Head of Harvard research centre filmed harassing mother and biracial child in video

The director of a Harvard research centre has apologised after she was caught trying to order a mum and her biracial child away from her home in a viral video.

Theresa Lund - executive director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative - has been dubbed 'Sidewalk Susie' after Alyson Laliberte filmed some of her encounter with Lund and shared it on Facebook.

The video, which has since attracted more than 1.4 million views, shows Lund sat on the pavement asking Laliberte and her daughter, who is biracial, to move to allow her children to nap, as they were playing too loudly.

Laliberte wrote on Facebook that she and her daughter were only quietly drawing with chalk at 3:30pm in the afternoon.

Laliberte dubbed Lund, whose name she didn't know at the time, as 'another Permit Patty' on Facebook, a reference to a woman who called police on a young black girl selling water in another viral video.

In the clip, Lund questions Laliberte's right to be on the property and whether she lives in the building, asking if she lived in the "affordable units'' at the complex in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

She also addressed Laliberte's daughter, saying:

I’m sorry that we’re arguing with your mummy. She’s not being very nice.

Laliberte, who is white, wrote on Facebook that she felt Lund was being discriminatory:

It was totally discriminating and racist of her.. or maybe it was because my daughter is biracial who knows.

 I have no idea who this woman is and the fact that she thinks she has some kind of authority over me is crazy! 

She said she felt Lund thought she was better than others:

Despite color, where I live, how much money I have, she will be buried 6 feet under just like me...

Why do people think they are literally better than others? Why does she think she has a right to make us move? 

Laliberte also wrote that she had lived in the complex for 15 years and no one had ever made a complaint against her or her daughter.

Lund emailed an apology over the incident to the Boston Globe, saying she was "terribly sorry" and her response was "inappropriate and wrong".

I want to be accountable for my actions in a situation where I fell far short of my values and what I expect of myself.

This clearly wasn’t my best moment, and I have work to do to more consistently be my best self.

More: Man caught on camera making horrific racist rant at people in Seattle street