"Uninvited Gests seldom meet a welcome."
---AESOP
Knock. Knock. Knock. Someone's at the door. As a black single mother with zero friends, a nervous chill ran through my spine. I looked thru the peephole. I saw a white person with a bob haircut. I couldn't identify the gender. I couldn't tell if this person was an adult or a teenager. The person was just staring straight ahead at my door, almost lifeless. I didn't know this person. Could it be a KKKaren? I have no gun in my apartment. I was terrified. Opening the door could mean the end of my life. I told my daughter to be quiet as I heard the person knock again.
Knock. Knock. Knock. I kept praying this person would go away as I checked my phone to see if anyone had called me. No messages, text or voice. I informed my daughter to go and get in the shower as I tried to gently take a peek out of the corner of her bedroom window. My anxiety rose way past a ten on the 1-10 scale and my fear of who this person could be began stroking my fear. Is this person police? Are they a KKKaren? Are they at the wrong apartment? Who is this stranger, this uninvited guest knocking at my door.
Knock. Knock. Knock. I didn't know if she was getting impatient, but I was definitely not opening the door. I was scared. I was terrified. I was wishing and praying this person away. If they didn't know my phone number, then I didn't know them. Black people have a reason to fear opening the door to uninvited guests. There are a lot of KKKarens out there who can be dangerous, especially to single black mothers.
Just this month in Kansas City, a white man shot and killed a 16 year old boy after the boy went to the wrong address to pick up his siblings. The teenager rang the man's doorbell and the white man shot the teenager in the head and the arm. If you look up KKKarens on TikTok, you will find all sorts of white people terrorizing black people whether at home or not. The idea that a white person can have a lot of control over someone because there is no more "my word against yours", there is just, ïf a white person said, then it must be true".
I am more likely to open a door to a black woman, than to any other race or gender because I am a single mother. However, current events raises my anxiety and makes me want to never leave my house sometimes. Ding Dong. This white person was at my door ringing my doorbell. This person still wouldn't leave. I stayed quiet in my apartment as this person was still at my front door....maybe 10 minutes now. I was wondering if this person was ever going to leave.
The many dangers of being black in America is one thing, but being black in America, and trying to protect someone else makes things way harder. My mind was racing. My anxiety was high. This person wouldn't leave my front door. My fear was soaring. Bang. Bang. Bang. I sat on my daughter's bed listening to the news and talked to my mother. This news was a good distraction from this white person standing at my front door. 20 minutes in, I went and looked through the peephole. No one was there. I was thankful that this person was gone, but my anxiety kept making me think this person was sitting in their car outside watching my every move and waiting for me to exit my apartment.
I don't know what this person wanted or who this person was, but if anyone knows me then they know not to show up at my door unannounced because you might not get in. You just might be standing there for quite a while, especially if you are white.
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