Self-Portrait on july 30th

Chinyere Obasi

As I exited Sly's Barbershop around 4:45 PM today, I saw a White man, perhaps 2 years older than me, holding a tripod as if it was a gun. We were walking towards each other, and, at first, I startled, because this is Cambridge, Massachusetts, and people don't just carry guns with them.

Once I understood the reality that the object in his hands was, in fact, a tripod and not a gun, I breathed (what honestly I cannot fully remember fully actualizing, and what I believed was imperceptible) a sigh of relief, because this is Cambridge, Massachusetts, and people don't just carry guns with them.

Upon crossing each other's path, the man, apparently noticing either his previous position or my reaction to it, raised to aim his tripod at my head. He adopted what I later took to be a slight facsimile of a Blaccent and said some words I cannot remember before finishing with "I'm gonna shoot your ass" with a slight laugh. He kept walking as he lowered the object.

I don't remember if I laughed or not, though I feel I must have, out of obligation, nervousness, or some combination of the two. I just remember a sudden feeling of fear.

Because (as I now recall) this is Cambridge, Massachusetts, a 7 hour drive from Buffalo, a bus ride from (Chris) Hood's courtroom.

And, for the first time in a while, I seem to recall how my feet did not hurt in my new old shoes.