Racial profiling in America is on the rise and out of control. In just the past several months alone, whites have repeatedly called police on people of color over seemingly harmless acts. Is America really turning back the clocks to the 1960’s and earlier?

Racism
In a series of recent racial profiling cases, police have either used excessive force and/or issued an immediate arrest to people of color — while regularly avoiding doing the same when the perpetrator was white.

For example, consider how a police officer in San Joaquin County, CA responded to a belligerent white man late last year.

After police pulled him over and out of his car, the white man continuously disregarded demands to “Get on the ground now.”  In fact, he not only ignored the warnings without fear but even began attacking the cop.  So, how did the cop respond?  He ran away while the white man chased after HIM and threw punches.

Now, anyone with a brain knows that had that been a black man, he would have been shot and killed by police after only the initial warning.  However, anyone with a brain also knows that in America, the rules are very different for whites versus people of color.

Let’s consider the FACTS and take a look at just a couple of very recent cases of racial profiling:

PROFILING

When employees at a Nordstrom Rack near St. Louis saw Dirone Taylor, Mekhi Lee and Eric Rogers II inside their store, they immediately assumed the 3 black males were shoplifting instead of shopping.  So, they called the police.

Rogers, who will graduate next week from East St. Louis Senior High School, said although he and his friends are used to being watched in stores, this time was different.

“I felt like I was unequal,” he said. “By them calling the police, with everything going on, anything we could have done could have affected us, and could have drastically affected our lives. In a way, I was scared. But I couldn’t show it.”

Dirone Taylor, who will graduate from De Smet Jesuit High School in St. Louis on May 20th, echoed those sentiments.

“I don’t want it to happen to anyone else. I want to see what repercussions will happen.

Their case is reminiscent of the 2 black men arrested for sitting inside a Philadelphia Starbucks.

Their crime:  Shopping While Black.

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Tshyrad Oates posted video proof to Facebook after he and a friend were booted from an LA Fitness in Secaucus, New Jersey last week — even though he had a guest pass and his friend was an active member of the gym.

After seeing the 2 African-American workout partners inside the gym, the manager assumed they didn’t belong and told them that Oates was banned from the club and his workout partner’s membership was immediately revoked. He then called police to have them removed from the premises.

Their crime:  Exercising While Black.

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Last week, Kelly Fyffe-Marshall, Donisha Prendergast, and Komi-Oluwa Olafimihan were checking out of an AirBnB rental in Rialto, CA when they were met by 7 police cars.  Apparently, a white woman in the neighborhood called police because she thought the women looked “suspicious” when they didn’t wave to or smile at her when they saw her.

“They have a right not to smile,” said Jasmine Rand, the attorney for the guests. “We don’t want to live in an America where black people are forced to smile at white people to preserve their lives.”

The 3 black female guests were also traveling with a 4th guest, who is white.  However, the elderly white neighbor only mentioned to police seeing 3 “suspicious black people.”  Hmmm…

“And that should have been automatic evidence to them that this issue, this call was racially motivated by this woman,” Rand said.

Their crime:  Renting While Black.

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Last week, Sarah Braasch, a white female student at Yale University, called police when she saw a “suspicious” looking black female sleeping in a common area inside the dorm.  However, the female was Lolade Siyonbola, who is also a registered Yale student and was merely trying to catch a few zzz’s before her next class.

“I deserve to be here. I pay tuition like everybody else,” said an annoyed Siyonbola, who believes she wouldn’t have looked so “suspicious” had she been white.  “I’m not going to justify my existence here.”

Her crime:  Sleeping While Black

Ironically, a black male student at Yale experienced a similar racial profiling incident involving the same white female student.

According to Reneson Jean-Louis, he asked Sarah Braasch for directions from the dorm to the Yale Student Commons building.  However, instead of offering him directions, Braasch began screaming loudly and shouting to Jean-Louis “You don’t belong here,” because she assumed a real student would have known the location of the common student area.

Police were called and Jean-Louis was forced to prove that he was indeed a graduate student who did “belong.”  The fact Braasch felt the urge to scream after only being asked a question (by a black man) spoke volumes.

His crime: Asking Directions While Black.

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Last month, a golf course in Pennsylvania called the cops on 5 African-American women because they were allegedly “golfing too slow.”

According to the women, they were enjoying their very first game as new members of the Grandview Golf Course in York County, PA, when a white male member of the club called police — believing it to be unusual for the women’s group to have 5 golfers instead of the standard 4.

The black women were required to prove to police that they were indeed members of the club.  Once proven, they were told to “speed up their game” — which was code for “Hurry up and get off our golf course.”

“I felt we were discriminated against both as women and minorities,” golfer Myneca Ojo said. “It was a horrific experience.”

“They knew exactly what they were doing,” she added. ” It was five African-American women playing golf and it was a problem for them.”

Their crime:  Golfing White Black.

***

In yet another stunning case of racial profiling, 2 Native American teens drove all night to partake in a guided tour of Colorado State University. The younger teen was contemplating attending the university after his high school graduation and wanted to see the campus up close.

However, a white adult female on the tour noticed that the 2 mild-mannered brothers were extremely quiet and, according to her, their presence made her “nervous.”  So, she called police and reported them.

After contacting the boys’ mother, police learned that 19-year-old Thomas Kanewakeron Gray and 17-year-old Lloyd Skanahwati Gray were merely shy and taught to be respectful.  Still, the silence of 2 boys of color on a college tour was enough to make a white woman “nervous” — and that was enough for police to appear.

Their crime:  Touring A College Campus While Brown.

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Racism
In a post-9/11 era, we are all cautioned to follow the mantra of “If You See Something, Say Something.” So, were these white people correct to believe that it’s better to report something “suspicious” and be wrong than to not report it and risk disaster?  Or, were their so-called “suspicions” rooted solely along the lines of color?  Would their reactions have been different if the people they considered “suspicious” been white?  Or, is it crystal clear here that in each case these whites were (either consciously or subconsciously) active participants in racial profiling?

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