Eating a lunchable while black
(I posted this in another thread. Added a little additional info at the bottom)
I live in a fairly upscale neighborhood. It's pretty diverse (Bay Area). There's a black family a few doors down whom I know well. Awesome people.
Once a day, I go jogging around. There's a little enclave of expensive townhomes not far from me. They're built in a circle around a children's park. There's one entrance into the circle. It's a very closed off little island. I like going in and jogging around the circle. It's quiet, no traffic, and I know the distance, so I know how far I'm jogging.
I have never, not once, been bothered in the past year when doing this. I'm white.
Cue yesterday. I finished work and did my thing. The 15 year old black son of my neighbors was wandering around inside the circle of homes. He sat on a bench in the park and was eating a lunchable, just chilling. I noticed a guy in a fluorescent yellow work vest walk over and start talking to him. It seemed a little weird, so I stopped and walked over to say hey to the neighbor's kid.
The vest guy claims to be a security guard. He was telling the kid that this was all private property and he needed to move along. I interjected, no it's not. It's a public street and park. The guard insisted it was private. I asked where the signs are saying that. I walked over to the entrance of the enclave and looked all over. No signs. Nothing saying no one can be in that park unless they live there. I asked him to show me.
Then he says, "You should know. You live here."
Uh. No. I don't. For a year I have been in there almost daily. I have never seen any security, and I have never been hassled. I've even made small talk with people who live there when cooling down in the park.
No one was around that I knew. But, I plan to go back the same as always and see if I can get to the bottom of that one.
Neighbor kid and I walked back together. His whole posture was one of dejection. I was just pissed. Still am. We didn't talk directly to what happened. I just kept telling him that guy was full of shit. But I want to find out what the deal is there, and I want to make it known to the people I know who live there just what went down. Unfortunately, I didn't think to film it. I probably should have.
Added: A poster asked if I'd spoken to his mother. I haven't. I was thinking about texting her later today. I wanted to give him a chance to talk with his parents if he wanted/needed to first. Not sure if I should. She has my number because we text about various things sometimes. I'm going to go jogging there again this evening and hopefully see someone I know. I have no idea if that's private property or not. Nothing I've ever seen says so, and no one's ever said anything to me about it. It's just some streets and a park. And I'm wondering if that guy was even security, or if it was just someone who lives there being a racist asshole. I've never seen him before.
My street is pretty diverse. White, Asian, Latino, and Black. Now that I'm thinking on it, I've only ever seen white and East Asian people in that enclave. Given all the videos being posted online of bad behavior by some whites in their neighborhoods, seeing the guy walk over to the kid got my spidey sense tingling. I'm glad I went over. Pissed a child has to deal with that merely for existing. The kid was eating a snack on a bench. This society, I swear.
= new reply since forum marked as read
... and if you speak to him again, tell you neighbor that I'm sending 
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