"You name it … walking, in stores, in my car, in malls, getting ice cream," says Mr. Powell, who grew up in Compton, Calif., and now also coaches high school football. "I'm always being racially profiled – by the police or women on the street who give me looks and clutch their purses tighter when they see me coming."
He says police pull him over four or five times a month on average, for "driving while black." Officers "go through my trunk, my glove compartment, look under and behind the seats," he says.
Most people that are white, including myself, just don't really know what this is like. When you live with this sort of prejudice, day in and day out, it takes its toll. It's easy for people to throw out how they think people should act but until you've lived, you really don't have a clue.
Moreover, the following is something I hear frequently right around the time the driver's license is issued.
Powell says his parents, like many parents of black boys, gave him the "talk" when he was growing up: how to dress, walk, act, and speak in situations from shopping in stores to being stopped by police.
"They said to be polite. Look people straight in the eyes. Tell them exactly what they want to hear without attitude. Always carry items out of the store in a bag."
Instead of shopping, though, it's how to act when a policeman pulls you over. Keep both hands at 10 and 2 O'Clock, look right at the officer, smile, answer in shortly worded sentences etc. Imagine having to add this talk in to all the other ones that you have to have when a teenager starts to dri
So, Mr. Powell's situation is quite common and this is easily seen if you take the time to read the other testimonials. Perhaps after you read them, I'm hoping that you will see what Trayvon Martin was likely dealing with before he was shot.
Of course, we will never really know.
7 comments:
how to act when a policeman pulls you over. Keep both hands at 10 and 2 O'Clock, look right at the officer, smile, answer in shortly worded sentences etc. Imagine having to add this talk in to all the other ones that you have to have
Yeah, I got that talk too. That's good common sense.
you will see what Trayvon Martin was likely dealing with before he was shot.
Are you saying that it took enough of a toll to excuse any possible aggressive behavior that then may have led up to his getting shot?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj0mtxXEGE8
Funny ass comedy from a racist niggah.
I'm sorry, but Mr. Powell's story sounds exaggerated, to say the least.
Powell says his parents, like many parents of black boys, gave him the "talk" when he was growing up: how to dress, walk, act, and speak in situations from shopping in stores to being stopped by police. "They said to be polite. Look people straight in the eyes. Tell them exactly what they want to hear without attitude. Always carry items out of the store in a bag."
Who the fuck doesn't get this basic training from their parents in how to behave appropriately in public? I know there are children who don't get this training, but their parents are worthless wastoids who are themselves too ignorant or stoned or apathetic to bring up anything better than feral children.
Getting stopped on at least a weekly basis by the cops with all-out search of the car? What the fuck is he doing? It's sure not just because he's black. He's either wildly exaggerating, or there's a lot of back-story he's leaving out. There's not enough cops in any town like Watt's or Compton to be stopping every black driver on a weekly basis, even if they did nothing else. I call bullshit.
As far as "women clutching their purses tighter", well, cry me a river. That kind of just goes along with being a man, even a white man in a suit, in some situations like a parking lot at night.
You know who else profiles black men? Other black men. Like Jesse Jackson feeling relieved when he realizes it's a group of young white men behind him instead of young black men. Given the FBI crime statistics, only moron wouldn't be nervous (depending a lot on how they're dressed and carrying themselves, of course).
None of which has squat to do with Trayvon Martin's situation.
Well, I was hoping for some empathy and perhaps some reflection on what it might be like to see the world from their perspective.
Ah, well...
You're right. I don't have much empathy for Powell. He sounds like one of those people that if it rains on his picnic, it's because of racism. His story has a certain odor about it. I've no patience for the race hustlers and their shuck and jive. Jackson, Sharpton, Farrakhan, and their brethren in shysterism do no good for "their" people nor the nation as a whole.
Well, as long as you don't generalize or anything. Race hustlers, huh?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial#DARVO
I'm not generalizing. In fact, I'm pretty specific and narrow in who I'm calling out. Unlike many of your diatribes against everything non-progressive.
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