It’s getting crazy out there. Suspicious, paranoid, and/or racist/bigoted/idiotic white people all over are calling the cops on black people who are doing absolutely nothing wrong. They are just Doing Stuff While Being Black. This is why we have the 911 phone system–so terrified white people can call the cops anytime they see a black person Being Black.
In recent weeks, white folks have summoned the police to deal with many instances of Blacks Doing Stuff While Black.
A Yale University grad student seen napping in a common area of a dormitory. Four police officers showed up. She was Napping While Black.
Three black women–two filmmakers and an artists–were loading suitcases into their vehicle, outside their Airbnb rental, when six police officers and a helicopter showed up. A white woman across the street had called 911 about a burglary in progress. Checking Out While Black.
Members of a black sorority were cleaning up trash along a highway–a section they had adopted near Harrisburg, Pa.–when a state trooper pulled up, lights flashing. Police received a call about women fighting alongside the highway. The women, dressed in the sorority colors of blue and gold, were dragging trash bags and debris in an area marked “Adopt a Highway – Litter Control Interchange Area.” They were Performing Community Service While Black.
A black doctor was playing rap music on a Saturday afternoon, and cops showed up at his door because somebody called 911 to complain. Listening to Music While Black.
A white woman called the cops on a black boy mowing yards.
A black engineering student, 18, used his debit card to buy a $349 belt at the Barneys’ Madison Avenue flagship store in New York City. He was arrested outside by undercover cops, who told him his card was fake. They cuffed him and took him to the precinct station. Although he had shown his ID to the Barneys clerk, Barneys reported him, apparently thinking no young black men could afford such an expensive belt. He returned the belt and got his money back. Shopping While Black.
Nordstrom’s called the cops about three black men who were shoplifting “handfuls of products.” The teens showed the police their receipts and let them search their bags. Buying Stuff while Black.
A local government official was sitting in his car in a wharf parking lot reading Christian books by C. S. Lewis and Timothy Keller. As he drove home, he was pulled over by cops, who said they’d been called about a “suspicious black man in a white car.” This was in Canada. Reading While Black. He said, “I’ve been pulled over for driving in my own neighborhood. I’ve gotten asked where I’m from, and when I tell them I’m from my hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, the question is where are you really from? As if I can’t actually be from here.”
A black man was drinking Arizona Ice Tea in a North Carolina parking lot when a cop approached and ordered him to leave the property. When he refused, he was tackled onto the blacktop and handcuffed. Drinking Ice Tea While Black.
A black man, Air Force vet, was walking with a golf club, which he’d been using as a cane for many years. A white policewoman ordered him to drop the club, and ended up handcuffing him and taking him to the jail, where he spent the night. Walking in Public While Black.
Three black teenage boys were waiting on a schoolbus, which would take them to a basketball game, when a police officer ordered them to disperse. They explained that they were just waiting on a schoolbus, but were nevertheless arrested, cuffed, and charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing the sidewalk. As they were being arrested, their varsity basketball coach arrived and tried to reason with the cops, but to no avail. Waiting While Black.
In Dallas, an NBC reporter (Indian) and photographer (black) had the cops called on them by someone reporting a “Hispanic-looking” woman and black man with a “suspicious white truck.” Doing Their Job While Black.
Five black women were golfing in Pennsylvania, and a white co-owner called the cops, saying the women were going too slow and asking that they be removed. A golfer in the next group saw nothing wrong, that their speed wasn’t slowing down his group at all. Golfing While Black.
A black man, 27, sat down in a skyway between two Minneapolis buildings to wait ten minutes for his kids to be released from a school which met in one of those buildings. Private security asked him to leave, and then called the police. Waiting On Your Child While Black.
None of these things would happen to me. Because I’m white. Don’t tell me there’s no such thing as white privilege.
Two Native American brothers, on a campus visit to Colorado State University, were pulled from the tour after a parent told a 911 dispatcher that their behavior was “odd” and that their dark clothing had “weird symbolism or wording on it.” She said, “They’re not — definitely not — a part of the tour.”
