I have lost trust in the Police! In the span of two weeks, white people have called the Police on me — for speaking, and for being me. And every time, the Police investigate these matters as if they were serious breaches of white people’s freedom. I am sorry — what did I do? Tell me.
Black people have always had an ambivalent relationship with the police, since, historically, the stick of the state — or of the oppressor — was used to silence the voices of so many before me. Hence I pose the question: can something so embedded in the DNA of an institution reproduce itself until it becomes the norm?
I can’t tell you too many details about the specific cases, since they are ongoing — still being investigated by those very institutions. Nevertheless, I can paint the picture, so that you, the reader, can understand what it means to be a black person in this country today.
The similarity in both cases was this: a white man felt intimidated by a black man. So I pose the question:
Habt ihr Angst vom Schwarzen Mann?
In either situation, I did the only thing I know well: I spoke my mind. In the first case, I did it online; in the second, I did it in person.
And what I realised, through these ordeals, is that the institutions we hand that responsibility to are lacking in empathy!
Police — I am talking directly to you.
When you show up with six people to a situation you don’t want to de-escalate, then by your mere presence, you are already escalating it!
And so I have lost trust in the institution that is supposed to protect us. The next time I need to call the Police, I will not call you — because you are the Problem.