Friday, April 27, 2018

Misconceptions

     Very recently, I saw a thread on twitter of a girlfriend telling her boyfriend's story about his interaction with a police man. She told us that he gave a homeless man some change at a 7/11, and then proceeded to make his way back on the interstate. When he got on the interstate, a cop pulled him over. The cop assumed that the black individual gave the homeless man drugs. Before the cop even got to the car, the man pulled out his license and threw his wallet on the dashboard. When the cop got to the car, he asked for his license and registration, but the man told the cop that it was on his phone. His phone was in his pocket, and he did not want to reach for it for obvious reasons, so the cop proceeded to tell him his car smelled like weed. The cop made the man get out of the car, and had a gun pointed to the mans back. The cop continued to yell at the man to reach into his pocket and to grab his phone, but then man began to cry. He was crying because he knew as soon as he reached for his phone; the cop could shoot him and claim he thought he was reaching for a weapon.
     Obviously, upon reading this, I was furious that the man did absolutely nothing, but because of his skin color, he was being treated like a criminal. When I took a second, I took a step back and analyzed how my life and perception is with the police force. The last time I got pulled over; violence never crossed my mind. Actually, the last time I was stopped, I forgot to get out my insurance card. When the cop was literally at my window asking for license and registration, without thinking, I reached and got my card out of my glove department. The cop never said anything to me, and I never told the cop what I was doing. When I started thinking about this story and my experience, the black man threw his wallet on the dashboard, so he would not be accused for reaching for anything. I, on the other hand being a white female, just casually reached into an unknown compartment and nothing happened.
     Taking note of both of these events, I realized that I will never understand what it is like to be a black individual in this oppressed world. I will also never try to understand the oppression that black people go through, but will always recognize that it does take place. My unconscious lifestyle shows the racism that takes place in today's community, so the question at hand is whether or not the United States as a whole will recognize the problem at hand. 

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