OK, let’s face it: the only reason anyone is talking about Trayvon Martin is because he’s dead, and George Zimmerman hasn’t been arrested. Yes, if Zimmerman never followed Martin, pending on what the police did once they showed up after his 911 call, Trayvon may still be alive today. Yes, there would be no million hoodie marches, no outrage, and more importantly, n o discussion of Black men and the look of suspicion cast upon them. Trayvon would have eventually continued walking to his father’s fiance’s house a bit aggravated at having to pay the small price for being Black, but he would be alive to drink ice tea and eat Skittles yet another day. With that scenario in mind, I ask the following: is racial profiling really a bad thing? I mean it can’t be that bad if it prevents crimes, no?
Alright, so I realize that coming from me, that has to be an absurd question. But ever since a good friend and long-time reader tipped me off to a recent incident in Austin, Texas where she lives, I’ve been struggling to answer that very question myself. Now I realize that for someone like me — a professional racism-chasing minority — to be in support of racial profiling automatically makes me a hypocrite. Not only that, but by having that opinion serves as grounds for having my hood pass revoked and labeled a slave-catcher like Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson and others. So with that in mind, I found myself asking myself the following question: would racial profiling be a bad thing if it involved the profiling of white folks? After all, don’t we look at the redneck in his pickup truck with the Confederate flag bumper sticker sorta funny? Or what about the white boys with shaved heads, and swastika tattoos who wear Doc Marten boots? Or what about the guy in the child molester conversion van who just loves to pass out candy to kids at playgrounds?
Is it wrong to racially profile those guys?
After reading the story of Scott Henson, and his recent run-in with the police while walking down the street with his 5-year-old granddaughter, after a 911 caller reported what appeared to be an attempted kidnapping. I found the scenario to be familiar with one exception: Hanson is white and his grandchild is black. And let’s be honest: as oddly unusual a sight, I can see why someone would assume this to be an attempted kidnapping. And quite frankly, I can see why someone would want something done about it; at least, that’s what I think.
This according to newsone.com:
Scott Henson (pictured), a self-described White Texas redneck, was cuffed last Friday by a swarm of policemen, because he was walking his Black 5-year-old grandchild down the street. The Austin resident spoke to NewsOne about how he was accosted by police for being in the company of his grandchild, Ty(pictured).
Ty’s mother is not Henson and his wife’s biological child; the couple decided to raise her after her own father died. Still, the woman calls Henson and his wife “Mom” and “Dad,” and naturally, her daughter refers to the couple as her grandparents.
Henson’s grandchild typically spends Friday nights with her grandfather and his wife, so that the little girl’s parents can get a break. Last Friday, Henson, who is a journalist and creator of two popular blogsGritsforBreakfast and Huevos Rancheros, took his grandchild to a skating rink near his home as a reward for being a high achiever at school. The kindergartener grew tired of skating, so the pair decided to walk home rather than have his wife pick them up from the rink.
Ty’s mother is not Henson and his wife’s biological child; the couple decided to raise her after her own father died. Still, the woman calls Henson and his wife “Mom” and “Dad,” and naturally, her daughter refers to the couple as her grandparents.
Henson’s grandchild typically spends Friday nights with her grandfather and his wife, so that the little girl’s parents can get a break. Last Friday, Henson, who is a journalist and creator of two popular blogsGritsforBreakfast and Huevos Rancheros, took his grandchild to a skating rink near his home as a reward for being a high achiever at school. The kindergartener grew tired of skating, so the pair decided to walk home rather than have his wife pick them up from the rink.
After walking a distance from the rink, Henson felt as if he was being followed. Suddenly, someone called out to them, and it turned out to be a deputy constable.
“She told me to take my hand out of my pocket and to step away from Ty, declaring that someone had seen a White man chasing a Black girl and reported a possible kidnapping. Then she began asking the 5-year-old about me. The last time this happened, Ty was barely 2, and I wasn’t about to let police question her. This time, though, at least initially, I decided to let her answer. “Do you know this man?” the deputy asked. “Yes, he’s my Grandpa,” Ty said. “What did you say?” the deputy repeated. “He’s my Grandpa!” Ty yelled, then rushed back over to me and grabbed hold of my leg. “Okay,” the deputy responded.
The constable asked for Henson’s name and address, and he chose not to answer stating that if he was not being held for anything, he would like to take the child home. The woman complied and allowed Henson to leave.
Just as Henson and Ty were approaching their home, a police cruiser that had passed them by after the constable released them suddenly turned around and threw on his flashing lights. Four more police cars joined, surrounding Henson and Ty. Officers jumped out of their vehicles with tasers drawn, demanding that Henson throw up his hands and step away from the child. The officers grabbed the child and put her in the backseat of a vehicle. By now there were a total of nine to ten police cars surrounding Henson and his granddaughter.
“ I gave them the phone numbers they needed to confirm who Ty was and that she was supposed to be with me (and not in the back of their police car), but for quite a while nobody seemed too interested in verifying my story. One officer wanted to lecture me endlessly about how they were just doing their job, as if the innocent person handcuffed on the side of the road cares about such excuses. I asked why he hadn’t made any calls yet, and he interrupted his lecture to say, ‘We’ve only been here two minutes, give us time” (It had actually been much longer than that). Maybe so, I replied, sitting on the concrete in handcuffs, but there are nine of y’all milling about doing nothing by my count so you’ve had 18 minutes for somebody to get on the damn phone by now so y’all can figure out you screwed up.”
According to Henson, the same deputy constable who had questioned him earlier walked in on the scene and briefly looked his way as she spoke to police personnel. Soon after, a supervisor arrived and began questioning the officers. The woman came over to Henson and began explaining how the police department has to take complaints about possible kidnappings seriously. By this point, though, Henson felt he was guilty in the eyes of law enforcement for the “heinous crime of babysitting while white.”
After Henson was released, there were no apologies issued. After being interrogated, Ty was given a flashlight as a consolation prize. According to Henson, the deputy constable who could now barely look him in the eyes, “You knew better. This is on you.”
Now of course you know my motto: there are three sides to every story – there’s bullshit, bullshit, and there’s the truth. So with that in mind, and after reading Henson’s blog post myself, I decided to take a look into it and see what the police was saying. And well, I found their story to be intere4sting. Yep, their story even included a release of the dashboard camera video that tells a different story. Yep, Henson wasn’t beaten, tasered, or had a broomstick up the butt like any innocent Black man would have; but, I guess that’s because he was melanin deficient:
Yes, so with that in mind, I’d have to say that the woman who found Scott Henson to be “suspicious”, just like George Zimmerman, she was right to call 911. For me, being vigilant and acting in the interest of safety and security in my neighborhood is what being a good neighbor is all about. But I guess in today’s world where we don’t even know our next door neighbors, being vigilant is a lost art. Hell, no wonder young folks are into that whole “Stop Snitching” thing.
Look, the fact that we live in a society riddled with racism and prejudice is undeniable. As such, racial profiling will always be the order of the day. It has always been a problem for minorities when employed as a crime fighting tool by the police. As trusting as we’re taught to be of people in positions of power, the truth is, they’re not always right. Contrary to what your nightly news tells you, not all Black people are criminals; not all Latinos are “illegal immigrants”; not all people of middle-eastern heritage are terrorists; not all people of Asian persuasion are math, science, and computer geeks; and, though they may not say it on the news regularly, not all white people are racist and fearful of people of color. But maybe if more white folks were racially profiled and it lead to negative consequences, maybe the evil practice of racially profiling minorities would stop.
Maybe then and only then, would my 60-year-old mother would be without fear when she encounters young Black males in hoodies, baggy jeans, and doo-rags while she walks the streets of Brownsville out in Brooklyn, New York as she often does. Talking to her about Trayvon Martin I was ashamed when she told me this, but given the society within which we live, I can totally understand.
Now watch and learn about one Black police officers fight for justice: