Thread by @KarenAttiah

It's not just about Starbucks. It's about when white people use the police to remove black people from a particular space.

Recall what a McKinney, Texas cop did to a 100 pound, swimsuit-clad black girl when the police were called on a pool party: wapo.st/2HLa7V2

Or the police officer in South Carolina that flipped a black high school girl over her classroom desk and dragged her across the room for using a cell phone: mobile.nytimes.com/2016/09/03/aft…

A white neighbor called the police after hearing his car windows were smashed. He saw a man in a hoodie and called the police.

Stephon Clark ended up dead. Shot 20 times. He was unarmed.

The white neighbor says he never wants to call 911 again.

amp.sacbee.com/news/local/cri…

In 2009 in Cambridge, Mass., a woman called 911 to report a possbile burglary in her neighborhood.

The man she called the cops on was black Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates.

He was trying to get into his OWN HOUSE. He was arrested and charged.

mobile.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/us/…

And with the exception of the Skip Gates example, the only reason why we are talking about these cases are because there are videos.

Sadly, this is the American way. As @Isabelwilkerson wrote,

“In the early decades of the 20th century... every four days an African-American was lynched for some perceived breach or mundane accusation — having stolen 75 cents or made off with a mule”

mobile.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/opi…

It’s great Starbucks will train employees on how to treat black people fairly.

But who is going to train whites people to not inappropriately call the cops on their black Neighbors?

Who will train teachers to not use police force on black kids for classroom management?

Fundamentally, all of this is about the fact that black people can be physically eliminated at any time and any place in America for very little reason——whether that means kicked out of stores, locked up in jail—- or put in a grave.

Again, props to @DrJasonJohnson that wrote this amazing piece for @TheRoot about whites in America calling the police on black people: theroot.com/from-starbucks…

Thanks everyone for reading. I put my thoughts together on all of this for @washingtonpost @PostOpinions: washingtonpost.com/opinions/calli…