At a Chicago gas station recently, I saw a very distinguished looking older Black gentleman being spread-eagled by the police on the hood of his car. The man was well dressed, with gray hair, and clearly not a danger to anyone, particularly the police.
I talked to a Black colleague about the incident, who said that if you're Black in America, it doesn't matter who you are, what you drive, or how you dress: this kind of stuff happens all the time.
Blacks endured hundreds of years of slavery and jim crow laws in America.. Blacks, who to this day, continue to suffer both economic and social segregation (because they are Black). Blacks are constantly being harassed and arrested by the police, (because they are Black).
....and now, on top of it all, adding insult to injury, we accuse the Blacks of being the Racists ?
Some facts about Police & racial profiling in America:
“The latest state traffic study on who gets pulled over by police shows once again that minorities are more likely to be the subject of so-called consent searches although police are more likely to find contraband in the vehicles of white drivers.”
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“ In Chicago, minority drivers were four times more likely to get searched, down from five times more likely in the last study”
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“According to the 2008 study, released earlier this month, when a vehicle of a white driver was "consent-searched," officers statewide found contraband 24.7 percent of the time. When a vehicle driven by a minority was searched, officers found contraband 15.4 percent of the time.”
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Being Black in America
28.07.2009 18:52
I talked to a Black colleague about the incident, who said that if you're Black in America, it doesn't matter who you are, what you drive, or how you dress: this kind of stuff happens all the time.
K.L.
so
29.07.2009 09:15
So your argument must be that no one who is black can do wrong, which is a racist view.
A full picture of events gives us the right to question, not the response to it.
anon
Oxymoron
29.07.2009 15:54
Blacks endured hundreds of years of slavery and jim crow laws in America.. Blacks, who to this day, continue to suffer both economic and social segregation (because they are Black). Blacks are constantly being harassed and arrested by the police, (because they are Black).
....and now, on top of it all, adding insult to injury, we accuse the Blacks of being the Racists ?
I don't think so !
H.D.
Facts
30.07.2009 06:31
“The latest state traffic study on who gets pulled over by police shows once again that minorities are more likely to be the subject of so-called consent searches although police are more likely to find contraband in the vehicles of white drivers.”
…………………………………..
“ In Chicago, minority drivers were four times more likely to get searched, down from five times more likely in the last study”
…………………………………….
“According to the 2008 study, released earlier this month, when a vehicle of a white driver was "consent-searched," officers statewide found contraband 24.7 percent of the time. When a vehicle driven by a minority was searched, officers found contraband 15.4 percent of the time.”
………………………………
K.L.