So, Friday night, my boyfriend and I were riding the TRAX home from the symphony. There was a dark-skinned man minding his own business to my right. We were laughing and talking pretty loudly.
When the man gets off at his stop, he's immediately approached by one of the transit officers. It looks like he's really getting dressed down from the officer's body language. I am quite certain that this would never happen to either of us blond, blue-eyed, college-educated kids. In fact, earlier in the week, an officer in the library stopped me and asked me if there was any trouble (I was loudly talking on my cell phone in the lobby and they were closing up), and when I said no, he promptly left me alone.
An interesting twist to this story is that the officer on the TRAX platform was ethnically Asian himself.
I know for a fact my brother hopped on the train in high school and didn't pay his fare. He said he got asked for a ticket maybe once the entire time.
I just think that to have a pall cast over your character because of your skin color is bull****. Or a vote of confidence that you're "one of us" because of the "right" coloring. >.<
racial profiling
Re: racial profiling
Welcome to my life, Portia. Flying right after 9/11 was a NIGHTMARE for me. Even my Jewish ex gets stopped at the airport all the time because he's got a full beard and a last name that ends in "i." He's not even the ethnicity being targeted, but he looks it so he gets stopped a lot. I don't get stopped as much (anymore).
Then add in the complication of my black ancestry. Visiting my family in Arkansas becomes a MESS because people will follow me around stores. I'm always so tempted to go, "I went to Vassar College, you uneducated redneck hick. I have more to worry about from you than the other way around." But that wouldn't be very Southern of me.
Then add in the complication of my black ancestry. Visiting my family in Arkansas becomes a MESS because people will follow me around stores. I'm always so tempted to go, "I went to Vassar College, you uneducated redneck hick. I have more to worry about from you than the other way around." But that wouldn't be very Southern of me.
beautiful, dirty, rich
Re: racial profiling
Ugh. :-\Imogen wrote:I'm always so tempted to go, "I went to Vassar College, you uneducated redneck hick. I have more to worry about from you than the other way around." But that wouldn't be very Southern of me.