If Beale Street Could Talk

After they left Levy, Tish and Fonny went shopping for groceries at a shopfront stand. Fonny stepped away for a cigarette, and while he was gone, a young Italian man sexually harassed Tish by touching her and using suggestive language. Tish slapped him and spat on him at the exact moment that Fonny came back to the storefront. She called out to a police officer—Bell, as it turns out—to help her. Fonny attacked the boy in front of Bell, who moved aggressively toward Fonny. Fearful of what would happen if Fonny defended her, Tish placed herself between Fonny and the policeman, who called Fonny “boy.”

In response to Bell’s questions, Fonny gave the officer his address. Bell then told Fonny he was going to be booked for assaulting the young man, but the shopkeeper—a white, Italian American woman—insisted that she knew Fonny and Tish were telling the truth and aggressively told Bell to take himself and the teen out of her shop. Bell told Fonny that he expected to see him around—a threat. The shopkeeper commiserated with Tish about the terrible state of America for people like them—immigrants and people of color—and told her to take Fonny home. Afterward, Fonny told Tish never to place herself between him and harm again, likely because he found it emasculating.