Some Inherit Wealth, Others Pain
The story of a White man who ain’t mad about it
The police stopped my brother. He had just turned into my parents’ neighborhood going 28 on a 20, eager to get home after an 8-hour drive from dental school.
If you ever get pulled over, he told me, turn on the light and put both hands on the wheel. They like it when they can see your hands.
It was the summer of 2015 and Sandra Bland had just died. She was only 28 years old.
The police pinned her down on the side of the road because she forgot to signal a lane change, they said. Another case of a deadly encounter when driving while Black.
That summer, I sat in the passenger’s seat of a White dude’s car. We’d been buddies in high school.
On the way home from catching up with a mutual friend, he took the highway and drove with reckless abandon; switching lanes left and right, tailgating cars, going 80 on a 65.
I thought of Sandra Bland, a Black activist, who’d been stopped, harassed, verbally abused, assaulted, arrested, and jailed for so much less. “No signal on a lane change.” Reports say the cop tailed her car and she moved out of the way, thinking he had an emergency to address.
