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Wanna hear about how racism in Tr^mp's America ain't going nowhere anytime soon? Here's the story of a white woman trying to fight me just outside my front door this morning: a 
1/x and TW
1/x and TW
So my morning routine consists of 3 elements: I spend a little time at my altar, I read a few verses, and I journal. This morning I was halfway through the routine, so I was reading. House is quiet. Dog is fed and snoozing under my altar stool. Suddenly I hear a horn blowing. 2/x
My first thought is, "Great. Someone is coming to pick up one of the neighbors and they're running late." It was rude, but I blew it off. Surely the person would come outside, then they and the horn would go away. Easy peasy. 3/x
Then I hear: "N^GGER! N^GGER! N^GGER!" Whoa. I freeze, but then head for the door. My first thought is: "Neighbors are fighting." That's happened to me before, and as a person w/ C-PTSD, it's triggering, so I try to let people know that and give them a chance to go inside. 4/x
When I open the door, I see one person: an Amazon delivery driver. She's a Black woman. She looks at me and says nervously, "Have a nice day!" I'm confused, so I ask, "Was someone yelling out here?" She says yes. It was one of my neighbors. 5/x
Neighbor was angry bc the driver had stopped in front of the building instead of parking. Happens all the time here. Our spaces are reserved and people get pissed when you park in them, even if for a few minutes. The driver was gonna run a package up the stairs and bounce. 6/x
At first I presumed it was my next door neighbor, whose car the Amazon van was in front of. I'm pissed, but I say, "I'm gonna call the complex." The driver turns to leave, then comes back. She points to a blue Buick that's backed up to the mailboxes. "That's her," she says. 7/x
It looks as if the woman is waiting on the driver. Or somebody. She's just sitting there, in the car. So I come downstairs. I plan to take a photo and send it to the apartment manager. I'm many feet away from her. She jumps out of the car. 8/x
She yells, "You wanna take a picture of me? Go ahead, bitch! Nappy headed bitch!" I'm not sure if she's talking about me or the driver, but cool cool. I take the pic. Then I give her a wide berth and move toward the back of her car so I can get the license plate number. 9/x
Then she jumps to the back of the car and lunges at me. I kept my eye on her left hand bc it was moving and I was waiting for her to put it on me. Meanwhile, I stepped back and said calmly, "You'd better get away from me." I said it again; she got back in her car. 10/x
I hang up from the phone tree that has me pressing random numbers to get to whomever, and I dial 911. And THIS is where the illogical nature of racism gets me--or maybe it's the DEEP comfort of racism, and the presumption that other white people will protect and maintain it. 11/x
While I'm on the phone w/ a dispatcher (who, BTW, asked me why I didn't call the non-emergency number, and when I ask, "Really? While a hate crime is happening?" finally agrees to send 12), the neighbor, who has yelled expletives and lunged at me, goes to the leasing office. 12/x
AND BRINGS THE PROPERTY MANAGER to the scene of her crime. But I don't know this yet. I'm back in my apt. now, and I've ended the 911 call and called the leasing office again. When I get an answer, an agent says, "Oh, that lady was just in here." Then I hear yelling outside. 13/x
I walk outside. The mgr, the woman, and the delivery driver are all out there yelling. I tell them a cop is coming. The lady starts mocking me: "Ooooh, so what, you called the cops bc I yelled THE N WORD????" She said "the N word," y'all. Not "n^gger" like she'd been saying. 14/x
She had the decorum to keep it PC in front of the white male manager, but also happily admitted to what she'd done??? The leasing officer I was on the phone with just said, "Go back inside; you can't reason with people like that." She was right. 15/x
But bc the woman was still out there, carrying on with NO shame, I told the delivery driver that she could wait in my apartment until someone came to relieve her. I put on a mask and invited her in. 16/x
What breaks my heart is how calm she was. When she sat down, she said, "White people yell at me all the time, but I've never been called a n^gger." All. The. Time. I gasped. Not at the information, but how commonplace it seemed for her. Insults are an occupational hazard. 17/x
Then the manager comes up to take a statement and talk to the driver's manager, who also wanted a statement from him. I tell the mgr this woman needs to be kicked out. She lives in a complex filled with Black and Brown people, including small children. 18/x
He agrees that her behavior is unacceptable and says he's gonna take care of it, but who knows? Then a smooth hour later, the cop shows up. 19/x
I give him a statement and he tells me that because the woman lunged at me I can file an "assault intimidation" charge. But I have to go down to the station to do it. IN a pandemic. Also if she does get kicked out of the complex, that's gonna take at least 30 days. 20/x
In the meantime, she knows where I live and where my car is. I also have to walk Gizmo, sometimes at night. I feel unsafe but also indignant. I was literally in my house minding my own business, and I get verbally and almost physically assaulted bc she felt inconvenienced. 21/x
To say nothing ab the delivery driver, who I hope is OK and is taking care of herself. I keep wondering why that lady was waiting at the mailbox, and what she might have done if I hadn't heard anything or gone outside. BTW the other neighbors were
. Ain't seen em all day. 22/x
. Ain't seen em all day. 22/x
I'm posting this here for the record. I hope I am safe and she doesn't bother me, but I'm taking precautions and this is one of them. I'm still contemplating whether I should file charges. I'm so, so angry. I'm so, so tired. 23/x
The ONLY reason I'm not posting her pic is because if I do file charges, I don't want to ruin my chances of having a case. And yep, I understand the implications of doing that in a corrupt justice system. But I'm not sure what other recourse I have. 24/x
And I'm tired of being victimized by racists with no repercussions. This is 2016 all over again for me: name calling, threats to my safety, a dispatcher who dismissed my call for help. Ain't nothing changed but the date. 25/25.
