“Warning: Pokemon GO is a Death Sentence if you are a Black Man.”

“I spent less than 20 minutes outside. Five of those minutes were spent enjoying the game. One of those minutes I spent trying to look as pleasant and nonthreatening as possible as I walked past a somewhat visibly disturbed white woman on her way to the bus stop. I spent the other 14 minutes being distracted from the game by thoughts of the countless Black Men who have had the police called on them because they looked “suspicious” or wondering what a second amendment exercising individual might do if I walked past their window a 3rd or 4th time in search of a Jigglypuff.

When my brain started combining the complexity of being Black in America with the real world proposal of wandering and exploration that is designed into the gamplay of Pokemon GO, there was only one conclusion. I might die if I keep playing.”

There is so much work put into seeming non-threatening. I’ve never been looked at with suspicion by the police, but I remember the first time that a woman looked at me as though I might somehow harm her children as we walked past each other on the sidewalk. Her sidewalk, I guess.

It’s just very suspicious for black people to be carefree, especially in nice neighborhoods.