February 11, 2015 - 17:00
Earlier this week some of my friends and I discussed “the talk” we got from our parents about how to respond to police officers. Our discussion was prompted by the killing of Akai Gurley by NYPD officer Peter Liang and ensuing indictment as well as the centuries long tradition of systemic racism in America.
I have been getting different versions of “the talk” since I was about 10 years old. The talk essentially consists of instruction on how to navigate power. I was told to always put my hands on the dashboard if pulled over, to inform an officer when I planned to reach for my ID, and to never display my anger or frustration directly with an officer of the law, no matter how unjust I perceived their actions to be. I have been stopped while walking with my white mother on a Philly street as well as in a car because the officer just wanted to “check if [my mom] was okay”. Events like this are frustrating and demoralizing.
We discussed an interesting dichotomy that arises when the relationship of black men to police is examined; smiling to appear unthreatening and using lots of ‘yes sirs’ and ‘no sirs’ will likely make the interaction less confrontational and safer but it can feel like submitting to systemic racism and ‘Uncle Tomming’. When I have been unjustly treated, part of me wanted to shout in protest while another part of me is just thankful I wasn't arrested or worse.
Some of my white friends had never talked about this subject because it never applied to them. Some of my friends of color had never talked about it with their parents either, because nobody ever brought it up. It’s not an issue that the majority of the country ever has to or does think about. Until the majority of citizens are aware of the disparities in arrests and ‘random’ searches, the system cannot change. Everybody should to get a version of ‘the talk’ at some point in his or her lives because it creates counter-hegemonic views that force the listener to intellectually confront the topic.