Categories: Culture

Woman Blocks Black Man From Entering His Own Apartment, Gets Fired From Job

“To be a black man in America, and come home."

After BBQ Becky, Permit Patrol, and Pool Patrol Paula, another instance of a person of color getting unfairly targeted and harassed for simply living their lives have made headlines recently. Apparently, a black Missouri man was literally blocked from his own apartment building by a white fellow resident who refused to believe he also lived there.

D’Arreion Toles, who took and posted the now-viral video on Facebook, shared his dismay in the situation. After learning about the incident, the company that the woman worked for has immediately terminated her.

Toles wrote:

“To be a black man in America, and come home. Woman tries to stop me from coming into my building because she feels insecure, Downtown St. Louis luxury loft, because she don’t feel that I belong, never really thought this would happen to me, but it did! Then 30 mins later police knock on my door, because she called! I was shocked this is America in 2018!”

The man posted a three-part video on his Facebook page, showing Hilary Brooke Thornton physically blocked him from entering the luxury block in the Missouri city. The woman stood in the doorway of the building demanding him to show her his key and tell her his unit number.

He told Thornton: “You are blocking me into my building. This is my building as well. So, I need you to get out of my way.” Unfortunately for Toles, the woman was not going to make it easy for him, saying that she feels “uncomfortable” for being there and demanded him to tell her his exact apartment.

“It’s not your building, you’re not the owner,” Toles says in the video before getting past her. The woman continues to follow Toles up to his fourth-floor loft and demands to find out whom he’s “going to see” and “why he’s there.”

Toles asked her to stop following him, but she continued as he used his keys to open his door. After Toles proved that he lives in the building by successfully opening his door, the woman suddenly became friendly, saying “I just want to say hi, what is your name.”

The woman’s employer, Tribeca Luxury Apartments, said in a statement that she was fired after a review of the incident.

Meanwhile, despite his neighbor’s unfair treatment, Toles says this isn’t a time for negativity and asked people to send the woman “positive waves of energy.”