{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/5a481aca95dfbf9d13d4dc6f/5f0220a8f81dbc3685a2ae11?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"356: I was assaulted again this morning. Can I talk about it?","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/5a481aca95dfbf9d13d4dc6f/1593974946638-fc3b0b73c3a24de626cd18bdd0aaf1aa.jpeg?height=200","description":"<p>&nbsp;</p><p>While I was jogging (actually <a href=\"https://joshuaspodek.com/im-on-tv-again-for-plogging\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">plogging</a>) along the Hudson River around 7:30am, a person not wearing a mask stepped into my path, blocking me, saying the person's shoes had been stolen. The person seemed to let me pass, but then threatened me and threw a bottle that shattered at my feet as I ran past. I kept running, the hair on the back of my neck standing up and my adrenaline high. I don't know if the person had a weapon.</p><p><br></p><p>I describe more and some of how it affected me in the audio.</p><p><br></p><p>I was first going to say I was threatened since he didn't touch me. I'm not a lawyer so I looked up the definition. According to FindLaw.com's page on <a href=\"https://injury.findlaw.com/torts-and-personal-injuries/assault-basics.html\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Assault Torts and Injury Law</a>:</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><blockquote>legal scholars define assault as an intentional attempt or threat to inflict injury upon a person, coupled with an apparent, present ability to cause the harm, which creates a reasonable apprehension of bodily harm or offensive contact in another.</blockquote><blockquote>Notice the words “attempt” and “threat” above. In tort law, assault does not require actual touching or violence to the victim. We use another term for the touching or contact: “battery.”</blockquote><p><br></p><p>Here are the notes I read from:</p><ul><li>The story from this morning running</li><li>Happens all the time, not daily but throughout my life</li><li>I don't think he did it because black, but I suspect were I not white it may not have happened. Can't say this time.</li><li>When I stayed in Atlanta</li><li>Friends say, you can say to us but careful with others</li><li>Shared about mugged childhood, but still happening</li><li>Maybe there is a secret white suburban life I don't know about</li><li>Recently white friends have started sharing how they've been mugged</li><li>Consistent with Dov's saying how sharing stories will lead to others feeling they can share too</li><li>That's all background. Here is my point: every time I bring up suffering or being threatened, while I may get some listening, the other person <em>always</em> says, remember others have it worse---not that person, not even someone with their skin color</li><li>So they don't know from experience but they're telling me as if I haven't heard before, and they're presuming to know my experience</li><li>I don't know anyone's experience but mine, but everyone absolutely everyone dismisses it without asking, presuming it's the caricature in the mainstream.</li><li>When I hear white people talking about BLM, George Floyd, there's always this mea culpa. Maybe they are guilty, I don't know. I never hear them speak about their problems. Maybe they have no problems, maybe I'm unique, but that people open up with me when I share and they hear I'm not white supremacist or racist---though in today's world white people even mentioning race without saying how they are allies or something making up for guilt or things like that---then they tell me about their experiences, but they insist on my respecting their confidence, which of course I do.</li><li>So much of what I hear from white people sounds so similar and</li><li>inauthentic, I don't think they're being open, honest, or candid. Maybe</li><li>many are as privileged as they say, but people have told me about being attacked, their lives threatened with weapons, and so on.</li><li>I think about risks maybe not every day, but all the time. And when I</li><li>don't, some guy walks into my path, throws a bottle at me, and threatens me.</li><li>For a while I feared sharing messages like this because people might</li><li>suspect I'm turning into a white supremacist. I came to terms that if</li><li>people think that about the opposite, I can't let their preconceived</li><li>notions hold me from acting <em>for</em> equality.</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><ul><li>\"<a href=\"https://youtu.be/l_LeJfn_qW0\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">White Like Me</a>,\" Eddie Murphy's Saturday Night Live sketch I referred to</li></ul>","author_name":"Joshua Spodek: Author, Speaker, Professor"}