I’ve been trying to spend less time on CNN. I was on there today and saw a video (here) that messed me up. It wasn’t that the portrayal of police stops between white and black drivers was so different–that male and female stops were so different. It is just the growing mentality of how black men are learning to approach being detained or even approached by the police. The expectation has become that if we get pulled over we are going to need to run for our lives or we are more than likely going to die. Honestly, it wasn’t as bad as a kid. I was always led to believe that if pulled over I would likely go to jail. Didn’t matter if I didn’t do anything wrong. I was a threat and I would be handled. I didn’t grow up assuming if I complied I would still get shot.
Here’s the thing: In the video the police stop wasn’t bad at all. They pulled him over and approached thinking that he had a felony arrest warrant out for him and still the interaction wasn’t rough. He was not assaulted, the officer was extremely nice to him under the circumstances and displayed a confidence that I admire. At the same time, she had the wrong dude. They need to fix that. They had an issue with someone else using his name, but they need to fix that.
They–WE–also need to fix the main issue, which is the perception of race. Black men are still inherently viewed as scary and that is a problem wrapped in a falsehood. Black men are no more inclined to violence than anyone else. In fact I am more terrified of a fully kitted up dude with an America First hat than I am of the average black teen looking like a gangster. The black kid more often than not knows how to act and doesn’t want to set it off. The dude with his gun out generally does.
The idea of fear and violence changes slowly. We are still clinging to 1980’s perceptions of black men that themselves were born of much older stereotypes. Progress is needed. To me, a recognition of the need for that progress and the underlying understanding of where these stereotypes come from and how they play out in daily society is exactly what it means to be woke. That crap you see on Fox News is exactly what it means to stay asleep and want to stay asleep and forget the last 100 years of growth.