Street Harassed in Farragut North: “I’ve never felt so humiliated in my life.”
Location: 20th and L Streets NW (Farragut North)
Time: Night (7:30pm-12am)
You felt the need to holla at me en Español on 20th and L. as much as I hate that shit, I let it go. I know that I look like a white girl, and you didn’t know that I am also from México. Or did you actually know that, and you picked me. alone. on purpose? You took it to a new level. I have never even felt this threatened on the street in one of the most Machismo countries in the world.
When you rolled your window down and followed me FOR THREE BLOCKS at 2 mph, getting more and more vulgar with your taunts, I felt that familiar anxious knot in my stomach. Something horrible was going to happen. So when I yelled back in our shared language that I wasn’t interested, loud enough for the Indío construction workers on the next block to turn and look, and you stopped the car like you were gonna get out, I couldn’t help but start running.
I hope you got a good laugh at that as you drove away. And I hope that you feel big and important. Because I’ve never felt so humiliated in my life.
Emphases by CASS.
Submitted 10/08/13 by “Paloma O.”
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