A Surreal Experience
At 11:00pm this evening (a Friday) I had a rather surreal experience. I need to set the stage here...
I live in an upstairs apartment in a major midwestern city (metro area population about 1 million). I live in a fairly nice neighborhood towards the edge of the city. It is a mix of white collar/technical folks...hospital workers, insurance agents, teachers, and the like. We have a pretty good mix of ethnic groups in my complex with a possible slant away from caucasian. In my particular building we have eight apartments...racial breakdown of three caucasian and five black households. Pretty good folks for the most part with no major disturbances (some occasional noise issues).
Enter the surreal experience... My downstairs neighbor, who is a 20 something black woman, is having a party tonight. No big deal as they typically don't go on much past 11pm or midnight. I put up with the music (with its strong beat) because people should be able to have parties from time to time. On this occasion the music was louder than normal and NOT conducive to watching the Chronicals of Narnia.
So I go downstairs and go knock knock knock on her door. Wait... It's pretty obvious that nobody hears me.
I go knock knock knock....a woman's voice says something like 'I think there's someone at your door...' but no once comes to the door.
I go knock knock knock! and now there is a shuffling sound at the door as someone checks the peephole. A woman's voice exclaims in a loud and somewhat alarmed voice, "It's a white man!" The door opens and I ask the woman if they would please turn down their music. She says OK and abruptly shuts the door as I am explaining that I am the neighbor upstairs (note she didn't slam the door).
Isn't it amazing that they got white folks here too?? I mean, who would have thought that in a major metropolotin area there would be white people? Most likely she was expecting one of their friends and was just surprised to see my white face at the door! The promptly turned down the music and I found the whole thing hilarious.
I live in an upstairs apartment in a major midwestern city (metro area population about 1 million). I live in a fairly nice neighborhood towards the edge of the city. It is a mix of white collar/technical folks...hospital workers, insurance agents, teachers, and the like. We have a pretty good mix of ethnic groups in my complex with a possible slant away from caucasian. In my particular building we have eight apartments...racial breakdown of three caucasian and five black households. Pretty good folks for the most part with no major disturbances (some occasional noise issues).
Enter the surreal experience... My downstairs neighbor, who is a 20 something black woman, is having a party tonight. No big deal as they typically don't go on much past 11pm or midnight. I put up with the music (with its strong beat) because people should be able to have parties from time to time. On this occasion the music was louder than normal and NOT conducive to watching the Chronicals of Narnia.
So I go downstairs and go knock knock knock on her door. Wait... It's pretty obvious that nobody hears me.
I go knock knock knock....a woman's voice says something like 'I think there's someone at your door...' but no once comes to the door.
I go knock knock knock! and now there is a shuffling sound at the door as someone checks the peephole. A woman's voice exclaims in a loud and somewhat alarmed voice, "It's a white man!" The door opens and I ask the woman if they would please turn down their music. She says OK and abruptly shuts the door as I am explaining that I am the neighbor upstairs (note she didn't slam the door).
Isn't it amazing that they got white folks here too?? I mean, who would have thought that in a major metropolotin area there would be white people? Most likely she was expecting one of their friends and was just surprised to see my white face at the door! The promptly turned down the music and I found the whole thing hilarious.