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Opinion: What people of color experience at the theater

“I’m running 10 minutes late, can you leave my ticket at the box office?” Who hasn’t received the exact same text message while waiting for their companions in New York City? I chuckled, sighed and texted him back “#ThankYouMTA” I headed to the box office at the Helen Hayes Theater as I have done...

(Photo: Jonatan Moerman)

“I’m running 10 minutes late, can you leave my ticket at the box office?” Who hasn’t received the exact same text message while waiting for their companions in New York City? I chuckled, sighed and texted him back “#ThankYouMTA”

I headed to the box office at the Helen Hayes Theater as I have done countless times before and asked the box office attendant, an elderly white man, if I could leave my plus one’s ticket under my name for him to pick up. “Write down their full name,” he said with a frown. I explained that I didn’t know my companion’s last name — more on that later — as he uttered, “then there’s nothing I can do, it’s policy. ” He scratched off my name on the white envelope that contained my tickets. To him, I was also nameless now.

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