Real World Examples

When I wrote about White Privilege yesterday, it occurred to me after posting that a follow up with some real world examples would probably be useful in illustrating the concept and pointing out what I mean when I call upon people "to make small day to day changes to address privilege and increase equity".

And my Facebook feed today provided me with a great example: Bearing Arms while White vs Bearing Arms while Black

In the picture above we see a Police Officer, using non-threatening body language and his words to try and calm a White protestor with his hand on his gun at the ready. Notice the officer's hands. Nowhere near his gun, nowhere near his taser, nowhere near his pepper spray. This is a clear example of deescalating the situation.

Which is exactly what the Officer should be doing. Kudos to him.

But try for a moment to imagin the angry man with his hand on his gun was Black and wearing clothes we typically associate with the Urban poor rather than White and wearing clothes we typically associate with the Rural poor. How do you imagin this playing out?

Well we cannot say for sure, every situation is different, but we can take a well educated guess at what is most likely to have happened. The simple fact is that in all likelihood the Police would have whipped out their guns and shot dead a black man who made even the slightest motion towards a gun at his hip. How often are Black men shot by cops who motion towards a pocket which might contain a weapon, let alone an openly displayed on such as this man is wearing?

In fact, isn't it most likely that officers would have approached a hostile Black man open carrying a side arm with their guns already at the ready? Yes, of course it is.

And this is far from the first or only time we've seen such things. The video below is of an experiment conducted to test the reaction by police to a White Man legally open carrying an Assault Rifle versus a Black man doing the same. The White man is approach by and Officer who discusses the legality of open carry calmly and lets the man go about his day. The Black man is approach by an Officer with his gun drawn shouting "Down on the ground!" and arrested without any questions, conversation, or any benefit of the doubt from the Police that he was a acting within his legal rights.

Similar stories have been reported all over the country of Black men open carrying guns and having the police called on them, police who acted in an aggressive matter.

So here we have an example of White Privilege. A White person is safer and more able to open carry unharassed in this country, is more likely to be given the benefit of the doubt by the police, more likely to be approached in a passive way, and less likely to be harmed by police overreaction.

So then what needs to happen? What is the course of action that would help offset the privilege? Well it's simple. The way that the officers in both the picture and the video above treated the White man with the gun, Officers needs to treat Black men with guns that way as well.

It should not be that hard to recognize the problem here, acknowledge the need for a change in behavoir, and act on it.

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Do you think there is any disparity between the way Officers treat armed Black men versus armed White men? Chime in on the comments section. Follow if you enjoy such discussions.