Won't you be my neighbor?
I went for a run today around my happy little suburban neighborhood. I wore a long-sleeved shirt and pants, none of it tight-fitting. Hence my surprise when I sensed a car behind me slow down as it came near and the driver say and/or gesticulate something out the window at me. At first, I really thought I had imagined it, evidence of an unfounded paranoia around people of a different racial distinction than my own. I refuse to be that woman who clutches her belongings to her when a black man walks by. So when I passed by the house where the car had pulled in, I waved and said hi. I was greeted by a "Hey, baby" in a tone that made me more than a little uncomfortable. What the heck!! I know it's a crazy world we live in, still you don't expect to be cat-called in your own neighborhood. Mr. Rogers would have been appalled.