The Racists on My Neighborhood Watch App
All the ‘suspicious‘ people my neighbors warn each other about have one thing in common: They look like me
It was five in the morning. Our new neighbor’s goldendoodles had taken to a bark-off in the backyard — a loud, gruff, competitive song with no hook and no end. I shuffled around the house that morning, hours before it was time to hit the snooze button, grumbling about calling the homeowner’s association or animal control. My husband calmly reminded me to take less drastic measures and do what I do best: Take it to social media.
I presented the matter to my loyal Facebook cosigners, who quickly dittoed my “terrible neighbors” sentiment with angry and wow reacts and comments. That wasn’t enough. I needed to narrow down my network and plead my case to the people who know the local ins and outs, the policies, and how to escalate things around here. I needed the rest of my neighbors.
Months after we moved in, we received a paper invitation on our door to join Nextdoor, a neighborhood-based social networking app. Search, install, input the invitation code and, all of a sudden, the close yet inaccessible world of my subdivision opened up to me. These are my neighbors.
