I am a white, 17 year old girl living in the South Side, so you can imagine how much attention I get just for being present. But I can't leave the house without some nasty guy slowing down in his car to holler at me, or some guy on the red line sitting across from me so he can try to look up my skirt.
A couple weeks ago I was walking home. It was late, around midnight. I was listening to my iPod and not paying much attention to my surroundings when I noticed that a car had slowed down next to me and the driver was trying to get my attention. I said "Can I help you?" and he said "Hey girl, you fine as hell. You wanna come home with me tonight?" I promptly told him that I was a lesbian and did not desire his company at any point in my life. He said "You like girls? I like girls too. I got plenty of girls I can share with you. Hot little white girls like yourself." At this point I told him to fuck off and put my earphones back in. After a while he got frustrated and sped off.
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I was walking down my street last summer in the middle of day. I was going to visit a neighbor who lived about three houses down. As soon as I started walking down the sidewalk, two boys started following me. They kept watching my ass and pretending to grab it while saying "hey baby, hey baby." I got sick of it after about 2 seconds and turned around to say "I am not your baby. Get the fuck off my sidewalk." They didn't continue harassing me.
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A couple weeks ago a friend of mine was visiting me. We were on the red line heading downtown. A man was sitting across from us and staring openly. In the beginning I didn't say anything. I get stared at a lot, mostly just because I am out of place. But after a while, this guy tried to start a conversation. My friend and I were polite. We said hi and contributed to his small talk. Then he looked at me and said "So, Velma." (He thought I looked like the character from Scooby-Doo. I was wearing a plaid skirt and thick-rimmed glasses.) I could tell he was trying to look up my skirt and I squeezed my legs shut as tight as possible. "When we gonna kick it?" "Excuse me?" "Come on Velma, you think I'm fly, I think you fly, let's fuck." I grabbed my friends hand and proceeded to tell him we were gay.
I never feel safe.
~Submitted by Tomi
~Submitted by Tomi
