A woman will appear in court after a couple was allegedly racially abused in Palmerston North earlier this month.
Keauna and Constantine, who had recently moved to New Zealand from the United States, recalled the alleged attack in a TikTok video.
Keauna, a black woman, said they were walking home from the cinema on March 4 when three people began yelling "gang member, gang member, they must be a gang member" at her.
"Immediately I knew they were talking about me, but I needed confirmation for that."
Keauna said she and Constantine walked further up the street before one woman allegedly said: "Oh, that's a n****r, that's a monkey".
"And [she] started making monkey noises."
Constantine said in the TikTok video they both did research before moving to Aotearoa to ensure they weren't "coming into a place with this shit".
"Yeah you can't avoid it anywhere," he said.
"We lived in a racist state in the United States and we never experienced anything like this ever."
Keauna said she hadn't experienced the egregious level of racism in the United States that she allegedly faced earlier this month.
"This blatant racism just, like, right there in front of you and people really having the nerve to do that."
Constantine said at the time the incident wasn't isolated and "we've been experiencing weirdness" since arriving in New Zealand.
"[People are] looking at me with 'you're not supposed to be here', 'you're disgusting, 'you're not a person'. That's how they are looking at me," Keauna said.
"It's really kind of hard to deal with it. It just makes you angry."
In an update on Monday, Manawatū area commander Inspector Ross Grantham said police have summonsed a 28-year-old woman over the alleged incident.
"The woman has been charged with offensive language after a complaint from two people who were walking on Main Street at around 11pm," he said.
She is expected to appear in the Palmerston North District Court on April 4.
"This incident was very upsetting to the victim and her partner and we hope this outcome provides them with some degree of reassurance that Police will not tolerate that type of behaviour," Insp Grantham said.
