I’d like to give props to the Lansing State Journal for posting a sectional cover story in yesterday’s Sunday paper entitled, “Living While Black.” The article is written by Jeffrey Wray, an East Lansing resident and an MSU professor who specializes in film studies, who is also African-American. Professor Wray writes about his various experiences of being pulled over, frisked, etc. by police because of his black skin.
When speaking about racial profiling, I think there is an assumption among whites that a black person can elevate themselves to such a level where this won’t happen to them anymore. If a black male sags their pants while wearing a hooded sweatshirt and walking through a bad neighborhood (still important to note, none of those things are crimes), a police officer might slow down and look them over, or if this same person dressed this way is driving either a very beat up vehicle, or a very nice vehicle while blasting bass-laden gangster rap (still not crimes), that profiling could happen. But if a black person gets advanced educational degrees and they live in a nicer part of town and don’t sag their pants and don’t blast gangster rap, that they’ll break through the oppression of racial profiling.
Professor Wray’s testimony shows that this is not the case.
I want to applaud him for his courage to speak out about this issue and to the LSJ for publishing it so prominently.
(The original LSJ article has been removed due to time expiration, but this link contains most of the original article) The comments (from the LSJ article online) are pretty predictable. There are thankfully refreshingly numerous amounts of people of all colors empathizing with and apologizing to Professor Wray for what he’s had to go through. There are also the predictable white responses that completely invalidate Professor Wray’s experience, some even resorting to name calling.
My hope, as I’ve written about quite a bit over the past few months, is that white people can humble themselves enough to simply listen to a person of color’s experience and not feel the need to be defensive about it.
And also to show us that the continued social separation of races in America is what causes the fear, uncertainty, stereotyping and high levels of emotion we have about race. This isn’t going to go anywhere until we make intentional individual and cultural shifts toward being in racially diverse community in our schools, workplaces, churches, neighborhoods, networks, and circles of friends.
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After reading the article, it sounds like the man was stopped because he fit the description of a person that they were looking for.
They key phrase from the article is, “This type of random pull over happens too often to be random.” So was Professor Wray stopped because he fit the description of a person they were looking for? Sure. He and his brother have also been pulled over and frisked while simply doing his job, both of his black sons getting stopped by police multiple times simply to see if the bikes they were riding were theirs, and their close friend being surrounded by police cars, because he too looked like a suspect. So the random “you look like a suspect” becomes not so random when it happens over and over and over again. The question I’ll ask you Jim is how many times have you been pulled over because the police thought you were a suspect? How many times have you been frisked even though you did nothing wrong? How many times has your car been surrounded by police even though you did nothing wrong? And then ask those same questions about the white friends you know… how many times has that happened to me, or Jen, or Chad, or Josh? And you see my point. So what’s the difference between us and Professor Wray? Besides that he has way more degrees and a better job and lives in a nicer area than all of us? The difference is that he and his family are black. And this is a big societal problem. Let alone the personal humiliation he has to go through in these experiences. So to invalidate his experiences of humiliation just isn’t right. Why can’t we as white people hear these experiences that we hear over and over again from blacks if we are listening, and just accept them as honest. How can we tell people who feel humiliated, “get over it, that shouldn’t humiliate you”. If the shoe was on the other foot and someone was judging us, our experiences, and our feelings in this way, I know you and I would both feel hurt by that.
I am glad you are raising questions on race and inequality but this particular article doesn’t move me in the direction of empathy. He fit a description. The officers were (apparently) polite. He was not strip-searched or arrested. These officers were simply doing their jobs and this article is more inappropriately anti-police than anything else. As you and I both say, “Life isn’t fair…sin isn’t fair”. Mr. Wray comes from an ethnic group that makes up 12% of the U.S. population…and 48% of the prison population. These statistics cannot be swept under the rug or dismissed as simply the product of a racist criminal justice system. Blacks are more likely to be criminals than whites. So Mr. Wray is more likely to be stopped. His whiney post only affirms his lack of honesty and understanding of his own ethic group. Instead of confronting and challenging the people in his ethnic group that are bringing him, and others like him, down; he resorts to blaming the police. To answer your question: I have not been pulled over based on my ethnicity. A question for you: if Jen was pushing Lexi in the stroller on Francis, and it was beginning to get dark, would you feel more comfortable if they were on the north side of Michigan Avenue or the south?
I agree with Jim that in this case the man was stopped for fitting a general description but would add that the officers were less than truthful because they were trying too hard to avoid the appearance of racial profiling. Profiling and stereotyping are an unfortunate part of life and certainly aren’t limited to race. Quite often the profiling and stereotyping are abused but is it sometimes necessary to address an issue effectively and efficiently? Is it appropriate to include skin tones in the description of a suspect? If not – what about eye or hair color? What about build and body type? What about age? I certainly don’t have all the answers but I think it’s important to put ourselves in both sets of shoes and not rush to judgement in either direction.