Betsy-Jane: I grew up in Lagos, Nigeria. In my neighborhood — people said hello to each other in the street. I felt like part of a community. Things weren’t perfect there, don’t get me wrong. The roads were not paved and the water wasn’t always clean. But to me it felt safe. It was my bubble of safety. If something happened to me, I knew someone would help. Then — my parents decided we should leave. It was your typical “American Dream” story. They said they wanted a “better life” for us. On my 13th birthday, we moved to New York City. I had always heard America was better in every way. But when I got here, I lost all sense of safety. As soon as I step out my door I start to think of all the things that could happen to me.
Sounds of Betsy-Jane leaving her apartment.
Betsy-Jane: Thankfully the elevator is here which saves me from having to take the stairs. I feel like in those horror movies, bad things always happen in the stairwell because I suppose it’s easier to catch someone there.
Betsy-Jane: I spend a lot of time thinking about danger. And I’m not the only one. I talked to my girlfriends about it at school. One of them – Zulaay – gets crime alerts from an app called Citizen.
Zulaay: You can be enjoying your dinner and someone's getting stabbed, you know, or a woman’s getting assaulted or catcalled or grabbed or all these nasty things, you know.
Betsy-Jane: Another friend, Yeimely, compares New York to the Dominican Republic, where she grew up.
Yeimely: Everyone knew each other. Like if something happened to you, you would feel protected, but here everybody minds their own business. So if something happened to me, like, I don't feel like people would go out of their way to help me.
Betsy-Jane: That’s exactly how I feel. And I’ve realized it’s because in the U.S., people don’t see me as Betsy-Jane. They see me as a Black immigrant girl. And here, those labels mean I’m less. I don’t think of myself as less – but other people do. And that affects my safety. My friends know exactly what I mean.
Yeimely: When a white girl, like, goes missing or is killed or anything, literally everybody is trying to find out like everybody and their mother is going to find what happened. But when it’s like a Latina or a Black girl, it’s kind of like, oh, well, whatever just another one.
Betsy-Jane: I understand that ‘cause remember like the Gabby Petito thing.
Yeimely: Yeah.
News broadcast audio: Police all across the country are searching for any clues related to Gabby’s disappearance.
Betsy-Jane: The Gabby Petito case was everywhere.
News broadcast audio: Tonight, new developments in the nationwide search for a missing Long Island native. We start this half-hour…
Betsy-Jane: Every time you would turn on the news, there would be an update, a reminder.
News broadcast audio: In a way, you know the whole world has come to know your daughter Gabby.
Betsy-Jane: Some sort of discussion about Gabby Petito. What happened to Gabby was tragic. To disappear without a trace is a big fear of mine — but an even bigger fear is knowing that if the same thing happened to me, I wouldn’t get as much attention. That’s just not how it works for girls who look like me. And that makes me an easy target. But that’s not going to change anytime soon. So my friends and I have to look out for each other. We’re creating our own bubble of safety. We use an app that lets you make groups and share your location. Each group is literally called a “bubble” on the app. And it works! A while ago, I went to visit my sister near the Air Force base where she was stationed, but back in New York, Yeimely saw on the app that I was leaving the state.
Yeimely: And at first I was just confused because, like, you never mentioned about going to Philadelphia or anything and we usually tell each other, like, if we’re doing something or going somewhere.
Betsy-Jane: So she checked in with me.
Yeimely: When you texted me back I felt, I guess, more calm that you were okay.
Betsy-Jane: I’m not saying that this one app has made me feel totally safe here in New York. But at least I have the reassurance that comes with knowing my friends have my back.
For WNYC, I’m Radio Rookies reporter Betsy-Jane Paul-Odionhin.
