In reading the Dec. 12, 2014 post on how white people don't quite understand what communities of color are going through, party because they don't have to (huffingtonpost.com/2014/...), I wanted to reflect on the enormity and tragedy of those statements and share my own recent small and non-lethal experience with profiling...
I am middle-aged white university professor who recently move to Maryland from North Carolina and I have been commuting for the last six months between Chapel Hill, NC and College Park, MD, stopping twice a week at this Starbucks.
My mistake was being distracted while driving up a moving truck with much of my furniture before Thanksgiving and forgetting my laptop at the coffee shop with all my essentials (checkbook, credit cards, driver's license, cash, house keys). I managed to call the store that evening before they closed at 10 p.m. when I reached Maryland and miraculously, someone had turned my bag in. The employee promised to keep the bag secure and notify the morning crew that would open the store sometime after 4 a.m. I let him know I would be driving back down in the middle of the night, moving truck and all, and would be there bright and early before 5 a.m.
What followed, was a comedy of distrust and fear, a reminder of the sad state of profiling we live in.
I reached Ashland around 2 a.m., spent a couple of very uncomfortable hours hunched over in my rental truck in front of the store, and finally greeted the morning crew of three women upon their arrival. I briefly identified myself and let them know what had happened, aware that I had the potential to startle them, as it was early and I was disheveled, first strike... I was told tersely that the store wouldn't open until 5 a.m. and replied I didn't want access but was simply hoping to retrieve my bag and be on my way, second strike... Fifteen minutes before the store officially opened, I decided to step out of the truck and wait outside of the store while stretching my now stiff legs, third strike...
Within minutes, two police cars converged upon me. A background check was initiated. I was asked for my ID which I couldn't produce as it was in my bag in the store. I made small talk with the younger male police officer who had graduated from the local Randolph-Macon College a year before, while the female police officer was becoming a bit more agitated as it appeared she was not initially able to verify who I was. I shared with the male officer that I was sorry he had been summoned, and that I was really puzzled how I could have come across as posing any kind of threat... Eventually, after 5 a.m., the Starbucks employee who seemed to be the head of the crew, walked my bag to the door, spoke at length to the female officer, and handed her the bag, no explanations, no apologies, no eye contact... After my bag was searched and my driver's license pulled out of the front pocket by the police officer, I was able to go on my not so merry way...
I later found out Ashland was indeed named "Best Place to Raise your Kids" in Virginia by Bloomberg Business in 2011, based on a survey of small towns "inhabited mostly by middle-income earners that have good public schools, low crime, and resources to keep the family entertained on weekends" (see: images.businessweek.com/...), and one of America's 10 best small towns in 2014 by Movoto Real Estate, based on criteria that includes amenities, quality of life, and crime (See: movoto.com/blog/top-ten/...).
I had a long chat with my teenage children that week asking them what they would have done if they had been in a similar situation: no money, no ID, stopped by the police for a perceived threat, albeit in a safe, crime-free community... but clearly identified as not fitting "the profile"... I don't want to take this further out of context and over-dramatize this small event, but this could easily have had more dire consequences. It could have been my word against three other people. What if my bag hadn't materialized? I believe this is indicative of a larger prevailing climate of fear and distrust. Aren't we increasingly asked to be on the lookout, to report signs terrorism, and potential public threat? Why is it so acceptable to be able to summon the police on a whim with total impunity? Is this the new normal?
Ultimately, I am reminded how fear-by-police is becoming an acceptable response, a form of new violence, that we are now so easily profiling each other, and that while inconvenienced, and fortunate to interact with professional police officers, I was still protected by my whiteness, barely... I too fear for my kids, for all the kids out there, and for how easy it is to lose our common humanity. We all need to actively engage in this conversation. read more