Posted on 09/13/2014 7:59:54 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
In the 1990s, when I lived in New York, a friend I’ll call Adam and I drove out to his house in Montauk, Long Island. A few miles into town, we noticed a police cruiser behind us.
Adam, a stockbroker in his 30s, began to panic.
“Crap, crap, crap!” Apparently, his car tag had expired — maybe his driver’s license and insurance, too. The cruiser turned on its lights and siren, and Adam pulled over.
“Listen,” he said, “I may need you to bail me out.”
I sat there, stunned and scared. The officer sauntered up to Adam’s window. “License and registration?”
Because Adam had failed to renew his license, tag or insurance, the officer, brusque but polite, told us he had to surrender the SUV. Adam threw up his hands, rolled his eyes. “This is ridiculous! I’m a taxpayer and property owner. Can’t you just give me a damn warning?”
No dice. The officer apologized to me, then guided Adam into the back of the squad car. I rode in front to the station, fuming at Adam.
Several hours, one phone call to Adam’s lawyer and $500 later, Adam apologized as well. We commiserated over a glass of wine.
Over the years, friends have shared eerily similar tales of lapsed licensure
and arrests. Perhaps the men had to pay a small fine, but they were processed quickly and released on their own recognizance. None were handcuffed or yelled at, much less beaten, tasered or killed. They had broken the law, yet they had been given the benefit of the doubt.
All of those men, including Adam, had one thing in common. They were white.
I found myself wondering if they thought automotive laws did not apply to them. Were they really too busy to take care of such details? Or did they assume that, if caught, they’d get off with a slap on the wrist?
And what if these men had been black, Latino, Asian or Native American? For starters, the men of color we knew would NEVER leave the house, much less get in a car, with expired ANYTHING.
Second, the men of color had been taught by their parents that, when they were stopped (and they would be stopped) they should keep their hands visible and still and remain unfailingly polite. Any misstep could get them killed.
Third, if a man of color had racked up as many infractions as my friend Adam, that benign interaction with the cops could have gone violently wrong.
As the facts of the tragic events in Ferguson, Missouri, continue to unfold, I think back on that incident 20-odd years ago. I think about what most white Americans never ponder.
White privilege.
We don’t like to talk about it. We don’t even like to acknowledge it. Most white folks move through our lives blithely, oblivious to the benefits that accrue to us just because of the color of our skin. Unlike our black friends, we usually learn from our parents that the police are there to help us. We assume that the justice system, however flawed, will be fair. We don’t for one minute think that a minor misunderstanding — or even a misdemeanor — will result in our death at the hands of the police sworn to protect us.
Michael Brown, the 18-year-old, unarmed African-American teenager shot six times by white officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, was most certainly NOT given the benefit of the doubt. Many details of this case remain unknown, but what’s certain is that if Michael Brown had been white, he’d likely still be alive.
I offer no pat answers or ideas about how to prevent such shootings. But I do know this: The prevention of yet another Trayvon Martin, another Eric Garner, another Michael Brown does not lie in parents of color warning their children about how to stay submissive during encounters with law enforcement. The fact that black parents still feel the need to do so is frighteningly reminiscent of the Jim Crow era, when African-American parents warned their sons not to look white people in the eye, lest they invite a lynching.
We white folks must examine white privilege and examine it honestly, deeply, collectively. It will be uncomfortable. But at least we won’t be in denial anymore. And until white Americans admit that we live in an entirely different country than do people of color, nothing will begin to change.
Oh great words of ;wisdom; from a real southern belle/s
She should ask for a refund on that expensive liberal arts education.
Well... it's a very long story.
In other words, keep babbling, my dear. A reckoning is coming.
Civilization is falling down around us and the ruling elite want to protect their assets by turning us each against each other so we don't notice they have taken everything we had and destroyed it.
incredibly tired of it.
i don’t dress like a gangsta thug, white or black. i don’t give everyone the evil eye to look badass tough. i don’t go up’to people saying they aren’t giving me respect. i don’t’wear gang gear or tattoos. i don’t riot when courts rule differently than i’d like. i don’t shoot other people over arguments. i don’t beat people and think solving my problems with violence is the standard way it should go. i don’t use swears every other word as nouns, adjjectives, adverbs and verbs. i don’t go to places where i know there probably will be trouble. i don’t play loud music so my neighbors will hate me and call the police. i don’t do drugs. i don’t drink. i don’t smoke. my definitionof a “good boy” is totally different than theirs. i have never fought with an officer of the law. or lipped off to them
i don’t do any stupid crap these people do, that get them into trouble. they do stupid crap and it just draws the trouble right to them.
“Apparently, his car tag had expired — maybe his driver’s license and insurance, too. “
LOL. I don’t care who you are, if you don’t have legal tags, and don’t have a current license, and don’t have insurance, THEY TOW YOUR CAR. They cannot ‘legally’ allow you to drive off. Your ‘color’ has nothing to do with it.
Has the crackerette seen the police records of a lot of fellows??
I was caught by HiPo doing 105 in a 55 when I was a young lad. (I had slowed down before I crested the hill)
They gave me a ticket. I went and paid the fine. $100. The judge was a ‘hanging’ judge, giving out driving school and big fines to little old ladies for doing 35 in a 25. The only reason I can figure as to why he let me off easy was because I told him the complete truth. Even told him I had been going much faster than 105.
If I did the same today, they would have pulled out their guns and dragged me out the window of my car and hauled my butt to jail.
My skin color has not changed.
Of course, this “White Privilege” meme is no different than the “climate change” meme. Both are absurd and reflect an agenda and should be rejected from any civilized citizen.
The “White Privilege” meme is simply another excuse for individuals who refuse to conform to civilized behavior if that individual happens to not be Caucasian, and it is enacted by the left for obvious reasons, which are politically populist in nature.
If an individual is deemed to be a “minority” (ie: not “white”), then any and every excuse will be used to dismiss their uncivilized behavior as something to be excused as they supposedly should not be held to “higher standards” than, or standards equal to, Caucasians. This mentality needs to be squashed once and for all, and the sooner, the better. If an individual is unable to conform to the expected norms that society has decided upon, then they get the "punishment" that is prescribed for their aberrant behavior, otherwise, we do not have any semblance of equal treatment under the rule of law.
OOPS. There is the exception for ‘illegal immigrants’.
In other words, you act civilized.
My parents gave me the same advice on how to act towards authority: stay calm; stay respectful; be unthreatening; be cooperative; that the author seems to think only ‘people of color’ had to impart to their offspring. It’s just good sense, and it has worked for me through 55 years of traffic stops and other encounters with LE.
This LIB-idiot is merely a smug self-loathing degenerate. Maybe she should enter extensive therapy before she writes more worthless crapola.
The editor shares her views.
The authoress needs to go live in a real ghetto for about a month so she can give us some real insight.
Man it sure is great being whitey. Glad I am not black. Then I would be incapable of dealing with the world.
The stupid woman that wrote this article has no clue about the real world.
Man it sure is great being whitey. Glad I am not black. Then I would be incapable of dealing with the world.
The stupid woman that wrote this article has no clue about the real world.
For starters, the men of color we knew would NEVER leave the house, much less get in a car, with expired ANYTHING.
I stopped reading after that.
America is too tolerant of the insane.
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