Post-racial policing is as real as clean coal

New rules for what not to do if you don't want some overly nosy white lady calling the cops on you have been issued recently. Apparently such benign situations like “checking out of an AirBnb,” and “falling asleep in the dorm common room at Yale” are now worthy of a 9-1-1 call. But only if you are black, so calm down white people. Whiteness has not lost its benefits just yet.

But if you happen to be of a more dusky skin tone, like perhaps you are a black person, beware! You might find yourself face to face with some self-righteous asshole dialing 9-1-1 on you while you are doing literally nothing suspicious at all.

This installment of “Stop Calling The Police On Black People For Bullshit Ass Reasons” features two of the most ridiculous displays of white privilege and abuse of the 9-1-1 EMERGENCY system we have seen this yearmonth week. Do note the word EMERGENCY. That word should connote a certain vibe of “hey, only call 9-1-1 is there is an actual fucking emergency, not just because you saw black skin and got scared,” but for some people, everything is an emergency. Especially if it involves black people.

First up is Sarah Braasch, a Yale grad student in philosophy who decided to call the police on a fellow student, Lolade Siyonbola, because she “caught” her napping in the common room. Her motivations are not clear, but Braasch has a history of calling the police on black people, including another student at her same Yale grad school, Jean-Louis Reneson. Reneson and Siyonbola filed a complaint against Braasch in March after she called the police on them when Reneson got lost while trying to locate the common room where a meeting was scheduled.

Never get lost in a huge ass university with a bunch of buildings, black people. You may just end up bothered by police who are “just doing their jobs,” and because of some bitch, their job will be determining if you are even allowed to be in the place you are SUPPOSED to be in. At least, this once, the cops told the white woman to cut the shit, and no, she didn't have "every right" to call 9-1-1 for a napping neighbor. So small mercies I guess. And yet?

Siyonbola still spent 45 minutes trying to prove she was allowed to be in her own dorm building because of Braasch, who knew damn well she lived there since this was her second time calling the police on the same woman. (She told police she did not know who Siyonbola, her neighbor, was.) Does Sarah Braasch, and people like her, spend an inordinate amount of time looking for things to call the police on black people for? Well, our next selection may answer the question for you.

Have you ever called the cops on some black people because you saw them leaving a house with suitcases and they did not WAVE at you? No? Well, don't. One of them may be Bob Marley’s granddaughter checking out of an Airbnb, and also nobody owes you a fucking wave. Especially random black people who don’t know you from Adam. Three filmmakers, Donisha Prendergast, Komi-Oluwa Olafimihan, and Kells Fyffe-Marshall were leaving a rental that they had used while attending a music festival, when doing shit while black struck again.

Here is what they had to say:

“The officers came out of their cars demanding us to put our hands in the air. They informed us that there was also a helicopter tracking us. They locked down the neighborhood and had us standing in the street. Why? A neighbour across the street saw 3 black people packing luggage into their car and assumed we were stealing from the house. She then called the police.”

We don’t know of many cases where burglars brought their own things, stayed for a few days, and used suitcases to rob homes, but a neighbor of the homeowner, Marie Rodrigues, determined that they were suspicious. Why were they so suspicious? Well, they didn’t wave at her. Apparently all black people who pay good money to rent a place to stay are honor bound to wave at all white people who wave at them, or they are criminals. Because everybody knows that it’s black people’s job to make white people comfortable at all times. It’s the law!

One might think that the fact that they were moving suitcases out in a leisurely fashion right smack dab in the middle of a sunny afternoon would be enough so they wouldn’t be suspected of being cat burglars. But apparently not. Prendergast has decided that she is tired of this bullshit and she is making her point by suing the Rialto police department. The Rialto police have responded by issuing a press release where they deny they did anything wrong. Because of course, the police are always doing everything right when it comes to black people.

The homeowner, for her part, says she has attempted to apologize for the incident, but denies any racism was involved. Which, really, how the hell would she know when she wasn’t there? As far as she is concerned, her neighbor was just looking out for her because of crime in the neighborhood. Also, they are just using the black card.

They're latching on to this whole racism thing, because they're black, This is a diverse neighborhood."

Apparently Ms. Rodriguez cannot recognize her own latent racism, so it is very difficult for her to understand how racism can exist in diverse places. Unfortunately for black people, they cannot unlatch from "this racism thing" until such time as "this racism thing" stops. We will let you know when post-racial America is born if it ever is.

Airbnb has issued its own statement to CNN and a letter to the Mayor of Rialto and the interim police chief:

Airbnb's mission is to create a world where anyone can belong anywhere and we have aggressively worked to fight bias and discrimination in society. We are also reaching out to our partners at the NAACP, National Action Network, Color Of Change, and others to discuss this matter and ensure we are doing all we can to protect our community when they travel.

First of all, we are going to need people to notify their neighbors when they are renting out their homes, and secondly, we are going to need to stop calling the cops for every damn thing. If you find yourself watching strange people loading their suitcases into cars and have enough time to call the cops because they didn't WAVE at you, maybe you have time to wonder if they are simply visitors. Some people find it easier to simply call out, "Hey! How long you visiting for?" than being the asshole who calls the police on Bob Marley's granddaughter for absolutely nothing. Also, just because you have a phone doesn't mean you need to call the police on black tenants of your dorm building for extracurricular napping.

Just this week, a kid who took his sister to prom and a 65-year-old Alpharetta granny got their asses busted by police for a) going to Waffle House and b) driving. That's what you might be bringing about, and it could happen any time and to anyone.

We know, we know: #notallwhitewomen or some shit (jerkoff motion). Just enough to keep us all in our place, huh? Stop doing your damn part for 2018 Jim Crow.

[The Grio/CNN/USA Today]

We know you like to read what we write as much as we like writing it for you. Support us now and it's basically like you saved literacy for AMERICA.