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Sharinda (@theptonomad), an Atlanta-based creator who documents her life abroad, says she was sitting by herself on a nearly empty beach in Nice, France, when a cluster of mostly white men kept moving into her space—close enough and pointed enough that she paused to wonder whether it carried the same charge she’d feel back home.
“Let me show y’all the beach,” she begins, panning across the rocky sands. “It was fairly empty, but—”
Men Put off Atlanta Woman at French Beach
It was her first day in the city, she says, and she’d come only to take in the shore—not to swim, still in her regular clothes. The spot wasn’t a manicured sunbathing strip but a rocky, cliffside stretch where the few people around were spread well apart. Then the men arrived.
“It happened to me a few times,” she says. Despite open ground in every direction, she describes them settling in tight—”very close, like, in the space even though there’s, like, a lot of space around”—and swimming directly in front of her at the water’s edge.
What unsettled her, she says, was that it seemed to single her out.
“I don’t see anyone else doing it,” she says. “For some reason, I’ll be sitting by myself.” In her telling, a large group stood behind her, then sat “less than a foot behind me,” closing her in. She says she kept filming partly as a record—evidence, she notes, should the men “try anything.”
Was It Racism?
She was careful and stopped short of naming a motive. Still, the crowding left her with a question—whether it carried “the same vibe” she says she’d expect in the United States.
The reaction, she says, gave its own surprise. In a follow-up, she pushed back on commenters who waved the episode off as flattery—what she calls “victim blaming by way of compliments.”
Being found attractive, she argues, “does not mean that they don’t have agency over their body,” or that no one should be held to account. “No one should have their personal space invaded,” she says. She drew a line between a passing glance and being crowded, “almost like you’re hunting them.” She insisted the men “knew what they were doing.”
Let’s see what the people had to say.
‘Vampires Are Always Thirsty’
One person stated what was missed by some obtuse folks in the comments: “To acknowledge the personal space of another person is a sign of respect & recognizing they’re importance of being somebody. They do that to be disrespectful and make you feel as if you don’t belong & don’t deserve to be there.”
After the follow-up video, people mostly were glad she was okay. One person wrote, “That video made me uncomfortable for you. I’m glad you are safe.”
Another person wrote, “That was intimidation from my perspective.” Sharinda agreed in a reply.
Taking Up Space
Sharinda’s open question—is this the same as home?—runs through a decade of Black travelers’ accounts. Writing for TODAY, travel creator Nicole Phillip recalled studying abroad in Italy, where, she says, locals ignored her, avoided her on the street, and, in one incident, threw beer and hurled a slur at her and a friend. Her takeaway answered Sharinda’s directly: anti-Blackness, Phillip wrote, “is not just an American issue.”
Travel guidance has flagged the dynamic for years. Rick Steves’ advice for travelers of color notes that being stared at is the most common source of discomfort they report and cautions that in southern French cities such as Nice, where immigration has become contentious, visitors “may feel caught up in someone else’s racial tensions.”
AllHipHop reached out to Sharinda and Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur via email for more information. We will update this story if either responds.
@theptonomad You’re never lonely…I started recording because I know that no one would believe me and can imagine how close and creepy this is and just in case I needed evidence if something happened. but the beach was so empty and everyone was so spaced out. I was sitting close to the water near an small cliff. It’s not even a very nice place to layout and start relaxing. It’s very much. I’m just gonna sit here and take the moment type of spot they came and sat right behind me and then stood right in front of me as well in the water so I had to start filming this is in niece. I actually loved the city, but this was a very weird experience with the locals. #eurosummer #nice #summertravel ♬ original sound – Sharinda | Travel & Wellness
