The kind of behavior we are seeing across America from police during the #BreonnaTaylor #GeorgeFloyd #AhmaudArbery protests is the kind of #everyday behavior that most black people, regardless of class and education, experience from police everyday. Now suddenly people believe us
While faculty @hiramcollege I got home to my house across the street from campus last one night. A police car followed me behind my house and parked between my car and my back door. The officer got out, without saying anything and started flashing light light into my car
"Is there a problem officer?"
"Do you live here?"
Mind you, one hand was holding a flashlight on me the other was on his gun holster while asking this.
"Yes this is my house. Why are you asking?"
He didn't answer and continued scanning my car. In my back yard of my own house
"Do you live here?"
Mind you, one hand was holding a flashlight on me the other was on his gun holster while asking this.
"Yes this is my house. Why are you asking?"
He didn't answer and continued scanning my car. In my back yard of my own house
For about 20 minutes this cop, with his hand on his gun, asked me questions about why I was parking behind my own house at night. He didn't believe I was faculty at @hiramcollege and his explanation for why he was holding me in my own yard kept shifting. This is #everyday racism
I share this because the difference btw me and #AhmaudArbery #BreonnaTaylor #GeorgeFloyd isn't fancy words, media work or education. It's one cop. That's it. I could easily have been #StephonClark in my own backyard across the street from the college I worked at #everyday
The stories being shared now by black journalists aren't for fun or to be exploited my media outlets. They are evidence that the protests around the country are not isolated incidents but just the public manifestation of #everyday frustration from police abuse
