I felt as if I was going to wake up any moment now shaking in my bed, knowing it was over. But this was real. This was just a couple days into my summer after finishing up my first year in high school. At this time, I was really into collecting Jordan’s, buying, selling, and trading them. When I went to go do this sell, I knew it was in a bad area. It’s that side of town you drive through and lock your doors, even if they were already locked. But I always had my guard up, if I ever felt uncomfortable in a situation I always took myself out of it. The person I was selling the shoes to was African American, but I never judged anyone because of the ethnicity or how they looked, yet. The area we were meeting in was inferior. It was just in front of the other apartment buildings in a huge parking lot. You looked around and seen abandoned cars, graffiti on buildings, and if you looked in the distance, you would’ve seen an old park. With the basketball ball hoops hanging down, the chains for the swings were broke. He was tall, about 6 feet, he had a firm handshake, greeted me with enthusiasm, and he wore an expensive Ralph Lauren button up shirt. While we started to make conversation, I didn’t see nothing wrong with this guy. He spoke with a higher caliber vocabulary. We joked and laughed a bit about sports, he told me about the sports he used to play. There was a scratch on the shoes I was trying to sell to him, so he told me if I bring him paint, he can repaint over the scratch himself and he would buy the shoes, I did just that. At this point, I felt comfortable. I was sane, I felt safe negotiating with him. There was no thought in my head of being robbed by a man that seemed so pleasant. This time we decided to meet a little closer to his house, and again, I had no thought of being robbed. I show him the paint and he seems so excited to buy these pair of shoes from me. I’m also excited because of the profit I was very close
I felt as if I was going to wake up any moment now shaking in my bed, knowing it was over. But this was real. This was just a couple days into my summer after finishing up my first year in high school. At this time, I was really into collecting Jordan’s, buying, selling, and trading them. When I went to go do this sell, I knew it was in a bad area. It’s that side of town you drive through and lock your doors, even if they were already locked. But I always had my guard up, if I ever felt uncomfortable in a situation I always took myself out of it. The person I was selling the shoes to was African American, but I never judged anyone because of the ethnicity or how they looked, yet. The area we were meeting in was inferior. It was just in front of the other apartment buildings in a huge parking lot. You looked around and seen abandoned cars, graffiti on buildings, and if you looked in the distance, you would’ve seen an old park. With the basketball ball hoops hanging down, the chains for the swings were broke. He was tall, about 6 feet, he had a firm handshake, greeted me with enthusiasm, and he wore an expensive Ralph Lauren button up shirt. While we started to make conversation, I didn’t see nothing wrong with this guy. He spoke with a higher caliber vocabulary. We joked and laughed a bit about sports, he told me about the sports he used to play. There was a scratch on the shoes I was trying to sell to him, so he told me if I bring him paint, he can repaint over the scratch himself and he would buy the shoes, I did just that. At this point, I felt comfortable. I was sane, I felt safe negotiating with him. There was no thought in my head of being robbed by a man that seemed so pleasant. This time we decided to meet a little closer to his house, and again, I had no thought of being robbed. I show him the paint and he seems so excited to buy these pair of shoes from me. I’m also excited because of the profit I was very close