I have of course heard this before, but it just does not add up. If this was true, then blacks would be careful not to do anything to make that worse. They would always have thier id ready, they would avoid dressing and looking like criminals, etc.
I read Eric Holder's comments to the NAACP meeting. He talked about having "the talk" with his sons about how they needed to act well around police officers. Well I had similar talks with my children, and they are white. Whey you are stopped by an officer you alway call them sir or ma'am, you keep your hands in plain site. If it is at night you turn on the interior car lights and keep your hands on the wheel. Have your license and registration ready. Always look them in the eye, answer their questions clearly and honestly. If you have done nothing wrong you have nothing to be afraid of. This is common sense stuff every child should be taught.
If blacks were truely profiled like they claim they would all treat police officers with better than average respect. You would never hear one talking back or giving the police another reason to suspect them. They would never have drugs on them because they would expect to be stopped and checked. They would never try to shoplift because they would know they were being watched.
The reality just does not fit the argument.
Wait a minute here. So anyone who is not white needs to change their attitude, dress, and behavior to better accommodate those who would see them for who they aren't? What is proper about that attitude? Nothing. The minds of those who would view someone based on their color is what needs to change. Those who are being seen in a biased light are not the ones who should change to accommodate the bias.
BTW, a hoodie is simply a convenient, light weight clothing item. It is NOT "thug" wear. I wear them in lieu of heavier clothes. My kids wear them. Lots of people wear them. It shouldn't change someone's perspective if the person wearing a hoodie is a certain age or color.
Are you seriously suggesting I teach my children to change their behavior to accommodate ignorance? That because they are or are with friends that aren't one race, they should behave different than those other people? That those other people might be able to pull into a parking lot to view a map, but they shouldn't do so because they might arouse suspicion and sorry, but that's life and you have to deal with it? To go ahead and make sure you always carry proper identification and give it up to strangers politely because they ask and they think you look suspicious and it may be wrong, but accommodate them? Don't be upset when wrongfully pulled over or questioned by law enforcement, but be extra kind and cooperative?
Maybe people just get SICK of being treated like that and sick of being so accommodating. It doesn't need to be like that.
One of the reasons this case got to me so bad is (yet another) issue we had here in my family. Another walking down the street problem, which happens often, but this one was different in that it wasn't law enforcement that stopped anyone or paused. My 17 year old called me in a panic. She was walking home from a game at school. Alone. Some guy in a car was following her slowly, passed her, turned around, and parked facing the direction she was coming, staring at her. It was getting dark, nobody else was around.
According to your logic, what was the proper reaction? Pull out her identification? Assume he was a neighborhood watch captain? Be polite?
I'll tell you what my reaction was. Utter panic. A man in a car was following my daughter. She was scared. She was alone. She was unarmed. I kept her on the phone, grabbed another phone, and called 9-1-1 and reported her location. I stayed on the phone with them. I didn't have a car, but I grabbed a weapon and went towards my daughter. By the time I got there, the man took off.
It never occurred to me that there were break ins, or that it was a neighborhood watch, or that it was a concerned citizen. Some creep was in a vehicle following my seventeen year old daughter slowly and had parked the car and was staring at her. I wasn't planning on asking a lot of questions, I was planning on keeping my daughter safe. He had a vehicle that could kill and who knows what in that vehicle?
Go figure - when I told the officers I was there, they never bothered to show up. They did call and seemed very unconcerned, simply told my daughter that it was wrong to call her mom, to call them next time.
Now - let's think about next time, and when you think about this, think bigger about being polite, being nice, and following obligations, rules, and expectations.
If you have experienced law enforcement pulling you over, stopping you for walking down a street for no reason, knowing that you're suspicious just for not being white, if you've had your own family show up in a crisis to help you before the police, and the police never did show up, what is your reaction going to be?
Are you going to be more likely to afraid and ready to protect yourself in case of a next time?
Are you going to be much less trusting of law enforcement?
Are you going to be less likely to call them, and more likely to call family or friends for help?
I think that's true, and then there's the catch. The next time it happens, everyone is going to say "oh wow, that person should have done the right thing and called the police for help. They must have had something to hide. Look, they were walking down the street and they were armed, or they called their friends or family that were. These must be some people into bad stuff if they walk around ready for trouble."
And the myth gets perpetuated.
So no, I don't teach my children or their friends or anyone else to act all that different. I do teach them to have a voice, and I do teach them to be informed of what is going on in the world. I teach them about standing up for what is right, and when to stand down. I teach them about non-violent protests. It was sad for them to shocked by how violent non-violent protests can be. I showed them pictures of a non-violent protest in King's time, with people getting hurt by law enforcement and they gasped and said "I thought it was non-violent!" and I had to explain that it doesn't mean you don't get hurt. That sometimes law enforcement, the other side, or even stupid people on your own side won't act right.
I teach them proper clothing for a protest, what emergency items to bring, how to treat the types of medical issues that may happen, how to remain peaceful, etc..
But never will I teach them to sit down, shut up, and change from being normal, typical American kids just because doing so while a certain color might make them appear suspicious to ignorant people.
