The last time I was stopped for speeding was in 2002. I was on a New Hampshire state highway, heading home from Concord, where my two thirteen-year old passengers had just auditioned for a summer ballet program. I was driving my husband’s 1998 black Isuzu pickup with an extended cab.
There was no traffic, the afternoon was overcast, and I was doing sixty-five in a fifty mile-an-hour zone when I saw the police car waiting at the bottom of the hill. He pulled a U-turn and I pulled over.
The officer registered surprise when I rolled down the window. I think he expected to see a teenaged male at the wheel of this rig, not a middle-aged mom with two teens in the cab. He asked to see my license and registration.
“I need my glasses for this.” I sighed and pulled the readers from my collar.
“Oh, I know how that goes,” the officer said. He had a gray moustache. “Aging.”
“Yeah,” I said, summoning as much sympathy as I could and handed him my documents.
After running my papers through the computer, he returned to the truck and nodded at the sleepy girls. “Picking them up from school?”
Saying “yes” was easier than explaining we’d actually only been at “school” for a couple of hours, for the audition. Earlier that day, we’d packed up from a week-long ski vacation in northern Vermont.
“I’m letting you off with a warning,” he said, handing me the pink slip. “Slow down. Get home safely.”
“Thank you,” I said, taking the paper from him. “I will.”
Until recently, I told this story as one about middle age, and how needing my reading glasses resonated with the middle-aged cop. Now that I’ve been learning about how I benefit simply because I’m white in a racist society, I realize this is a story of how I benefit from implicit bias.
The traffic stop would have been different if I’d been a brown-skinned mother, and different again if I’d been a brown-skinned male.
One of my brothers who’s been stopped for speeding more than a couple of times told me what to do to put the police at ease if I’m stopped:
- Turn your tires toward the curb to indicate you’re not going to try to speed off;
- Place your hands on top of the steering wheel, so the officer sees you are unarmed; and
- Ask, “Is it okay for me to open my purse for my license and the glove box for my registration and insurance?” This is to reassure the officer that you’re not reaching for a gun.
I haven’t had to use any of these techniques because:
- I make an effort not to speed, and I’m white;
- I keep my car inspected and in good working order, and I’m white; and
- I’m white.
Being white makes a difference, even in liberal-leaning Vermont. A 2017 study of policing in Vermont shows that Black and Hispanic drivers were more likely than White drivers to be stopped and searched by state and local police, and less likely to be found with contraband. This is the flip side of implicit bias.
What We Can Do
- If you’re white, there are some actions you can take to become more aware of implicit bias in your life. Awareness is the first step toward change. Tell a story about a time you benefited from being white. Share it in the comments section, below, if you like; and
- Read Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, a beautifully written memoir that helped me better understand how Black Americans are in danger all the time, even in the North, even in 2020.
- If you don’t believe how Black Americans are in danger all the time, even in the North, watch this one-minute video of a white woman calling the police because a Black bird-watcher in Central Park asked her to leash her dog. They were in a part of the park where dogs are required to be leashed. This happened last month.
I’m a white male and I’ve been stopped by cops twice in the Brattleboro area and let off with a warning.
I’ve also been ticketed 3 times in 40 years of driving in rural New York and New Hampshire
I’ve also had cops range form being polite (when they write a ticket), yelled at when they let me off, and a couple of times they’ve been polite when they let me off. I’ve been told that if they yell at you, it’s a good sign, because it means they’re going to let you off.
I’ve usually fumbled for my stuff as well, and said it’s been a long time since I’ve been stopped, which seems to help.
No idea how it would be if I was black or Latino.
I think I remember another occasion where we were pulled over on I-95 – you were driving – and you convinced the cop to let you off with a warning. In addition to white privilege, may also have some skill at that!
I recently read Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book “Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race”, which really made me think differently. I was so unaware of the ubiquity and power of white privilege – I would never have regarded myself as racist but the author points out how white is taken as the norm – and I’ve certainly benefitted from being white in the UK. It’s a powerful book and well worth reading (and re-reading). I will look out for a copy of “Between the world and me”.
As for speeding, here in England cameras have pretty much taken over from traffic cops. You can’t sweet talk a camera but neither can they discriminate!
I’m well into reading “Between the World and Me” but can only take it in a small amount at a time. I have to keep remembering this is real, this is now, this is the world I am a part of.
This morning, I needed to request a medical test and had to fill out two forms. Both wanted to know my race. In the past, I would have checked the “white” box. I couldn’t this morning. “Other” seemed more fitting. I don’t want to deny that I am part of a race that has used and abused immense privilege but I want to acknowledge there isn’t really anyone who is just white. Or just brown. Or just bright blue.
As an FYI to the woman in Central Park, she is now being charged with making a false report to the police.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/06/us/amy-cooper-central-park-birdwatcher-charges/index.html
Deborah Lee Luskin, I’m impressed with the surge of White-Americans who desire to know more and discover America’s racist historical reality of African’-Americans.
The pandemic has allowed Americans an opportunity and time to read and watch everything on the streaming services to discover knowledge never known.
My adult daughter and son would say Americans are becoming “Woke” to racial injustice. I would recommend the documentaries The 13th Amendment by Ava DuVernay, and I’m not your Negro based on prolific Author James Baldwin.
I have many White-American friends asking for books and documentaries to broaden their knowledge so that they can understand this repeated ebb of racial tensions.
Reading anything by Ta-Nehisi Coates is an excellent start. Please continued your education as we the people are responsible for each other to build bridges of knowledge and move forward.
MJ Leake
Thank you for all the thoughts and recommendations.
I’m currently reading The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Richardson.
It is certainly a very straightforward description of what humans can do to each other when perceived to be minority and “other”, no matter what the color or gender.
Having been raised in a very insular white area of northern Ohio I gained no firsthand knowledge of this, and it is certainly painful to read about it and more so to realize that it is so rampant and horrifies so many lives every day. Whatever happened to Love and Respect Thy Neighbor? I’m not one for organized religion, but so many are, and why aren’t the tenants of religion helping more here? ps DID get an $80 ticket for not putting my blinker on in town… Now we could go on about what the role of the police should/might be…
Sorry for the ramble.
The question was posed, why is race information collected on medical forms? As a health services researcher, I use this information. I take the data from large electronic medical records systems and analyze it to answer questions about how people use health care and what their health outcomes are associated with that use. I also include race in my analyses (along with gender, marital status, age, and other variables). I do this for a couple of reasons. One is to identify potential disparities in care provision and in health outcomes that are associated with race. If I am looking at hospital readmission (e.g., after discharge for COVID-19 treatment), and it seems to vary by age, gender, and race, then we may want to work with patients in demographic groups in various ways to reduce the disparities. That is, if higher readmission rates are associated with one gender, or one race, then those groups may need more support to prevent readmission and have better quality of life. So, a good reason to have that question on medical forms is so we can study it. If the variable is not collected, then it cannot be studied.
A different issue is marking “other” when you are white. If you enjoy white privilege, it’s time to own that and the need to get rid of it. I can’t deny being white just because it is now uncomfortably clear that I have been enjoying white privilege all my life. If you are not sure what it is to enjoy white privilege, Lori Lakin Hutcherson published an excellent illustrative essay on it: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/transformation/my-white-friend-asked-me-to-explain-white-privilege-so-i-decide/.