Emily Duprie
TikToker @Zdivesin posted a viral clip of what appears to be a drunk woman dancing in front of and talking to her grandfather’s apartment Ring bell at 12 AM. The clip displayed and set of anger towards the woman, as she rings the doorbell and scurries away to her by-standing friend within the elevator.
@Zdivesin called the women “gentrifiers” in the clip’s text overlay and provided further explanation of the incident in the caption on the original post.
These idiots rang my 82-year-old grandfather’s bell at almost 12 am. They woke him up and now he’s not rested up for his morning dialysis treatment. This occurred in East Harlem.
Dialysis is the process of removing excess water, solutes, and toxins from the blood in people whose kidneys can no longer perform these functions naturally. This is referred to as renal replacement therapy. It takes a lot out of anyone, even more so, the elderly. Because of the seriousness of this procedure, the disruption of the TikToker’s grandfather’s sleep was irredeemable.
In the text overlay for the clip, she wrote: “NYC gentrifiers ring my elderly grandfather’s bell at almost 12 am and thinks it’s funny.”
Gentrification is a newer word in the English language defined by Oxford Languages as: “the process whereby the character of a poor urban area is changed by wealthier people moving in, improving housing, and attracting new businesses, typically displacing current inhabitants in the process.”
According to @Zdivesin in a later post, her grandfather had been living in the apartment complex for more than 45 years and had never had anything like this happen before.
The Ring bell footage racked up more than 350k likes and thousands of comments showing support for zdivesin‘s grandfather.
@zdivesin These idiots rang my 82 year old grandfathers bell at almost 12 am. They woke him up and now he’s not rested up for his morning dialysis treatment. This occurred in East Harlem. #MakeASplash #MadewithKAContest #PerfectPrideMovement #nycgentrification #gentrificationisreal
While gentrification is now present all over the world, there are a number of highly publicized examples within the location of the clip– New York City and areas of Northern New Jersey embody this phenomenon. Property values, mortgages, and rent become far too expensive for a number of the loyal and current residents to stay, so they’re uprooted and forced to relocate due to extenuating economic factors.
Understandably, those who were present prior to wealthier individuals coming in and changing the social fabric of their neighborhood feel more entitled to the properties they’re residing in, even if they don’t legally own them. Their malice towards “gentrifiers” is semi-justified as most of the time those coming in don’t really care about what happens to those who were there before them.
The poor behavior exhibited by said “outsiders” in the building more-than-likely increased the hatred from the original poster as not only have they presumably made things more expensive in the complex, but they also caused her 82-year-old grandfather to get up in the middle of the night and check his door, messing up his sleep schedule and putting him “out of it” for his dialysis treatment.
In a follow-up video, @Zdives in says, “So just a quick update we still haven’t out…exactly where these two b***es live but we will find out soon. Management is aware, everybody’s aware of it, super’s aware. We don’t live with my grandfather and we work so we’re not able to get there right away, to nip this s*** in the bud.”
https://www.tiktok.com/@zdivesin/video/7176793164122983722
She continued in the clip,
But I guarantee you this type of thing won’t happen again. My grandfather’s been living there for 45+ years, no s*** like this ever happened until they moved in. I don’t care how drunk you are, you don’t do s*** like that cause me as a black woman I don’t have the privilege of knocking on and ringing somebody’s door without facing some consequences.
In the TikToker’s most recent post she uploaded new camera footage of what appears to be the same women, who now are too frightened to even look in the direction of OP’s grandfather’s door.
@zdivesin Update: Not too much talking on the lead up to the aftermath, but just know that they are afraid to even look at his door now. SN: Y’all really be on here moving loud and incriminating y’all selves smh. Not I. #TheRealPussinBoots #MakeASplash #MadewithKAContest #nycgentrification
“Not too much talking on the lead up to the aftermath, but just know that they are afraid to even look at his door now. SN: Y’all really be on here moving loud and incriminating y’all selves smh. Not I.”
Hopefully the issue was solved, as it’s not okay for anyone to go ringing random doorbells at night. You never know what the person behind the door could be going through, so always be considerate. An action like this could have easily been filed as a “Nuisance Report,” resulting in a violation of a lease and even eviction.
What are your thoughts on this situation? Let us know!
