White Woman Rants About Black Guest for Taking Selfie At Hotel Pool, Internet Calls Her ‘Insecure’

A white woman is facing backlash for complaining about a Black guest at a hotel in Panama City. She posted a rant on Threads against a woman whom she had never met before. The white woman was criticized for taking and sharing photos of the Black woman on her social media.

In the photo, the woman can be seen wearing a bikini in the hotel pool. She was taking her own photos on the steps of the pool with a skyline view behind her. Following the backlash, the post was removed from the platform.

The white woman was identified as Sharon O’Dea, who was staying at the Panama City hotel. On Threads, she shared the photographs of the Black woman, writing, “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,” she wrote.

O’Dea continued, “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.”

The Amsterdam-based woman accused the hotel guest of having a “hollowed-out experience,” instead of sitting “with a sunset.” She wrote, “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.”

Her rant immediately drew attention from Threads users, many of whom were stunned and furious to see her complaining about the post. “As an introverted Black woman, people always interpret it as anger or aggression when I’m just to myself,” one wrote.

The user added, “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.”

Another user 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.”

A third wrote, “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.”

The post was removed from Threads on April 5 as the backlash against O’Dea grew.