“He started calling me hateful things..”
Location: 7800 block of Eastern Avenue (Silver Spring side)
Time: Evening Rush Hour (3:30pm-7:30pm)
I was walking home from the bus stop about an hour ago and passed a man who looked at me and said “bitch-ass n*gga.” I was shocked and confused and repeated what he said in a state of said shock and confusion,” though “n*gga” is not a word in my everyday vocabulary. (Both this man and I are black.) He then started yelling, accusing me of calling him names, stating that he was saying that hateful phrase to someone else (no one else was in our close vicinity, but even so it doesn’t make it right) though I said I was repeating what he randomly said to me and not calling him names. I should’ve been the one asking why he was calling me names.
He then gets close to me, starts yelling and calling me a “stank-ass bitch,” “ugly bitch,” and other hateful things with the word “bitch” in it while spit was flying out of his mouth.
I put my hands up in the stop position like I’ve learned in self-defense class and told him to back away from me or I’d call the police. He started to walk away but still acted like he wanted to come back and physically threaten me, so I walked away, yelling “It’s not worth it…IT’S NOT WORTH IT!”
It was not worth my time and energy to get into it with someone who was senselessly lashing out at me for no reason. As I continued up the street, a man and woman (both also black) said they heard what was going on and that the man had gotten into it with them too. The man of the duo said, “He yelled at me too…and I’m in a wheelchair!” I told the two that it was not worth it for me to continuing arguing with that guy so I chose to walk away. I apologized that they had to deal with that man too and I wished them a good day. Had it not been for the interaction with the pair at the bus stop afterward, I probably would’ve continued home stewing in anger.
While it was disappointing that we commiserated at being recipients of this man’s misdirected anger, it was good to know that I wasn’t alone and that what had happened was not my fault.
Submitted 5/13/17 by “Anonymous”
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