tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15513876.post9041557953082640097..comments2024-02-12T09:07:37.691-06:00Comments on I am doing the best I can: I was racially profiledDawnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12920042208198309201noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15513876.post-3836079193320499162009-08-05T11:21:51.754-05:002009-08-05T11:21:51.754-05:00I remember once I got pulled over on a road trip.....I remember once I got pulled over on a road trip...<br /><br />WITH MY MOTHER. <br /><br />We were driving I-10 (which is a notorious drug running highway) and were pulled over by not 1, not 2, but 3 sets of cops. The reason they gave for pulling me over? I didn't move out of the lane fast enough for a cop a few miles back who had turned on his lights.<br /><br />*blank stare*<br /><br />The worse part was they were so sleezy. And it was so obvious we were on a road trip. I'm talking suitcases in plain sight, empty potato chip bags, etc. I have to stand outside on the side of the highway, in all my collegiate apparelled, 12 hour road trip glory for 30 minutes while Barney Fife interrogates me. And after repeatedly asking me if I could possibly be running drugs and/or guns for my boyfriend (I don't know what was more offensive: that the black girl on the highway had to be running drugs or that I couldn't have my own drug enterprise, I had to be participating in a boyfriend's business. Racist AND sexist) they finally let me and my mom go after detaining us a good 30 minutes, yelling at my mother, and doing everything in their power to intimidate me.<br /><br />But of course they didn't leave without one of those redneck bastards hitting on me.<br /><br />The thing about this whole Gates situation is that our frame of reference is totally different. White people who have never had to deal with this can't fathom this being such a commonplace occurence and therefore think we are jumping to conclusions.<br /><br />Black people who know this happens everyday and that people have died for less, can't believe anyone would be naive enough to assume otherwise.<br /><br />Sorry for blogging in your comments.Lahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16263956941852080340noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15513876.post-41094580763533375332009-08-04T20:57:51.959-05:002009-08-04T20:57:51.959-05:00Oh Suebob - The stories I have heard. The things I...Oh Suebob - The stories I have heard. The things I have seen.<br /><br />Yes, perhaps in the Gates situation tempers flared. But my temper would have flared too if I felt I had proven that I was in MY home, and still being questioned. Cripes, I got all "HOW DARE YOU" for being stopped on my way to jury duty.<br /><br />A long time ago, in a conversation with my mother in law she shared that she worried EVERY time one of her male relatives left the house. The chances of them being stopped, or arrested, or shot for no other reason than Being Black were so much greater than that of my own brother, for instance , that she was perpetually prepared for the phone call. The one from jail, or the hospital, or the morgue.<br /><br />The white man you spoke with - he has the privilege of NOT having to see any of the ugliness that men of color in the US face daily - even in small ways. The not getting a cab. The cab stopping for your wife and child...but when they see you with your dreadlocks, they decide they can't take your fare. The searches at border and in airport security.<br /><br />Terrance remains calm in a way that I never do - I get livid. Outraged. How DARE they , I want names, numbers, you name it. But he doesn't react and just waits. Remains polite. .<br /><br />It is a sickness, this refusal to see. To protect your own sense of the world at the cost of others - literally on their pain, so that you can feel safe and righteous in saying the police are always right.<br /><br />I knew that day when I walked into that court room that I was acting a role. From the outfit to the mannerisms, I wore the outfit of privilege.<br /><br />And that is the most disturbing thing. I expected to be let off. I did not expect to pay a fine, and so it was. The law is Not impartial any more than Fox is fair OR balanced. We need to stop pretending that it is impartial and applied fairly to every American.<br /><br />Until then, all the privileged white guys of American will continue to scream that they are being oppressed.Dawnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12920042208198309201noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15513876.post-24190832169107377902009-08-04T16:06:14.920-05:002009-08-04T16:06:14.920-05:00I got in a bit of a raised-voice discussion last n...I got in a bit of a raised-voice discussion last night with this old white man. He said that Henry Louis Gates should have behaved differently. I tried to explain that, as a white man, he had no context in which to put what happened between a black man and the police. I bet that every single black family in the US has at least one story of police abuse of powers and that is something most white people just can't relate to.SUEB0Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16301963922769609715noreply@blogger.com