Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:That’s terrible and I’m really sorry that happened to you. He sounds mentally ill so I wouldn’t take it personally.
But also, being homeless in itself doesn’t make him less than you either.
Being racist does, though.
Anonymous wrote:A man who was either homeless and/or has substance abuse issues/mental illness was walking towards me last night on a semi isolated street, in that unsteady halting way. I was trying to walk around him with my head bent down to stay out of his way when he snarled "stop staring at me, you f****ing chink".
I kept walking ahead. For a split second I thought he would turn around and start following me. There were other people ahead of me so I just started walking faster to catch up to them and then I was in an area where there were many more people.
I've been called "chink" by all sorts of people since I was a kid in elementary school. "Go back to your country". [My country? I was born here.]
So it surprises me how much it still stings when someone calls me a chink. It's even hard to write that. That a man who was probably homeless thinks I'm less than him because of my skin color. It shouldn't bother me, after all this time! Right?!
So I'm just trying to get this out of my system. Weirdly I feel ashamed and couldn't even tell anyone IRL that this happened.
Thanks for listening, strangers on an anonymous messaging board.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:For the last five or so years, I have thought a lot about how to be an ally as a white person, and one thing I do is when I see something like that happen I go up to the person and ask if they're okay and say that was horrible and wrong. It's all I can really think of but I want them to know it was witnessed and thought to be unacceptable.
I'm sorry that happened to you.
It's the OP. Thank you. That's very kind. When people just pretend nothing happened, it can feel shameful and embarassing. It reminds me of another time when I was waiting for the bus and a Black woman was shouting at loudly and repeatedly to "get out of here and go back to your f** country*. When I got on the bus, another Black woman looked at me and just quietly said "I'm sorry". It was small but kind gesture and I still remember it.
Thank you everyone else for your kind words.
The fact that the woman was black wasn't relevant to the telling of the story nor the fact that a black person said sorry.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:For the last five or so years, I have thought a lot about how to be an ally as a white person, and one thing I do is when I see something like that happen I go up to the person and ask if they're okay and say that was horrible and wrong. It's all I can really think of but I want them to know it was witnessed and thought to be unacceptable.
I'm sorry that happened to you.
It's the OP. Thank you. That's very kind. When people just pretend nothing happened, it can feel shameful and embarassing. It reminds me of another time when I was waiting for the bus and a Black woman was shouting at loudly and repeatedly to "get out of here and go back to your f** country*. When I got on the bus, another Black woman looked at me and just quietly said "I'm sorry". It was small but kind gesture and I still remember it.
Thank you everyone else for your kind words.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:A man who was either homeless and/or has substance abuse issues/mental illness was walking towards me last night on a semi isolated street, in that unsteady halting way. I was trying to walk around him with my head bent down to stay out of his way when he snarled "stop staring at me, you f****ing chink".
I kept walking ahead. For a split second I thought he would turn around and start following me. There were other people ahead of me so I just started walking faster to catch up to them and then I was in an area where there were many more people.
I've been called "chink" by all sorts of people since I was a kid in elementary school. "Go back to your country". [My country? I was born here.]
So it surprises me how much it still stings when someone calls me a chink. It's even hard to write that. That a man who was probably homeless thinks I'm less than him because of my skin color. It shouldn't bother me, after all this time! Right?!
So I'm just trying to get this out of my system. Weirdly I feel ashamed and couldn't even tell anyone IRL that this happened.
Thanks for listening, strangers on an anonymous messaging board.
I’m assuming this was a white man, probably a Trump supporter most likely.
Anonymous wrote:For the last five or so years, I have thought a lot about how to be an ally as a white person, and one thing I do is when I see something like that happen I go up to the person and ask if they're okay and say that was horrible and wrong. It's all I can really think of but I want them to know it was witnessed and thought to be unacceptable.
I'm sorry that happened to you.
Anonymous wrote:A man who was either homeless and/or has substance abuse issues/mental illness was walking towards me last night on a semi isolated street, in that unsteady halting way. I was trying to walk around him with my head bent down to stay out of his way when he snarled "stop staring at me, you f****ing chink".
I kept walking ahead. For a split second I thought he would turn around and start following me. There were other people ahead of me so I just started walking faster to catch up to them and then I was in an area where there were many more people.
I've been called "chink" by all sorts of people since I was a kid in elementary school. "Go back to your country". [My country? I was born here.]
So it surprises me how much it still stings when someone calls me a chink. It's even hard to write that. That a man who was probably homeless thinks I'm less than him because of my skin color. It shouldn't bother me, after all this time! Right?!
So I'm just trying to get this out of my system. Weirdly I feel ashamed and couldn't even tell anyone IRL that this happened.
Thanks for listening, strangers on an anonymous messaging board.