Dear white people: The police are not your personal racism valet to be used to ask questions that you’re too scared to ask yourself because you’re terrified of black people. Quit using them like that. Signed, another white person.
I got into an argument on Facebook today when I mentioned that every single person of color that I knew had had the cops called on them for things that were none-criminal, and that this had *never* happened to any of the white people I knew. He whined that they were just looking for racism so that’s why they saw it. Uhm, no. POC got cops called on them, us white people didn’t.
He kept going back to “but that wasn’t racism, everybody had a good reason to call the cops!” of the three examples I listed, three black women having the cops called on them for having suitcases while black, a former White House staffer having the police called on him *twice* for moving into his apartment while black, and police called on two men at a LA Fitness for playing basketball while black. Yeah, that reason being that they were too scared of people of color to just ask them what was going on, instead calling the cops as their personal racism valets to ask in their stead.
I eventually ended up having to block him because he just kept whining “but that’s not racism!” even though I kept pointing out that cops weren’t called on my white acquaintances, only on my black ones. But none are so blind as those who refuse to admit their white privilege. Sheesh.
A final thought: Maybe The Negro Motorist Green Book is needed again. I mean, when segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever has apparently become public policy again… hey, let’s just set the Wayback Machine to 1948 again, already. SIGH.
– Badtux the “Nope, racism ain’t dead, and police are the new racism valets” Penguin
I’d hate to imagine being a POC and having to decide whether to call 911 when a white person is breaking and entering.
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The Oakland PD is always upset that nobody will call the cops about crimes happening in black neighborhoods. Well, why *should* they call the cops? All they’re doing is putting their own lives in danger if they do — more from the gang-bangers in blue with badges as from the gang-bangers who live down the street. If you’re going to kill a bunch of people of color, don’t be surprised that people of color see you as the problem, not the solution.
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I think we need a public re defining of just what “Racism” is. I met a guy online that actually said “He Has “Black and Jewish” friends but he hates any and all Arabic Persons”. OK so there are separate words naming ‘his’ kind of Racism, but that doesn’t change the smell to me. It’s not like you have to wear black leather clothes or carry a Nazi Banner, to be a racist.
I for one, am tired of Racists trying to deflect who they are. Own it or lose that attitude, end of story for me.
w3ski
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Then there are the two native American teens on a campus tour in Fort Collins, Colorado. A white mother on the tour thought their behavior, clothes (and skin color) was “creepy” and called the campus police. There is of course video.
Quite the kerfuffle in Colorado.
https://coloradopolitics.com/video-shows-police-stop-of-native-american-teens-on-tour/
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Yeah, I meant to mention that one (you’ll see it in my Twitter stream if you click on that) but didn’t manage to transfer it to here.
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When you swim in the ocean of privilege, you don’t notice when you are going with the current, it’s only when the current is against you that you feel it. (Oh, and the thousands of cuts you get along the way doesn’t help much.)
I sometimes wonder if the fear that some privileged folks have about the subject is that they are afraid that if everyone is treated the same, where does their privilege go (answer: nowhere, because everyone should share the same level of treatment)? Maybe the fear is that they will get treated the same way they mistreat others?
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There’s people that say “rights” when they mean “privileges.” And they HATE the actual concept of rights, in which everyone deserves them.
This is a terrible, terrible problem. They get to believe they are Americans when they are against most of what the Constitution stands for.
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A final thought: Maybe The Negro Motorist Green Book is needed again. I mean, when segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever has apparently become public policy again… hey, let’s just set the Wayback Machine to 1948 again, already. SIGH.
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Thanks for twigging me to the “Living While Black” hashtag via your blogroll, Tux. I wouldn’t have seen it otherwise. My whiteyvision… There are some horrific stories on there. It put me in mind of the tag line from that recent horror movie “A Quiet Place”: “If they hear you, they hunt you.” The preyhumans in the flick struggled to avoid murdermonsters by NOT coming to their attention. Being hunted by police if they someone attract their notice is the for-real deal for black folks in Amerikkka.
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And then there were the black folks who were detained while leaving the AirBnB place they had rented, Which, probably needless to say, was in a white neighborhood,
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My black coworkers, all openly admit cities in the area that they try to avoid because of DWB bullshit. One was pulled over for a defective license plate light on one of these fair burghs while his neighbor happened to be behind him. When he got home, his (white) neighbor asked why he was pulled over and then replied, “But the license plate light was working just fine”. This was a 40-ish,black male in a 6 year old minivan. The van was like new, the neighbor couldn’t believe it.
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Yep, as I pointed out on my twitter stream, white people have the privilege of pretending racism doesn’t exist. Brown people don’t have that privilege, they get to live it every day.
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