Failure to indicate a turn.
Driving “erratically.”
Jaywalking.
Simply DWB.
The mildest infractions cast the specter of a death sentence.
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Ranging from a minor inconvenience to a serious violation of human dignity and rights, the phrase #DrivingWhileBlack succinctly and soberly sums up this all too common experience of being Black in America.
Even federal statistics bear out the experience many in the Black community have, where the color of our skin is considered tantamount to committing a crime. Video after video after video (usually released only after public outcry, and only occasionally unedited) show police stopping, intimidating, threatening, and killing black women and men for any number of reasons.
Even celebrity status didn’t protect comedian Chris Rock, whose “repeat offender” selfies illustrated the issue in grave detail.
There are two sets of laws governing the United States for two sets of bodies, and it is as true now as it was when some of us were counted legally as 3/5ths of a person.
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Growing up one of my strongest memories is of my mother warning my older siblings and cousins to be extra careful when leaving the house on a friday night. A tender tension in her voice issuing the weighty warning. It would be many years before I understood exactly why my mom’s voice sounded like that.
With every “routine” traffic stop, I felt a rush of emotions- anger, fear, worry, shame and the lingering question:
Would this be the one?
My first DWB was at 11am on a Saturday. The officer, a woman, casually accused me of being intoxicated. When I answered perplexed, she rolled her eyes at me. Then there was the time I was pulled over for having a cracked windshield and the officer accused me of being on my way to pick-up or drop off an illegal substance. Having several Black folks in a car seems to be a trigger for some. “You have quite a load in here tonight, don’t ya?” quipped one officer, shining his flashlight in everyone’s face. Apparently four young women in a Mitsubishi constitutes quite a crowd.
I have had my personal safety put at risk when an officer, pulling me over on a freeway overpass, demanded that I get out of my vehicle, in the dead of night, and berated me for 20 minutes before giving me a citation. I can only speculate that this treatment is different than when a non-Black person is stopped for an infraction. But the sting of disrespect, coupled with the very credible fear of being harmed, combine to make driving — a daily necessity for some — a precarious situation.
Even worse than being disrespected during a seemingly valid stop, is being stopped under questionable circumstances. Several times, instead of addressing a traffic issue, I’ve been met with a line of unrelated questioning, usually referencing my plans for the night and inquiring where I am heading to or from.
DWB has become a de facto Jim Crow. Where White people travel freely, likely only stopped when presenting a danger to themselves or others, Black people are subject to be detained, questioned, searched and even killed for the crime of being Black. And just as it took policy battles, mass movements and organizing to end Jim Crow, the #BlackLivesMatter movement is addressing discriminatory policing, because it is under the guise of keeping America safe, that Black communities are preyed upon.
Tia Oso is an Arizona based organizer who interrupted the Netroots Presidential Town Hall to call for a new framing of Black issues in the progressive movement.
