Last Saturday night, as I walked down U Street with a Boston friend, we passed a group of ragged men who proceeded to ask us if we “were working.”
WTF?
Who SAYS things like that? If it weren’t for the fact that we were celebrating a friend’s birthday and I just wasn’t in the mood for making a scene (unusual, I know), I definitely would have had words with that man. It is just unbelievable to me that in 21st century America, women are still so commoditized and treated with disrepect. And that applies at least two times over to women of color. My friend, who is black, told me that she often hears prostitution-related questions when she’s walking down the street with her Asian friends. I wasn’t sure whether to laugh out loud or be deeply disturbed by that comment. Do white women get asked these same questions? Often? Come to think of it, I’ve never fended off these kinds of questions or remarks when I’ve walked with my white friends but of course, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.
The rest of the night, thankfully, was wonderfully amusing. We ran into one of the previous contenstants on America’s Next Top Model (Sarah but I don’t remember which season), and then spotted one of the designers from Trading Spaces (don’t ask me which one, I didn’t recognize him). Hurray for U Street, Marvin’s, Chi Cha Lounge, and the fabulous, fearsome women I partied with!
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Now playing: The Ting Tings – Great DJ
via FoxyTunes.
