My youngest finally got his learner’s permit. He’s been eligible since May, but he just got around to taking the test last week. It’s not like he wasn’t prepared. He was. He just wasn’t overly interested. Why? Probably because all summer, his buddy drove him around, and now that he’s back in school, we drive him. Who needs a license when you have your own personal — and free — Uber?
Maybe if he was able to get into the high school’s Driver’s Ed class last spring semester, he would have been more enticed to get his permit on his 16th birthday like most kids around here do. But O isn’t like most kids around here.
For one thing, he looks different. He’s a mixed-race kid with dreadlocks who lives in a hoodie — and in a predominantly white neighborhood. In other words, he’s a Black boy. Eventually, he’ll be a Black man. And when it comes to driving, that’s problematic.
Let’s start small — the permit photo: Even though he’s light-skinned (like his older brother), his photo looks like a silhouette, not a head shot. I don’t have white kids, so I don’t know if all permit photos look like this (they are taken in black and white, I realize), but how is this acceptable? It’s supposed to be an official form of identification. That could literally be anybody.
Then there’s the lessons taught in Driver’s Ed class and the instructional manual presented by the DMV. I was happy to see that there was actually a section about what to do if stopped by the police, but where’s the section about what to do if you’re stopped by the police and you’re Black? With all the other statistical information included in this booklet, it would have been more honest if they also included stats about racially biased stops. Because it happens. A LOT. I guess State Farm, who obviously sponsors this material, didn’t want to go there.
But I do.
Here’s just a sample of what I found from a quick Google search (using credible, academic sources):
- Black drivers are, on average, 20% more likely to be pulled over by police than white drivers. In some states, like New York, the likelihood is even higher — as much as 8x higher.
- Once stopped, Black drivers were searched and frisked nearly 3 times as often as white drivers.
- Police are also twice as likely to use force against Black and other non-white drivers.
These are facts.
While all of this information makes my stomach turn, this one explanation really pissed me off. When asked to justify the apparent racially biased stops, 66% of police interviewed cited “Suspicious behavior, “looking nervous,” or similar behavior” as their reason.
Are you kidding me?
Do I really need to break this down? Knowing that Black people — especially Black men — are more likely to be stopped, searched, beat, and even killed (like Patrick Lyoya, Daunte Wright, Sandra Bland, and Philando Castile, to name just four) by the police, do you have to wonder why they “look nervous” when pulled over?
Seriously, WTaF?
I’m a white woman, and I worry every time my husband, a Black man, leaves the house. I worry every time my Black teenager sons leave the house. And as much as they don’t want to admit it, they worry, too. My 19-year-old won’t drive his father’s car (an older Mercedes) if he doesn’t have to because “it draws too much unwanted attention” to him. Sadly, he’s not wrong.
[CASE IN POINT: Three years ago, a Black executive, who lives in our school district, was racially profiled by the police while he was driving home. He was followed (for 2 miles), stopped, harassed, and handcuffed because he couldn’t possibly live in this big house in this affluent neighborhood. They were wrong.]
Driving While Black (DWB) is real. The statistics prove it. And before you come at me, claiming that I’m calling all cops racist, I’m not. Not even close. Just like not all Black men are criminals and not all Black teens are thugs. But racial profiling and acting on implicit bias are real — and real dangerous.
And this goes beyond Driving While Black. It’s Living While Black, too.
If you’re white and your kids are white, you’ve never had to have the conversations we have on the regular with our sons. Daily reminders like: Don’t wear your hoodie up when you’re out in public. Keep your hands out of your pockets. Don’t touch anything in stores. Don’t run. Don’t be loud. No horseplaying or roughhousing (or when they were younger, no Nerf guns). Don’t argue, raise your voice, or use “a tone” …
I could go on, but you get the point. Hopefully.
I know there are some (even many) white people who are tired of hearing about Black Lives Matter and would rather turn a blind eye. It’s easy to ignore when it’s not happening to you or someone you love. But that’s not an excuse. At least it shouldn’t be.
Do better.
-LJDT
