A British man’s Tinder date was over before it began after the woman he met on the popular dating app said she was against going to any “Black people places.”
Nicky Sowemimo, who’s Nigerian, said he couldn’t believe his eyes. It was a no-brainer that he would cancel the date with the woman, who’s white.
“If I’m honest there were a couple of questionable comments last week,” he told UK outlet Metro. “Maybe I overlooked them, and brushed them off? At the time it just wasn’t enough for me to assume the worst. I generally don’t assume the worst of people.”
Sowemimo said he and the young woman had been talking for weeks and planned to meet for their very first date at Soho Zebrano, a cocktail bar in London’s West End. Their conversation turned sour, however, when the woman said she was afraid to go in by herself, as there might be too many Black people.
She recalled an “uncomfortable” experience at Caribbean restaurant chain Rum Kitchen, saying she wouldn’t go back after being “nearly the only white person” there.
“It all just kind of came out very quickly — it went from zero to 100,” Sowemimo said, recalling the conversation.
Screenshots of their text message exchange show the young woman was seemingly unapologetic about her racist views, and didn’t see the issue.
“That’s … a strange thing to say,” Sowemino replied, dumbfounded.
“I don’t really like what you’re saying,” he added. “If you’re uncomfortable about Black people, why are we meeting?”
His date replied: “It’s cool, we don’t have to meet up then. Probably wasn’t meant to be then.”
Sowemimo said he was just steps from the bar when he abandoned the date. He’d offered to meet her inside at the bar’s rooftop patio when she objected, saying she preferred to wait for him outside because “I don’t like to go to Black people places by myself.”
Sowemimo said the comment threw him for a loop, seeing as the bar has a majority white clientele.
“It’s not even a place that I would say is predominately frequented by black people, so that doesn’t make sense,” he told the outlet. “‘That’s actually quite a startling level of concern that you can’t actually go into this place. … You’re that scared that you can’t go into it.”
The communications director said this isn’t the first time he’s met someone who denies they’re racist because they have a friend or partner of color, but go out of their way to avoid places where they might be the minority.
“There are obviously people who date interracially but still have some quite unpleasant views,” he added.
Sowemimio’s sister, Dr. Annabel Sowemimo, chimed in on the matter, saying that such behavior “often centers on the same historic stereotypes of feeling unsafe or feeling that the space is ‘ghetto.’ ”
So my brother just went on a date with a white women from Tinder & apparently she doesn’t like being around black people.
I mean probably shouldn’t date black men then 🙃🙃🙃. #confused pic.twitter.com/ZcE5HYb2Rv
— Dr Annabel (@SoSowemimo) July 16, 2019
“It’s also not an uncommon issue that people are happy to date a black individual but want them to abandon any cultural ties at the front door,” she explained.
After their unpleasant exchange, Sowemimo washed his hands of the incident by blocking the woman on Tinder and WhatsApp — which only seemed to anger her. In fact, she doubled-down on her bigotry.
“I think it’s very rude just to block someone when travelling 1.5 hour, but it’s okay. I wish u all the best,” she messaged him, before adding: “Probably one of the reasons to stay away from Nigerians.
“You’re just on a different level,” she concluded.
