Even after all these years, it's hard for Justin Springer to believe it when he sees it.

There he is, going about his day as the president of Outside The Box Agency, helping organizations tell their multimedia stories, giving all the goodness he's got. Getting thank yous from friends he's forgotten he's helped, the best part of any day.

Then along comes a stranger to put it all on pause. Here, in his own words, is how it happens.

“It’s just been a frustration, when you’re walking down a street, and you see a white woman go to the other side when they’re obviously taking a longer way. There’s times where I’ll just sit back and watch them, and you know, like, they’re actually going the wrong way to just avoid me.

It happened when I was 17 and it still happens to me as an adult. It’s just crazy, because there’s days when I’m wearing a suit and there’s days I’m wearing a hoodie. And you know, if you asked me, I’d wear a hoodie every day, but you know sometimes you gotta get suited up.

It happened just last week. I don’t know exactly where I was, and it wasn’t a white woman, it was an Asian woman. Not to classify Asian women, but it’s just a fact that there are certain Asians that have a fear of black men, and it’s because of the images that are promoted to them, and it’s a fact. So not to make this a big thing, but you know, I was walking down the street, and I noticed her just a few yards ahead of me, decided that she wanted to cross the street, and so as she’s crossing the street, I’m passing her, and then I look around, and I’m like, “She’s really not crossing the street!”

And I see her cross back to the same side that we were on. And that bothered me, you know. I didn’t say anything, but it bothered me, because this woman doesn’t know how compassionate I am. She doesn’t know that I probably would’ve made her day if we had talked for 5 minutes, you know, but she decided that, you know, she avoided my energy.

And so it does mess with you. Even if you’re having the best day, something like that can throw you off and make you think, like, “Damn, people are still afraid!” You know?

And that’s how life is. We’re promoting fear all the time. You know, “The Muslims are coming to get us!”

And it’s sad. You wish people didn’t have these fears, and would build bridges rather than avoid them, or go in the water. And you know, the easiest way is just crossing the bridge and building communication.

So I was having a good day and it bothered me for a while, and I thought about it. Someone my age—no matter how old I am—it’s embarrassing when someone has a fear of you just from your … the cover of your book. But she doesn’t know. If she had read some of them pages, we would probably have a lot of things similar.”

 Justin Springer was interviewed by story ambassadors Jamarri Young, a senior at City on a Hill Public Charter School, and Nuriana Chaves, a senior at Excel High School, pictured with him above. They interviewed him at Fairmount Innovation Lab, where Outside the Box Agency is based.

The interview was then transcribed by Markus Tran, a student at Commonwealth School, and edited for length and clarity by Everyday Boston, in partnership with Jamarri and Nuriana.