[cloudmountain]

I went to Baltimore once. I went to see Cal Ripken's last game.
I knew NOTHING about Baltimore. I booked a hotel then went out for a walk.

I had NO idea that Baltimore was a black city.
I have very light blonde hair and I stuck out like a sore thumb.
Two or three times, older black ladies would touch my hair and say "how pretty."

I DID see Ripken's last game but Baltimore BLEW ME AWAY.

[MD Expat in PA]

I went to Baltimore once. I went to see Cal Ripken's last game. I knew NOTHING about Baltimore. I booked a hotel then went out for a walk.

I had NO idea that Baltimore was a black city. I have very light blonde hair and I stuck out like a sore thumb. Two or three times, older black ladies would touch my hair and say "how pretty."

I DID see Ripken's last game but Baltimore BLEW ME AWAY.

I am not going to say that this didn’t happen or that you are not telling the truth - “Two or three times, older black ladies would touch my hair and say "how pretty." but I find it rather suspicious – or at best, quite “unusual”.

FWIW I grew up in and spent the majority of my life living in and or very close to Baltimore City - I went to a Baltimore City elementary school for 5th & 6th grades and middle school in South Baltimore - both racially mixed and graduated from a Baltimore City HS (Western) that in the late 70’s was about 50% black and I worked in downtown Baltimore for many years and at some companies with many black co-workers. I also was for several years an Orioles season ticket holder, went to Camden Yards for many, many games and before that to Memorial Stadium and used to go to many restaurants and venues in the city, including to ArtScape which I was at last year and to various concerts and museums downtown and all around the Inner Harbor area.

I am a fair haired strawberry blonde with very pale skin, some freckles and I have pale green/blue eyes and I’ve never had any black person when I lived or worked or went to downtown Baltimore ever come up to me and ask to touch or even comment on my hair color as being something so unusual for them to have ever seen before - like they were one of those isolated tribes deep in the Amazonian jungles that had never seen a white person before.