Before I entered the freeway, I noticed that the passenger in the truck to my left was waving and smiling at me. I Ignored him and continued to look straight at the light. Once I was in the freeway the trucker honked as they sped before me while I waited on the meter. The trucker was purposely impeding me from merging lanes by merging to the lanes before me. Soon after I noticed that both the passenger and the truck driver were laughing at what they had done. It shook me up; I could’ve hit another car while trying to evade them. I’m not sure what their intent was but it bothered me because I had never felt unsafe on the freeway before.

– Anonymous

Location: on the freeway, Downey heading towards 105W, California

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I’m the same girl who posted about the tuba player in marching band who scares me. Though irrelevant to this story, I feel it’s kind of important to understand how commonplace these things are for me. On to the story.

Monday, my school had its last registration day. As a marching band kid, I had to go then, due to scheduling. It went about as smoothly as any registration ever goes here; probably a bit better than usual, a little less crowded, but fewer friends seen. I was wearing eyeliner and mascara, a green shirt that reached my collarbone and was loose (not hugging my curves), a black ruffle skirt that went 3/4 the way down my thighs, gray leggings that reached my ankles, a saxophone copper necklace, and black sandals. Hardly revealing, but decently flattering.

My mom and I were walking out the doors of the school when we passed a group of young black boys (I only mention race because of what they said). I heard one shout, “Walk that ass, n*gga!” I thought it was so ridiculous I actually kind of laughed, because a) I’m as white as it gets, even if I’m tan from band, and b) who says that stuff? So B- for originality, F for sense. *shakes head*

– Marching Band Girl

Location: Indiana

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I was 12 years old and walking home from a shop after getting some sweets with my best friend. We were walking past a football field with men in their late teens when they started telling us to come over and perform sexual favours. When we ignored them they started picking up stones and throwing them at us while shouting out insults. It really shook both of us up and after that we never would go there without an adult.

– Anonymous

Location: Guatemala

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I was walking home from school and a car followed alongside me for about 10 minutes, constantly asking me if I wanted a ride several times. The last time he asked I looked him in the eye and said, “You’re obviously not going any faster than I am, so why would I want a ride?” He sped away.

Another time I was walking the same route and a man sitting on a bench asked me to come over and talk to him. I ignored him and kept walking. He shouted at me, “You’re not pretty enough to ignore me.”

The worst story I have was the time my female roommate and I met up with a boy in a public place to sell him her bike. He gave us cash, we gave him the bike, and we went our separate ways. As we were heading home, a man who had been sitting nearby asked my roommate how much money she got from the sale. She told him that it wasn’t any of his business and we continued walking home. He ran into his car and started driving alongside us, screaming profanities at us, namely calling us cunts. When it came time for us to cross the street, he attempted to run us over. We jumped out of the way and he sped off. I wasn’t able to remember his plates.

All three of these events left me shaken up and angry. We don’t owe anything to these strange men and I don’t know where they get the idea that we do.

– Jackie

Location: Savannah, GA

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