Crossing the Road While Being Black

[McCamy Taylor]

We were waiting for the same light. I was in my Democratic blue Fiat, a middle aged graying blond white chick. He was a dark skinned African-American pedestrian, about 5 foot 6, weighing about 140 pounds, dressed in jeans and a dark blue sweat shirt. The light changed. I started to accelerate. He started to walk.

A police cruiser turned the corner. Its flashing red and blue lights---“berry-cherries” they are called locally---started up. The cop pulled over the pedestrian. In my rear view mirror, I saw the policeman get out. He had the Black man pull up his shirt to show that he was not carrying a weapon tucked into his belt. The policeman did not touch him. They started talking. Traffic was carrying me away----

But something in me rebelled. The man who was profiled for being Black in a mostly white part of town while crossing a road in a crosswalk after waiting for the light---that man did not have the option of driving away. When a policeman pulled him over, he had to stop whatever he was doing.

There was pizza in the front seat beside me. My family was waiting. Maybe the pedestrian's family was waiting for him to bring home some food, too. It was supper time on Saturday night. There was a grocery store across that road and several restaurants and take out places.

I was seized by one of those impulses that sometimes drive my friends and family crazy. I made a right at the next corner. I circled the block. I parked on the curb, near the corner where the policeman was grilling the pedestrian for the crime of Crossing the Road while Being Black. If that man had to give up ten minutes of his Saturday night, because some random cop thought he looked “suspicious”, then I would give up ten minutes of my Saturday night with him.

A second policeman arrived. This seemed like overkill. Both cops stood over six feet tall, and both outweighed the “suspect” (I put that in quotes because at this point I don’t know what he was suspected of having done) by at least fifty pounds. A third police car arrived. A third beefy policeman got out. The pedestrian was very calm. He was talking, smiling, making hand gestures, none of them abrupt, but I noticed that his hands never went anywhere near his body. Being a novice when it comes to law enforcement it did not strike me until the next day--today, Easter Sunday--- that he was making sure that none of the three huge policemen who were standing around him would make the mistake of thinking that he was “going for a weapon”. Which proved that there was no probable cause. I'm not a lawyer, but if the initial policeman had reason to think that a crime---besides the crime of crossing the road---had been committed---he would have already searched the man, right?

Now that there were two sumo types to keep watch over the dangerous pedestrian, the first cop got in his car to see if there were any outstanding warrants. The pedestrian continued to keep his arms well away from his body. But he had to be worried. I know I was worried for him. Did he have outstanding tickets? I know a lot of people--- people who would never dream of committing an act of violence---who do not have the money to pay their traffic tickets, especially if they get pulled over more often than other folks. I, the graying blond white chick almost never get pulled over and when I do, I always get a warning. I guess I remind the cops of their sisters/wives/mothers. Were unpaid traffic tickets enough to get a man hauled to jail on a Saturday night? Maybe he had something worse on his record. Maybe his record would be clean and they would have to let him go. Maybe he was a police informant, and this was a carefully staged bit of theater----no, that was the result of watching too many TV crime shows.

After about twenty minutes, the first policeman came back. Bingo. He cuffed the pedestrian. He leaned him over the car. He searched him. He put him in the back of his squad car. The second and third police cruisers on the scene left. The first car drove away. I drove away. Forty-five minutes of my life. It felt much longer. Every few minutes or so, I would ask myself “What the hell are you doing here? You aren’t doing anyone any good. Those cops are not going to beat that man silly. He is too smart to give them provocation. And it is a busy street corner.”

But I couldn’t drive on. That man, who may have been walking to the store to get his family food, the way I drove to the pizza place to get my family food, he did not have a choice. Society took away his choice when it declared all dark skinned Black men “perps” subject to detention and a check for outstanding warrants at any time.

Since I know you’ll ask, the setting was a Very Big City in Texas. But that does not mean that it isn't happening where you live. And yes, it really did happen. Exactly the way I describe it. Now excuse me while I go have a good cry. I think maybe this whole country needs to have a good cry.

[quinnox]

1. That was great you were keeping an eye on proceedings. The only thing that would have been

even better is if you had a portable camera with the capability of filming, and got out of your car and conspicuously started filming the scene. And that is a totally legal thing to do, despite what some cops might say or tell you.

[McCamy Taylor]

2. Yeah, I know. But I still have a flip phone.

[elleng]

3. Yes.

[noiretextatique]

4. "standard procedure"

is what the cops told me when they pulled me over for diving while black we must be prepared to be treated like criminals because: it is "standard procedure."

[McCamy Taylor]

5. "Standard procedure" exists for a reason----and not the one they give us.

My mother told me a story about what used to be "standard procedure" for women. She was a computer scientist in the early 60s. She had applied for and been cleared for a job. Then the real boss got back. He summoned her into office. He had his secretary come into his office and sit on his lap. He told my mother his company only hired women for clerical jobs. He didn't dispute that she could do the job. She was almost certainly smarter than he was, because she is smarter than most people. He just didn't want a woman. This was before there were any laws about gender discrimination in employment. She tells it as if it is funny now, but back then it was not funny. Back then it made her mad. She was a single mother. There was a huge difference between supporting a family as a computer scientist and supporting a family in one of the "pink" jobs that men thought were appropriate for women back then. Women---especially single women who had to raise kids---could be relied upon to do grueling work for low wages out of desperation, especially if they couldn't get any other jobs. The reason behind the "standard procedure" is always about keeping an underpaid workforce available to make the Kochs Brothers Dixie Cups. Anything else that anyone tells you is BS dreamed up by groups like the Heritage Foundation to keep that low wage workforce. Oh, and to fill up the for profit prisons, too.

I understand the economic reasons we have so many -isms in this country. And understanding why they exist, helps us to fight them. You have to equalize financial inequality if you want to get rid of the -isms. But sometimes when I see an -ism up close with a human face it just hurts so much and I wonder how other human beings can take part in this charade. What if we all "called in sick" from playing our part in the -ism games? What if we refused to racially profile? What if we refused to offer minorities higher interest loans when they qualify for good loans?

[noiretextatique]

6. it is difficult to combat

i gave the cops and earful, and they gave me a ridiculous ticket. i had to post bail of $450.00 in order to contest the ticket. most of the people in court that day were black and brown, and they did not have the money to post the bail, so they plead guilty in order to make payments on the fine i was fortunate to be able to pay the fine, and the cops never showed up to court, so i won my case by default. poor people are not to post bail and go to trial, so they effectively shut out of a process that more often than not, exonerates the accused, at least in traffic court. and really, it is not just poor people...who has an extra $450.00 laying around...just in case you happen to get profiled? but you are right: it will never change as long people "go along" with it.

[JimDandy]

10. Where the hell do you have to post bail to contest a traffic fine?

Never heard that before. I don't ever want to live in/visit your state.

[jaysunb]

16. Here in California you can post the estimated cost

of the ticket if you want to plead not guilty and go to trial. if you don't show, it's a wash, but if you go on to lose, that portion of your bond will most likely cover the entire fine and court costs.

[noiretextatique]

22. if you can post bail

the cops rarely show for traffic court. just another "tax" on poor people.

[jaysunb]

24. You are correct...as usual

Hey, could I borrow a hun ????

[mountain grammy]

8. As if your original post wasn't enough, this one got to me nearly as much...

I'm ready for a good cry.

[malthaussen]

7. It apalls me no end that a freeborn American citizen cannot walk the streets...

... without the fear of being jacked up by the cops. That our culture complacently permits this, nay, encourages it, tells me plainer than most things that we have lost our way.

-- Mal

[Takket]

9. Or maybe this guy was a known criminal to the police? Or was wanted and they were looking for him?

[Rozlee]

14. More likely they were being assholes.

I'm Hispanic and have kids that are half Anglo and half Hispanic. They easily pass for white. Some years ago, my son was playing hoops with my nephews on the South Side of San Antonio and some of the Alamo City's finest came around and started harassing my nephews, who are 100% Hispanic and look it. They totally ignored my blond hazel-eyed son. My nephews hadn't done a thing. The cops were just bored and looking for teens to bully and thought my nephews would be good targets. It's a common occurrence for poor minorities. As bad as it is for Hispanics, it's doubly bad for another nephew of mine, who is part-African-American. He refuses to move out of the South Side of San Antonio, even now that he's done well for himself. He's afraid of getting exactly the same kind of treatment the black man in the story got if he moved into a better neighborhood, where the majority of the residents would probably be white.

[treestar]

21. I thought this too

We really don't have the facts on this one. And not all cops are white these days. But then that is not to say that black men don't have more trouble with cops and being unfairly targeted.

[Supersedeas]

31. why should they get the benefit of waiting for facts--condemn them first

then we can talk

[TxDemChem]

11. I get fearful of that often.

I'm a black female, but I've only ever been pulled over 3 times in my life - more than others, perhaps. Hubby is Mexican and when his hair gets long, he tends to get pulled over, especially in his fairly new Camaro - once in my car. When his hair is short, he looks like Krum from the Harry Potter movies and can pass for white. Anytime before his biweekly haircut, I am always afraid that he will be stopped for no reason. As a black female, I've been stopped enough, but nothing like what black and Hispanic men go through in Texas.

It really pisses me off to see racial profiling. I'll be glad when driving/walking while brown is no longer a crime. We've got a ways to go in the lone star state and elsewhere.

[SaveOurDemocracy]

12. McCamy Taylor .. so happy to see you posting again.

Us white folk, the ones who really do care, may squawk and empathize but don't really get what being black in 'the home of the free' really looks and feels like 24/7.

[nikto]

13. But rightwingers said we now live in post-Racial America?

Would a rightwinger LIE?

[lykemike]

15. Appreciated

Thank you for writing. Let me assure you ms. Taylor, that being in this position is infuriating. Frustrating, demeaning, and inevitable. I'm glad that you've seen it; you're one of the few who can believe us when we try to explain that these things happen consistently.. So many people say that we (black men) are too sensitive, or that we're exaggerating when we tell these stories.
Thanks

[jaysunb]

17. Welcome to DU Mike

[McCamy Taylor]

18. Welcome to DU!

The "inevitable" part is the part that must change. Must. A whole lot of folks---including some that are related to me, I hate to admit---do not understand that these -isms that they cheer on actually keep them poor and uninsured and hopeless, too. If the people who do the work in this country looked out for each other the way they do in places like France and Canada and Denmark, we would have the benefits that workers in places like France and Canada and Denmark have.

[JustAnotherGen]

28. You aren't exaggering

You absolutely are NOT!

[yuiyoshida]

30. Welcome to DU!!

[ManiacJoe]

19. Interesting set of assumptions being made.

The arrival of the second and third cops easily suggests that the "crime" was well beyond "crossing the street while black".

"I put that in quotes because at this point I don’t know what he was suspected of having done"

While you admit to assuming things, you continue to do it repeatedly in the story.

[noiretextatique]

23. you assume things too

perhaps his only offense was walking while black. that only can be a death sentence, as the parents of Trayvon Martin know all too well.

[ManiacJoe]

27. Maybe that was his only initial offense.

However, your story suggests otherwise.

[bettyellen]

33. When they stop all the white guys too- forcing them to wait while they

Run checks on them, because they dared cross the street- you let us know. Okay?

[jaysunb]

25. See post # 20 for reference. n/t

[Supersedeas]

39. a vicious cycle of assumptions

someone is likely to end up with egg on their face

[wcast]

20. Thank you for bearing witness.

I have a bi-racial son who does not have many white features. He is 6'3" 215 and well built. He lives in a small city and has been pulled over by police more times in his 22 years of life than I have at 47. Multiple police units are standard when he is pulled over, sometimes canine. Excuse is always the same, his car looked like someone they were looking for. I think many white people don't really believe this happens or happens just to the "bad ones." Unless you live it you don't really understand how it takes over your life and thinking.

[McCamy Taylor]

34. Nope. It happened. How else would I, a white chick know anything about what happens to

Black guys when they try to cross the street in white neighborhoods, unless I pulled my car over and watched it happen? It isn't as if the cops have ever stopped me. I mean ever. For anything. Except once having an expired inspection sticker. Got a warning.

This is a very unfair world. What about the OP strikes you as untrue or unrealistic? That I would pull my car over and watch? I'm a writer, dude. I love Grapes of Wrath. I really believe it when the guy says "I can't tell you nuthing, you have to see it for yourself." Words to live by. We all have to see it for ourselves.

[McCamy Taylor]

36. So you brought up Kos, one word: Astroturf.

I am allergic to the stuff.

[IronLionZion]

32. I met a white woman lawyer who lives near Howard U in DC

and she stated that no one would ever mess with her as a white woman because they would get swarmed with multiple police cars very quickly. She felt very safe in a gentrifying neighborhood that used to be very black but is whitening up.


The assumptions people make.


The OP is filled with assumptions. I'm guessing there is more to the story than walking while black. Sometimes one needs to "circle the wagons". Have you tried publishing any of your incredible stories?

[McCamy Taylor]

35. I was in DC in 2006 with my sis for the anti-war/Katrina protest. Howard U area felt 100% safe.

I think your friend will be ok.

Regarding fiction and nonfiction, nonfiction is the fiction which pretends that it is real. We all see the world through the lens of our own perception. So, everything we write, whether it is from experience or from imagination is colored by the eye that sees it. For reference, think Rashomon.

Regarding the genre/style in which we choose to write or paint a work of art, I wrote the OP above in a realistic first person using absolutely real first person images and impressions trying to recall exactly how I felt from moment to moment in order to get at a truth that might have been lost were I just to make a quick "assumption" and drive on. That is a style of writing that is commonly used when trying to make oneself transparent. "I am the Camera" Christopher Isherwood called it. Of course, I am not the camera. I am always there, behind the piece, in front of the piece, all over the piece. My transparency is an illusion. One of the goals when chasing the elusive butterfly called the "transparent artist" is you begin to notice yourself all over the place---which gives you better self awareness. Being a Buddhist, this is a good thing.

I have been publishing my fiction stuff for years online at various -zines. If you like politics check out "God/head" a riff on the Producers and Citizens United. http://www.aphelion-webzine.com/shorts/2013/09/godhead.html

[IronLionZion]

38. I believe that's what you observed

and I'm sure it felt real to you. But I bet there is more to the story that maybe you don't know.

[Liberal_in_LA]

37. K&R