Was walking home from a night out with work peeps last night. The pavements near my apartment are big enough for two abreast. There's this woman walking in the same direction as me, and as i get closer to her, i step out into the road to give her a wide bearth. I did this because it was 1am, we were the only ones on that street and I wanted her to feel safe.
As i walked past her, I saw that she had taken her keys out of her bag, put them between each or her fingers and had her hand clenched in a fist, with the keys sticking out.
My instant reaction (internally) was to get a bit upset at seeing that. Then a few seconds later, i had to check myself. I realised that it wasn't up to her to know if i was a potential threat to her or not. On an empty street at 1am in the morning, everyone is a potential threat really. Especially a black dude.
It was quite the moment of clarity really.