Notices by Blackfist (blackfist@c.im)

I was recently going to spend the night in a very white upper class beach city. I drove through the area looking for Thai food and simply "felt" that I didn't belong there. Of course there were no "sundown" town signs. Just the feeling of being an out of place other. So I decided to go back home. I was alone and had no one to disappoint or to put on a brave face for so I left.

I went to a less affluent area. Still decidedly upper class and white. I grabbed a room there on a whim. Again hunted down a Thai restaurant for food. It was in a decidedly poorer area with less affluent white folks. The food was delicious, but I still felt like the other. I was made to feel that way by most of the folks I interacted with.

Friendly hellos and happy holiday gratings barely returned. Mine was the only black face I saw for two days. I ended my trip early and returned home.

The rudeness was...rude. But no more than I have become used to.

I am sure that if you had asked any of the folk with whom I interacted they would have all said that I was "welcome" to be in those spaces. But there is a difference from knowing that I couldn't be excluded to being made to feel welcomed or merely tolerated.

If I spoke to 20 people, only 2 maybe 3 were nice. This is the real world. Think how friendly it is here whe. Black folk tell you the don't feel welcomed or that this space isn't a safe one.

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