Thread by @michaelharriot

You wanna know why the Ahmaud Arbery story is so disturbing for a lot of us?

Because many black people can recall a specific incident where we could have met the same fate.

Here are 3 of mine:

First, most people who know me think that I am forgetful AF. It's not that I am forgetful. I can remember obscure details but, because I have an acute form of Attention Deficit Disorder, small details often slip my mind.

Plus, I grew up poor AF.

I say this to say, I have a habit of not closing my garage door. I ain't used to no damned garage, so I often forget to hit the button on the remote once I exit my garage. Here's how I learned:

Before OUTSIDE started killing people, I used to go to the gym every morning.

I wouldn't take my ADD meds until after the gym, so I would often come back home to find the garage door open. I tried to remember y'all, but here is the problem:

The way my driveway is configured, you really can't see the door until you're out of the driveway and on the street.

So early one morning, I'm headed to the gym. I'm halfway down the street when I look back and — wouldn't you know it — the garage door is open. I have 2 choices:

1. I can navigate the street & driveway in reverse, or
2. Put the car in park and run back and close the garage door

So I park the car about 2 houses away, run back to the house. Because I have a bald head, I am wearing a hoodie. Of course, I forgot to bring the remote control from my car, (Shut up. DIDN'T I SAY I HAVE ADD!?!) so I try to close the door using the "RN method."

Basically, a garage door won't close if something is blocking the sensors. But real ninjas know you can just reach in and hit the garage button or jump over the sensor as the door is closing.

I do it and run back to the car, which is halfway up the block in my hood.

Maybe I should have thought about how this looks.

A black dude running out of an open garage wearing a hoodie. But there is a good reason I didn't think about it.

1st of all, every morning, people jog through my neighborhood in workout clothes. I was dressed like them.

But someone had still called the cops

Secondly, I LIVE THERE!

So the cop stops me, hand on gun, & ask for my ID. I tell him it's in my car. He asks where's my car. I point. He asks why it's down the street. I explain. He asks if someone in the home can verify I live there

I tell him that my ID is on my license, all he has to do is let me go get it.

He asks if there are weapons in the car. By now, people are looking out of windows and coming outside. They tell him I live there, but he tells them to step back.

He asks me my name, I tell him...

All of a sudden, he says "Oh yeah..." and he lets me go.

That's it.

That's the end of the story.

I figured he had verified who I was with a neighbor or something but that's not what happened.

I wouldn't find out until 2 years later.

I went to undergrad and pledged a fraternity, Omega Psi Phi, at Auburn, which is a 2-hour drive from where I live. One day, my chapter is introducing a new line to the campus and I decide to go down.

A few more guys who went to school with me tagged along, so we rode together.

On the way back, we stopped because someone had to pee. We exited the interstate and went to a gas station.

The store has a sign that says: "Only 2 customers may come in at a time." Plus, it is a 1-person restroom, so we go in 1 at a time.

Now, again, I should have thought about how it looks. Five black guys all wearing the same colors, acting jittery (we had to pee, though) in the middle of the night.

We pull out and leave. Before we get to the interstate, the cops are there.

Now, the cops say that we were going too fast, but I knew that was BS. First of all, this wasn't even a rural area. It was pretty close to the city.
Secondly, he asked for ALL of our IDs. Even the passengers. Meanwhile, his partner has his gun & flashlight pointed in the car.

Then, he just looked at the IDs and handed them back and lets us go.

That shit puzzled me.

Well, a few months ago, I ran into a guy who is a police officer. We chatted for a few minutes and when we were done, he said, absentmindedly: "Be careful."

Now, "be careful" is a longstanding Alabama farewell that I had to get used to after moving here. But it reminded me of those other incidents and I asked him about it.

And he responded by telling me that he knew where I lived, what I drove, etc.

It turns out, that I was involved in a protest YEARS earlier that had put me on the police radar. And it wasn't that police were "out to get me" but they had "checked me out."

I recounted it here: theroot.com/that-one-time-…

According to him police recognizing my name probably helped me because — and here's the weird part — the police know that "White Caller Crime" is a thing.

Apparently, cops are aware that people in white neighborhoods often call the cops when they just spot random black people.

There's even research that shows it. Data from SF, Seattle and NYC shows that when whites move into non-white neighborhoods, there are more non-emergency police calls.

truthout.org/articles/how-p…

cssny.org/news/entry/New…

buzzfeednews.com/article/lamvo/…

Another Harvard study showed that young black men are associated with the presence of "perceived crime"

scholar.harvard.edu/files/pager/fi…

Plus, there is a mountain of research that shows that black men are perceived as bigger and stronger

washingtonpost.com/news/morning-m…

More violent

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15898874

And more threatening
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

And WE KNOW IT.

We are aware of how we are perceived. The craziest part is — there's nothing you can do about it. A black woman can't do anything about people seeing her as an "angry black woman." I know that wearing a sweatshirt that covers my head makes me look like a thug.

That's why there is a visceral reaction to the Ahmaud Arbery lynching. Because there, but for the grace of white people, go I.

But there is a bright side:

I ALWAYS close my garage door.