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As he rode the subway to work, Richard Brookshire couldn’t stop seething over the letter he found taped to his door.

A friend had called at 1 a.m. Thursday, looking for advice on quitting his job. Brookshire, a manager at a leadership institute who writes on the side, paced around his Manhattan apartment for a half-hour, giving the friend advice on the right tone to strike in the resignation letter, then crawled into bed.

As the 29-year-old rushed to work hours later, he found the letter, scrawled in cursive and stuck to his door:

“It is extremely rude and inconsiderate to scream and stomp around your apartment until almost 2 a.m.,” the letter said. “A complaint has been submitted to the management. Next time this will go straight to the police. Please learn your manners.”

The letter, with its casual threat, represented the difference in perspective between the black man living in apartment 6J and the white man living a floor below, Brookshire said.

He was livid that, with all the talk of police brutality against minorities escalating from benign situations, someone would think calling the cops was the best response to a loud conversation.

“With cops you just never know, especially when it’s late at night,” Brookshire said. “Maybe they’re tired. Maybe they’ll catch an attitude with me. I personally haven’t had the negative reactions with police. But I’m literate. I see how they interact with other people of color.”

Brookshire, who has a Master’s degree in public administration from Columbia University, delves into issues like that on The Reparations Podcast, which explores “the intersectionalities of blackness, politics and popular culture through humor and frank dialogue … tackling the s**t you don’t talk about with your white friends.”

“White people will sometimes speak without thinking of the bigger implications of their actions,” Brookshire told The Washington Post.

GannonFan wrote:What kind of friend calls at 1AM to ask that type of question? And wouldn't an e-mail have sufficed?

As for the interaction with the neighbor, I agree, good chance that neither knows what the other even looks like. Unless they cross paths walking their dogs, very good chance that neither has met the other, especially being on different floors. If it was next door that would be one thing, but not really upstairs/downstairs.

David O. said he and his wife just wanted to sleep. They didn’t know Brookshire was black until the post went viral. He said his upstairs neighbor was cursing and yelling, and it sounded like he was arguing.

bandl wrote:being a dickwad at 1AM to your downstairs neighbors.

89Hen wrote:

bandl wrote:being a dickwad at 1AM to your downstairs neighbors.

When I was 23ish and lived in OCMD I had a couple that lived above me. She was a waitress and would routinely come home at 2am drunk off her ass, puke in the bathroom and then fuck like a rabbit for an hour. Apartment living sucks ass... especially since they wouldn't let me watch (not the puking).

Grizalltheway wrote:

89Hen wrote: When I was 23ish and lived in OCMD I had a couple that lived above me. She was a waitress and would routinely come home at 2am drunk off her ass, puke in the bathroom and then fuck like a rabbit for an hour. Apartment living sucks ass... especially since they wouldn't let me watch (not the puking).

What do you have against puking?

89Hen wrote:

bandl wrote:Apartment living sucks ass...

Rob Iola wrote:Townhouse living sucks too - especially when your townhouse is the reverse floorplan of the neighboring townhouse and you end up with back-to-back MBRs. So pleasant having your headboard literally 12 inches away from the neighbor's, with the wall acting like a snare drum...

89Hen wrote:

bandl wrote:being a dickwad at 1AM to your downstairs neighbors.

When I was 23ish and lived in OCMD I had a couple that lived above me. She was a waitress and would routinely come home at 2am drunk off her ass, puke in the bathroom and then fuck like a rabbit for an hour. Apartment living sucks ass... especially since they wouldn't let me watch (not the puking).

bandl wrote:

89Hen wrote:

Yep. When I lived in Old Town Alexandria, we had a couple who lived above us, and the woman ALWAYS wore high-heels. They were white, so I never had a problem going up there and knocking on their door and (politely) asking them to please take off their shoes or at least pretend they know how to be respectful to those living below them.
My wife gave them the nicknames 'Dickhead' and 'Fuckface'.

andy7171 wrote:

bandl wrote: Yep. When I lived in Old Town Alexandria, we had a couple who lived above us, and the woman ALWAYS wore high-heels. They were white, so I never had a problem going up there and knocking on their door and (politely) asking them to please take off their shoes or at least pretend they know how to be respectful to those living below them.
My wife gave them the nicknames 'Dickhead' and 'Fuckface'.

My dad gave me a very hard time about walking/stomping around in the house on my heels. I learned to walk on my toes. When I got married we lived in an apartment above an old maid who smelled of cigarettes and cat piss and would complain about us stomping around. Several times she came up and knocked on our door to complain. I was never home. Catie7171 is small, but gots flat feet. The old bird thought it was me. Fuck her!

andy7171 wrote:

bandl wrote: Yep. When I lived in Old Town Alexandria, we had a couple who lived above us, and the woman ALWAYS wore high-heels. They were white, so I never had a problem going up there and knocking on their door and (politely) asking them to please take off their shoes or at least pretend they know how to be respectful to those living below them.
My wife gave them the nicknames 'Dickhead' and 'Fuckface'.

My dad gave me a very hard time about walking/stomping around in the house on my heels. I learned to walk on my toes. When I got married we lived in an apartment above an old maid who smelled of cigarettes and cat piss and would complain about us stomping around. Several times she came up and knocked on our door to complain. I was never home. Catie7171 is small, but gots flat feet. The old bird thought it was me. Fuck her!

andy7171 wrote:

bandl wrote: Yep. When I lived in Old Town Alexandria, we had a couple who lived above us, and the woman ALWAYS wore high-heels. They were white, so I never had a problem going up there and knocking on their door and (politely) asking them to please take off their shoes or at least pretend they know how to be respectful to those living below them.
My wife gave them the nicknames 'Dickhead' and '****'.

My dad gave me a very hard time about walking/stomping around in the house on my heels. I learned to walk on my toes. When I got married we lived in an apartment above an old maid who smelled of cigarettes and cat piss and would complain about us stomping around. Several times she came up and knocked on our door to complain. I was never home. Catie7171 is small, but gots flat feet. The old bird thought it was me. **** her!

mrklean wrote:This is why I would never live in the North East.

mrklean wrote:This is why I would never live in the North East.

mrklean wrote:This is why I would never live in the North East.

Ivytalk wrote:

mrklean wrote:This is why I would never live in the North East.

Kleanex's post reminds me of this old question.

What's the difference in race relations between the North and the South?

In the South, whites hate blacks as a race but love them as individuals.

In the North, it's the other way around!

89Hen wrote:

Ivytalk wrote:
Kleanex's post reminds me of this old question.

What's the difference in race relations between the North and the South?

In the South, whites hate blacks as a race but love them as individuals.

In the North, it's the other way around!

kalm wrote:

89Hen wrote:

None of this applies to us out here. We love everyone.

EC(b)...