A few days ago I was walking down the street trying to find the WLCAC Family Resource Center in Watts, when I noticed that a car pulled over and someone was trying to get my attention.
Typical Los Angeles, male activities–the honking of horns, cat calls and men literally pulling their cars over, trying to get your attention while you are walking down the street.
This guy pulls around the corner and hops out his vehicle. He approaches me and says, “I know you heard me calling you,” while walking up on me like we were childhood friends. He walks right into my personal space and demands that I “give him a hug” while approaching me at full speed.
I quickly put up my arms in the form of an x and brought them down. This moved his hands out the way before they could reach my body.
What the hell? I thought.
Instead of cussing him out, because you know, “angry Black woman,” I kept my cool and eased out of him pressing me for my number by promising to follow him on Instagram.
This experience made me reflect on the sexual harassment and alarming rates of sexual assault that girls in the inner city experience on a daily.
I know this guy only jumped out his car and tried to feel up on me, but there are too many inner-city girls who are being taken advantage of, trafficked and pimped because a dude wanted to see how far he could take it.
A lot of it has to do with the mentality of these girls and their lack of preparation of the games guys play, but a lot of it is due to the mentality of the males in their community and the disregard and disrespect of women.
Their stories are not broadcasted within this era of the #Metoo movement.
Just like the campaign went on to overshadow the founder and Black woman Tarana Burke once white feminism got hold of it, the stories of Black and Brown girls in the inner city, who are being sexually assaulted and manipulated, also get overshadowed.
2 Comments
I think you handled this nasty man very well BUT you should not have had that experience, period!
This is an old problem though…I grew up in the South Bronx and I could write a book on all the micro aggressions and downright assaults.
This is a male problem. We need more girls, young girls, to learn how to respond. But more important, boys and men need to be taught that attics like the one you describe is unacceptable. Thank you for this important reporting.
LMAO. YOU BLOCKED HIM WITH AN X.
GREAT POST!