“So, Are You Ever Going To Tell Me Your Name?”
I had just finished my shift at the lab and was headed out of the building. The elevator arrived and I got on. It stopped on the next floor down and the janitor, a much older, short Black man, got on. “So, are you ever going to tell me your name?”
PAUSE.
Excuse me? Do I fucking know you? Absolutely not. You are a random ass older man who I see around the building from time to time; our paths rarely cross. And when they do, we don’t speak. I don’t know you and I have no desire to speak to random men who I don’t care to know better. UGH. I was utterly annoyed by his tone and entitlement.
Yes, some men think it’s perfectly acceptable to start a “conversation” like this with a woman who is a stranger to them. It’s the equivolent of walking up to a random woman on the street and asking her in the very entitled way for her name, number or any other demographic information that they are not privilaged to know.
Would he have felt so entitled to know my White, female coworkers’ names? Probably not.
He probably felt emboldened because he finally had me alone in an elevator and not amongst other coworkers. I felt so annoyed and uncomfortable but didn’t want to talk bad to his silly ass…
