As mentioned in Part One of this rant, there were two times in my life when it dawned on my rather thick head that it's a different world for Black Americans than for us White folks.
The first time was at one of my many sessions of
Traffic School. This was about 15 years ago. The instructor was
black, and wasn't an off-duty cop. His name was
Mister Robinson, and he told us that for the next 7 hours, we were in
his neighborhood.
.
We were doing the usual stuff - watching countless movies, and discussing our citations. Since most of us were uncommunicative, Mr. Robinson was recounting some of his own experiences.
.
He started into a story about once when he was pulled over here in Phoenix. And how, when the
(white) cop came up to his window, he made very, very sure to move his hand very, very slowly to the glove-box where his registration was.
"Because," he said,
"you don't ever want to give the policeman a reason for shooting you."
.
Wow. It has never occurred to me in the many times that I've been pulled over
("Stop" apparently is an absolute term, not a relative one); that some unwitting gesture I make might lead to my demise. Yet here was a traffic school instructor, cautioning anyone who wasn't white to be extremely transparent in all your actions when a policeman pulls you over.
.
The second incident involved the O.J. criminal trial. The whole nation was caught up in the drama, including everyone where I work.
.
The trial part was over and a TV was set up in the break-room. It took a while for the jury to reach a verdict, but one morning it was announced that they were filing back into the courtroom. Everyone stopped working, and crowded around the television.
.
We had three or four black girls working there at the time, and they were in the front row. When the
"Not Guilty" verdict was announced, they all spontaneously jumped up, screaming and clapping.
.
For the record, I thought that was the correct verdict. The cops had planted evidence, and once that was exposed, it was tough to say OJ was
proven guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt. Nevertheless, I didn't see that it was something to cheer and clap about. OJ obviously did it
(if not him, then who?), but you can't allow cops to taint the evidence.
.
I didn't understand the actions of those black girls until now. They, and Mr. Robinson, lived in a different world than me. One where, if you're black and there are cops involved, you're in a life-threatening situation.
Racial profiling, on both a conscious and subconscious level, still runs rampant in the USA. And it is not possible for us white folks to
"put ourselves in the shoes of Professor Gates" when the white cop was in his house, and was extremely skeptical that Gates was anything but a burglar.
.
So here's hoping that the cop and Gates do indeed end up having a beer with Obama. It'll be another small step in stamping out racial prejudice here in America.
The first time was at one of my many sessions of Traffic School. This was about 15 years ago. The instructor was black, and wasn't an off-duty cop. His name was Mister Robinson, and he told us that for the next 7 hours, we were in his neighborhood.
.
We were doing the usual stuff - watching countless movies, and discussing our citations. Since most of us were uncommunicative, Mr. Robinson was recounting some of his own experiences.
.
He started into a story about once when he was pulled over here in Phoenix. And how, when the (white) cop came up to his window, he made very, very sure to move his hand very, very slowly to the glove-box where his registration was. "Because," he said, "you don't ever want to give the policeman a reason for shooting you."
.
Wow. It has never occurred to me in the many times that I've been pulled over ("Stop" apparently is an absolute term, not a relative one); that some unwitting gesture I make might lead to my demise. Yet here was a traffic school instructor, cautioning anyone who wasn't white to be extremely transparent in all your actions when a policeman pulls you over.
.
The second incident involved the O.J. criminal trial. The whole nation was caught up in the drama, including everyone where I work.
.
The trial part was over and a TV was set up in the break-room. It took a while for the jury to reach a verdict, but one morning it was announced that they were filing back into the courtroom. Everyone stopped working, and crowded around the television.
.
We had three or four black girls working there at the time, and they were in the front row. When the "Not Guilty" verdict was announced, they all spontaneously jumped up, screaming and clapping.
.
For the record, I thought that was the correct verdict. The cops had planted evidence, and once that was exposed, it was tough to say OJ was proven guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt. Nevertheless, I didn't see that it was something to cheer and clap about. OJ obviously did it (if not him, then who?), but you can't allow cops to taint the evidence.
.
I didn't understand the actions of those black girls until now. They, and Mr. Robinson, lived in a different world than me. One where, if you're black and there are cops involved, you're in a life-threatening situation. Racial profiling, on both a conscious and subconscious level, still runs rampant in the USA. And it is not possible for us white folks to "put ourselves in the shoes of Professor Gates" when the white cop was in his house, and was extremely skeptical that Gates was anything but a burglar.
.
So here's hoping that the cop and Gates do indeed end up having a beer with Obama. It'll be another small step in stamping out racial prejudice here in America.
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