Earlier this year, my cousins and I were about to go out shopping. Before I left the house, my father told me, “Handle yourself. Be safe, son.” My dad has been saying this to me for as long as I can remember. He knows I can behave myself, so I always say, “Yes, sir,” and leave it at that.
In April, around 10 p.m., my cousins and I made our way to Ross. Upon entering the store, I could feel eyes start to look at us, piercing our skin like a knife. I thought nothing of it and started to shop. We had no idea what we were looking for, so we walked in circles at least four times. The store security guard watched like a hawk. Eventually, we made our way to the back of the store. We stumbled upon some cologne and started spraying, to try them all out. The store security came and told us we had to leave. We didn’t want any problems, so we exited peacefully.
My mother, on the other hand, did not agree with leaving so calmly. She was on the other side of the store, but when she saw us being escorted out by security, she dashed over before we could walk out. She stood up for us, demanding that the manager come speak with her. My mother and the manager were going back and forth for a while. Eventually, the manager threatened to call the police if we didn’t leave the store. My mother said, “Don’t worry about that. We will leave, and we’re never coming here again.”
My personal experience is much less severe than many others. But it still makes me ask questions. What is your first thought when you see a Black person? Is it the same thing you saw in a movie one time? If the Black man you saw in the film was angry and hot-headed, do you think the Black man walking across the street is, too? Or if you saw a Black mother in the store with her child, do you assume that she is a single mother because that’s what you saw in a commercial?
Messages such as these circulate in people’s minds, and it shows how Black people are unfairly portrayed in the media. In many action movies and crime dramas, Black characters are often cast as criminals or antagonists. For instance in “Training Day” where Denzel Washington, a police officer, turned out to be a drug dealer. Or in TV shows like “The Wire,” which showed Black males as kingpins and gangsters. Both the movie and the show depicted Black men as drug dealers or gang members, reinforcing negative stereotypes.
According to the nonprofit Equal Justice Initiative, mugshots were used in coverage of 45% of cases involving Black people accused of crimes compared to only 8% of cases involving white defendants. Media coverage was 50% more likely to refer to white defendants by name as compared to Black defendants. Similar crimes committed by people of other races do not receive the same level of attention. Additionally, according to The Sentencing Project, because of over-policing Black people, men have higher arrest rates than any other group.
The portrayal of beauty in fashion magazines often excludes or misrepresents Black features, which leads to a more narrow view of what is seen as attractive. For example, according to Samantha J. Morgan’s research conducted in 2019 at the University of Colorado Boulder, “skin-bleaching advertisements set the precedent that women of color need to make their skin as white as possible in order to be considered beautiful.” This reinforces beauty standards that are biased against Black women, which can lead to lower self-esteem.
Many Black people have been receiving messages such as these for as long as they can remember. As we grow older, the repeated messages are woven into us. We see life through the lens of these messages, and it unconsciously depicts the way we see and do things. This leads to implicit and explicit biases. An implicit bias is internal subconscious feelings, attitudes, prejudices, and stereotypes an individual has developed due to influences throughout their lives.
These biases turn into stereotypes. Stereotypes I’ve heard growing up include that Black women are always angry, and Black men are inherently dangerous. This leads to Black people being profiled and creating staggering statistics, like the fact that 41% of Black people have been pulled over in their lifetime, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll. The continuous profiling can fuel the internal rage and frustration with injustice in Black people. According to a Congressional Research Service report, the life expectancy for white females is 80, and for Black females is 76. For white males it is 75 and for Black males 69.
Knowing all of this, Black parents can worry themselves endlessly, day and night about the safety of their kids and their future. My mom worries every time I leave my house to hang out with my friends. I have very rarely been anywhere without her. She tells me she and my grandmother pray for me because they just “never know.” As a result of fear, many Black parents give their children “The Talk.” The same talk many Black children, including me, have received too many times to count. In this talk, you learn that being Black makes you a systematically disadvantaged person, and that you are at the bottom of the food chain in terms of privilege.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” wrote, “When you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people. Maybe then you will understand.”
I have been to Ross since I was asked to leave, just not the same location. I didn’t want to let that one interaction discourage me from going to one of my favorite stores. However, every time I walk in, I look at the security a little longer. I want to make sure the person knows I don’t want any trouble at all. It shouldn’t be like this though. I’m sure many white kids my age don’t have these same worries.
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