Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Outrageous harasser on the morning commute

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Photo by contributor

I board the bus heading to work this morning. The driver wishes me “good morning,” I return the favor, tap my SmartTrip card and head to the back of the bus where I find an available seat. I get lost in space as I read my book.

At Rosslyn, a man comes on the bus, looking mad as I don’t know what. He’s rambling, cursing about this or that, and just gives me this bad vibe. He sits two seats down from me, clumping his backpack down between us really hard. He pulls out his paper, cursing while he reads.

He says something to me, but I ignore it, thinking he’s saying something ignorant. Then I chose to move away from him, and he gets pissed.

“Fuck you,” he says. “When a black man tries to talk to you, you run away, but when a white man talks to you you smile and get all happy. Stuck up black bitch! You love the white man’s dick. You’ll suck a white man’s dick! You ain’t shit anyway. You ain’t got no ring on your finger. Ain’t no one want you. And you got knotty dreads – nasty. You probably ain’t wash yo’ dreads ‘cuz you afraid…”

All this nonsense when I was trying to read a damn book!

I pull out my phone…

“Go ahead, call someone! You ain’t got no one to talk to,” he says.

…and take his photo in the rare moment he wasn’t looking. Then I head to the front of the bus, away from this fool, and ask the driver to call the police.

“This guy is on the back of the bus cursing at me for no reason at all,” I said. “Telling me I suck white man’s dick and other nonsense.”

The guy walked up front from the back of the bus and starts saying more crap! He’s directly behind me at this point.

“I opened a window and she got all scared and moved away!” the crazy man yelled. “I tried to ask her about the window and she ignored me and moved away.”

“I didn’t realize you opened a window!” I said. “You were sitting at the back of the bus, cursing and ranting, talking about me sucking white man’s dick—“

“Watch your mouth!” the driver snapped. “You two need to stop.”

Why was I getting blamed? I didn’t raise my voice or curse, and I was only repeating what the guy had been saying to me.

“Go ahead, cry and whine to the driver,” the crazy guy continues. “You all fine until someone insults you, then you want to cry like a baby.”

“I am not crying,” I said, calmly. “You don’t see me crying.” This was so frustrating.

The crazy guy goes to the back of the bus, still ranting and cursing, and a nice gentleman gave up his seat in the front of the bus so I could get away from this guy. I had the foresight to have Metro Police’s number on my phone, so I called them, described the guy, told them the bus route and bus number, and where we were located at. Sure, the driver can tell me “good morning” but he’s pretty much useless for anything else.

The crazy guy got off a few stops before I did, so I called Metro Police back to let them know that.

“You’ve just gotta stay humble,” the guy at the front of the bus said. “Guys like him are everywhere. All you can do is keep your cool, don’t let it get to you…” and stuff I was just too distracted to take in at the moment.

When I got off the bus I thanked the guy and told him to have a good day. Yet I feel numb. I’m just so used to being sexually harassed that I’m surprised I didn’t start getting angry, or cursing, or crying or showing some kind of emotion. All those people on that bus just sat there and watched me get cursed out and called names because I chose to ignore a crazy lunatic on the bus. Is this like Pay-Per-View or morning entertainment to them?

Things need to change. Not only do harassers need to be held accountable for what they do, the people who sit idly by and watch this stuff happen need to do so as well.

– anonymous

Location: 38B towards Farragut Square (Bus #2600), Washington DC

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Yuck! Harassers in a Truck!

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I was walking back to work, enjoying the weather, enjoying the freebies I got from Georgetown Cupcake and from a girl on the street handing out free Ghirardelli chocolates, and these fools had to ruin it!

Out of nowhere, I hear “Yo, gorgeous!” and I turn in the direction where it came from. I see these two losers in a red and yellow truck smirking at me. Gross.

The truck pulls up further in traffic, and I catch up to it and snap a photo with my phone. I wish it’d came out clearer so you could see their faces, but at least the company name is somewhat visible.

When I told them that they needed to do their jobs and not hit on women, they didn’t care. They continued to smirk and giggle. Passers-by made a comment about me and giggled, and I don’t know if they were laughing at me getting harassed or laughing at me giving the harassers an earful, but I just didn’t care. I felt like these harassers just ruined what was a good afternoon.

The license plate on this truck was a Maryland plate, 11K 394. I saw that it said “Joy” on the side of the truck and got part of the truck’s phone number, 800-992-, but I couldn’t catch the last four digits. Google searches yielded nothing close.

I hope the employer sees this photo of this truck online, and reprimands these punks for hitting on women while they’re on the clock. It’s so disgusting.

– Anonymous

Location: M St & Wisconsin Ave, Washington, DC

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Include your location and it will be added to the Street Harassment Map.

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Pentagon City Mall Stalker

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In November of 2007 I accompanied my dad on a business trip to DC because he had a companion ticket and I’d never been to DC before. On my last night there, I was at the Pentagon City Mall when this man approached me and started trying to ‘pick me up.’ He followed me throughout the mall and incessantly insisted on buying me something from Victoria’s Secret, a drink despite my protests that I was underage and accusing me of being a narc. Like a broken record! After declining a hundred times and insisting that I needed to get back to my hotel, he demanded to know where I was staying so he could get a room! I was seriously worried that he would follow me onto the metro. Only when I finally walked out of the mall did he thankfully declare me a bitch or something and give up.

I’ve been a huge fan of Hollaback, but it hadn’t even occured to me until a few days ago that my experience had been harassment. I like to think that I wouldn’t just accept that kind of treatment but when I was in that situation I was petrified. There were dozens of witnesses. A lot of people stared but no one intervened. It was so embarrassing and I felt like I was somehow responsible.

– S.C.

Location: Pentagon City Mall, Washington, D.C.

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Include your location and it will be added to the Street Harassment Map.

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“I am not your sista”

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I’m a Black woman, and I hate the familiarity some Black men who are strangers use toward me.

I had just gotten off the bus to go to work this morning, feeling drowsy and out of it. I see this delivery guy wheeling cartons of liquor into one of the restaurants, and he leans in close to me and says “Ay, girl!” as if we were long-time buddies or something. I am tired and am not in the mood to entertain men I don’t know, so I don’t respond. I stare straight ahead and continue on my destination.

“You can’t speak?” he says. “You too good to speak?” I still don’t bother to respond, and I don’t bother to look back his way either when he continues to attempt to elicit my attention.

He hadn’t bothered to talk to any of the other women of different races who walked by—he only targeted me. I hate how harassers think that being the same race gives them an automatic “in” to bother me. I am not your “sista”—you are a STRANGER to me. I’m just a woman who wants to be left alone.

– “Anonymous Black Woman”

Location: M Street between Wisconsin and 31st, Washington, DC

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Include your location and it will be added to the Street Harassment Map.

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Don't Touch Me

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Adams Morgan in Washington, DC is a nightmare on weekends so I try to avoid it like the plague. I live in the area so sometime I can’t help but walk past or up or down 18th street when it’s really busy. Every time I do I not only have to deal with comments, but with men who touch me. They’ll touch me in passing, my arm or my waist and it INFURIATES me. I ignore the comments, they don’t bother me as much as the the physical contact.

– anonymous

Location: Adams Morgan in Washington, DC

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Include your location and it will be added to the Street Harassment Map.

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