#Beach day! #Miami #waves #water #sun #fl #florida
This is exactly why I felt unsafe last night. I took a fellow law school friend to a barbeque at a home in a wealthy neighborhood near Beverly Hills. In the darkness and with all the winding roads, we had trouble reading the numbers on the houses, so we ended up parking around 2-3 blocks from the actual house we were going to. Leaving the house after the barbeque, I was distinctly aware that I and my friend are black, that she was wearing a large sweat shirt (bearing the name of our law school, but that gave me little comfort), and I was wearing a beanie cap and a relatively baggie t-shirt with a dark colored cardigan. The few cars that passed us as we walked to our car slowed down and every driver stared at us, until I smiled and waved which seemed to sooth the initial suspicion the combination of our skin color and location created.
As a black woman who attends law school, co-founded a non-profit organization, and has never run afoul of the law, I should be able to walk to my car in an affluent neighborhood and not be suspected a criminal. More importantly, I shouldn’t have to be hyper aware of the way I’m walking, what I’m wearing, or actively plan in my mind the best way to respond should someone pull up and ask me why I’m in the neighborhood and what I’m doing.
I don’t feel safe in my country. I don’t feel safe in my skin.
Seriously fucked up shit.
^^^
Pure insanity.