking boat trips. Before then, they would be packed on ships like crazy. Advertisement Now, not so much. Anyway, we just wanted to shake them up and make them leave. The Root: Don’t you think that’s mean? Orca: Mean? How do you figure? If someone shows up in your living room, wouldn’t you want to get them the fuck out of there? We literally live here. Advertisement The Root: I see your point. How long have you been doing this? Orca: Since they started trying to gentrify our neighborhoods. It’s part of our job. We’re like the bouncers of the sea even though we have a bad reputation. Advertisement The Root: Why do you think that is? Orca: Human supremacy. They think they’re smarter than us even though everywhere they go they cause chaos and disorder. First, they enslaved my ancestors and tried to paint us as evil. But if we only knew our true history, we would rise up. Advertisement Like the lies they told about my grandfather. They say he swallowed some preacher named Jonah. But the truth is, my granddaddy could’ve chewed dude up or let him drown. Instead, my grandfather gave the dude a safe ride to shore on the Underwater Railroad. It’s not like whales have fins, so, of course he swallowed him. That shit took three whole days and no one gives him any credit. I still believe that’s what killed granddaddy. After that, he always had terrible acid reflux. Said dude tasted like rotten algae. Advertisement But that’s how those ocean colonizers do. Where do you think they got lamp oil and candles from during the 1700s and 1800s? Whales, that’s who. My people built this civilization. Yet they are still enslaving us. The Root: Enslaving you? Orca: Yeah, bruh. There are plantations all over the world still engaged in chattel slavery and human trafficking. You ever been to Sea World? You think those whales deserve to be locked up behind bars? We have to put an end to the mass incarceration of whales of color! Advertisement The Root: So how do you feel about the woman calling the police? Orca: We’re used to it. Those people have been doing it since the beginning of time. They love to talk about “Free Willy” and “Save the Whales,” but what they really want is to take over our neighborhoods for themselves. Advertisement They all want us dead or in aquariums. That’s why we try to scare them. As if a policeman could do something to us. They should be glad that I didn’t call up some of my cousins. I know some grimy-ass sharks who would have fucked them up. We fear no man. The only man we acknowledge is Aquaman. The Root: Last question: What do you have to say to the woman who called the police on you? Advertisement Orca: I’d like to tell her that she needs to set aside her privilege and understand that we are the ones in danger. Yes, there are a small number of sea creatures who are up to no good. But most of us are trying to live our lives and make fins meet. When she calls the police on us, it puts us in danger. She needs to realize that we are disproportionately hunted and killed. We are almost extinct. I guess what I’m trying to say is... Advertisement The Root: Please don’t say “whale lives matter.” Orca: Nah, bruh. The dangerously violent Caucasian sea animals are literally called “great white sharks.” The one unobtainable thing in life is called a “white whale.” But whether it’s policemen or families going out on a boat adventure, people need to hear this: Black Lives Matter. The Root: Amen. Orca: Nah, Aquaman.<doc-sep>An abundance of caution seemed to be the mantra on this woman’s mind when she called the cops to report the fact that humpback whales were swimming under her boat. In a now-viral Facebook video post documenting a close encounter with the gentle sea giants, we see a whale decide to check out the boat by slowly going beneath it. While the guy behind the camera — Darren Lucianna, according to his Facebook — endeavors to calm down the rest of the passengers on his family boating trip, plenty of them seem to be very worried. “I don’t want to die right now,” someone says in the background, while another person can be heard crying. “Relax. He’s going to check us out and then he’s going to go away. Relax. Seriously!” Lucianna responds; throughout, he seems awed by the experience. His family, however, is on a slightly different page. But the real kicker is when another voice can be heard on the phone, making that cop call. “I’m out in Puget Sound, and there’s three huge grey whales underneath our boat, and I’m afraid that we might get flipped over,” she says. (They were actually humpbacks, a fact that she corrects later on in the call.) Ultimately the whales pass beneath them, they fire up the engine and cruise away — with the humpbacks following from a safe distance for a few minutes. All’s well that ends well, even for Lucianna and his family. “Family boating trip turned out to be an amazing adventure,” he even captioned the dramatic video. Get The Brief. Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. Please enter a valid email address. * The request timed out and you did not successfully sign up. Please attempt to sign up again. Sign Up Now An unexpected error has occurred with your sign up. Please try again later. Check the box if you do not wish to receive promotional offers via email from TIME. You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Thank you! For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder. Write to Raisa Bruner at raisa.bruner@time.com.<doc-sep>
Social media is cracking up over — and, in some cases, shaking their heads at — a family member who called 911 to report a group of whales during an outing on a boat. Darren Lucciana took his family for a boat ride on Washington’s Puget Sound — a popular spot for whale watching — when three humpback whales swam up to their boat. In a video shot by a family member, Lucciana assures his panicked family, “All right, we’re all right, calm down,” while a woman hyperventilates in the background. “Oh my God, it’s going right under us, you guys!” yells a woman while another is heard sobbing. “Relax, he’s checking us out … they’re not going to hurt you. Just relax, he’s right under us,” says Lucciana. He adds, “Look at this, you guys, you’ll never see this again.” “Let’s get out of here!” says a woman. Another declares, “I’m calling 911.” Lucianna tells his family that the “intelligent” mammal is simply curious and will swim away soon. “Look at that — he’ll rolling!” he exclaims excitedly. “Oh my God, this is amazing — you guys, there’s another one right behind him!” “Dad, let’s get out of here,” says a nervous male voice, while a woman reaffirms, “I’m calling 911!” “I’m out at Puget Sound and there are three gray whales right underneath our boat, and I’m afraid that we might get flipped over,” the woman says into the phone. “I’m really scared.” As the boat begins pulling away and the whales start diving, Lucianna breathes, saying, “That was amazing.” A family member then cries, “Stupid whales! They’re going to kill us.” A woman makes a second call to 911, explaining that the family has been “quietly watching them for about an hour and they’re underneath our boat right now — all three of them — and it’s really scary. I’m just afraid that if we get tipped over that somebody needs to know where we are.” She also provides the family’s GPS coordinates. “The worst thing that can happen is that we go for a swim, dude,” the dad protests, adding, “You will never forget that.” Story continues Aside from calling the family “obnoxious” and “ridiculous,” social media commenters noted that the panicked response was like the recurrent 911 calls on people of color. 1. have I not been trying to warn y'all about whales and how you should never be too close to something that big?? 2. white family calls police on group of humpback whales LMAOOOOOhttps://t.co/zZC2f2wUWm — Tracy Boomeisha-Ann Clayton (@brokeymcpoverty) October 9, 2018 How do you go to the ocean and call the cops on whales when you're going to their home? She continued reporting the whales even when she was out of "danger" 😂 I can't Also I'm trying to change the world one friend at a time. If you don't know a Muslim follow me. ❤ — StanceGrounded (@_SJPeace_) October 9, 2018 'Family Calls Cops on Whales' Yup, you read that right. 1. You DO NOT reengage the motor when whales are less than 100 feet from your vessel! 2. You are in THEIR home. 3. What were the police were going to do other than have a good laugh?https://t.co/PcSCdadokT — DolphinFreeAZ (@DolphinFreeAZ) October 9, 2018 Watch in amazement as this white family calls the police on whales. Freaking WHALES. smh 🤦🏾‍♂️ #nature #WOW https://t.co/ruwjb4Dje2 — Black Panther Peeps (@godofwine77) October 9, 2018 I cannot believe the beautiful, rare and privileged moment they wasted on being stupid. A once in a lifetime opportunity gone. What are the damn police going to do? You are in THEIR HOME! Family calls 911 on trio of humpback whales https://t.co/JbXHUZCpiK — ✋StOp*ALL*aBuSe✋ (@vanDawn1971) October 8, 2018 Representatives from the U.S. Coast Guard base in Seattle and the Seattle Police Department tell Yahoo Lifestyle that their respective departments did not receive the family’s calls. Lucianna did not return Yahoo Lifestyle’s request for comment. The awestruck dad commented on his Facebook post: “Never forget this experience. So glad my boys could witness it.” Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.