Driving While Black

Forums:

Really good PBS show on now, I don't know if there will be repeats beside Thurs 10/14 2:00 a.m. talking about the meaning and perils of being able to move around by car - and so much more.

It's just gotten to The Green Book, which made it possible to find businesses for Blacks to safely patronize.

The show is half over, I hope it will be repeated with plenty of notice. It's very worth watching.

Wow. Beautifully done, great soundtrack, well told history, sad and brutal at the end, but until then jam-packed with what it was all about: Race, Space and Mobility. Sorry I didn't know about it sooner.

Judit, have you seen the Green Book movie?  It won an Academy Awards for best picture and best actor in a supporting role.  It is about a black musician touring in the Deep South during segregation. 

Anyone who ever got profiled by the police for having long hair or a bunch of Grateful Dead bumper stickers can relate.  Of course, we could always just get a haircut or ditch the bumper stickers.  Systemic racism and biases are as old as the hills, and it's questionable whether sensitivity training for police will change that.  My utopian vision is that by spending money on cultural exchange of the creative arts, we can increase respect and appreciation for people of all cultures.  

Apples and oranges, java dave.  Back in my bearded/dreadlocks days, i used to get pulled over all the time.  The main difference? I never had a gun pointed at my head or feared for my life.  The only thing I feared was getting my weed taken...

No doubt, JR, as I said, we folks of lighter pigmentation get off easier.   We can just change our appearance.  Just look at the square shirts the Pranksters wore on their bus trip to the World's Fair.  However, the sad stories of the Adam Katz' of the world attest to the reality that police brutality is not a monochromatic issue.

Personally, I did encounter a greater fear than having my weed taken, namely the concern that false evidence would be planted by rogue cops.  Fortunately it didn't happen.  I don't think it's a coincidence that the two times I have been most aggressively interrogated and thoroughly investigated by the police happened when I had a black friend in the car with me.

China-Rider, I know of the movie but haven't seen it. Yet. Now I will.

Dave and JR, we (first husband and I) got pulled over a lot, especially when we moved to Humboldt County in 1969. My husband had long hair, the car had anti-war stickers they didn't like... we didn't remove the stickers and he didn't get a haircut because we felt like we could get through the frequent inconvenience and maybe change the perceptions. We were never afraid of having a gun pointed at us or used, only of going to jail for weed or perceived behavior. My husband was very smart, and a real smart ass. (He became a lawyer) We were white and Humboldt county went after POC, especially what we now call Indigenous people. 

From everything I read and see, I'm happy you just saw the tip of the iceberg when you were with your Black friend, Dave.

The police need to be taken out of the traffic stop business entirely, and it needs to be handed over to a department with the same level of authority as parking enforcement. The only time they would be able to call in police would be if they suspected impaired driving. Other than that no searches, no running warrants, and no armed people pulling you over. The police can't be trusted and there is no reason for anyone to loose all their rights just because they travel some where. Imagine if police where allowed to bring drug sniffing dogs to your home or just search your home because they drove by and noticed one of your smoke detector wasn't functioning so they need to search your house. We would never stand for that and cars are no different. Traffic violations just like parking violations can be handled by the same people. 

The reason it's incomparable is because white long hairs generally aren't in danger of being executed on the roadside.

The immediate concern is usually what kind of case one might catch, how much it would cost, how much time one might spend in jail, or who is going to come bail you out,  but probably not "Am I about to get killed?"

 

 

I'm watching it online and am halfway through (just finished the Green Book).

I've always loved how our road trips have helped tear down prejudices/stereotypes, but realize how much we take our safety and conveniences for granted. 

 

Looking forward to the next half in the near future. 

KQEH   10/26  4:00 PM.

Video shows 10-year-old boy stopping basketball to hide from police car

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N11L9xa7Qkk

If that were me back in the day, i would have waved at the cop and smiled. 

Just heard a news report black drivers are 4 times more likely to be stopped on Long Island. They are also more likely to be searched once they are stopped.