Ideal Self

           “I designated the white guy to talk to the officer because he was the one who looked the least threatening of all of us. I was like, okay Warren [white male] you are going to talk to the cops, we are going to sit back here and be quiet unless they asks us a direct question.” These were the words my cousin Darian replayed back to me when recalling a time him and a group of teammates were approached by two police officers after their high school basketball practice. It was late at night. A long and tiring 2-hour practice had just concluded in their school gymnasium. With sweat steaming off of their heads, Darian and his teammates waited outside for their parents to pick them up from practice. The group of teammates consisted of my cousin, a black male, two other black males, and Warren, the lone white male of the group. The police officers slowly approached the group of males in the parking lot. The officer questioned why the group was hanging outside the school at night. Darian told me, “The officer believed we were up to no good or about to vandalize the school that we attend when in reality we were just waiting for our parents.” When I asked him why he designated Warren to talk to the officer, he responded, “We didn’t want to talk to him [officer]. It’s like… we are young black males, we don’t want to talk to the police because they might try to say something to flip it on us. So we had a better chance of getting out of this if the white one talks.”

            This conversation I had with my cousin sparked my interest in how young African American males present themselves in the presence of police officers. It is no secret that within the last five years, we have seen a rise of media coverage on police brutality, more specifically, the killing of unarmed African American males by police. According to the Huffington Post, U.S. police killed at least 258 black people in 2016. The Washington Post added that in 2016, 34% of unarmed people killed by police were black males. While this might not be the majority of unarmed killings, this statistic is very disproportionate, as black males only make up about 6% of the U.S. population. An African American male conscious of these disproportionate killings is likely to present an ideal version of himself in the presence of police in order to ensure their safety. In my cousin’s instance, this meant having a white male be the voice for the group when talking to the police as it presented a more ideal picture of the group. As a result, the officer let Darian and his teammates go. To this day, Darian believes that the situation might have gone differently if Warren had not been with them. 

Hearing my cousin’s story made me reflect on how I, as an African American male, present myself around police. I believe it’s important that when I am in the presence of police, that I am doing everything in my power to combat any potential negative stereotypes or stigma sometimes associated with black males. My parents taught me that if I am ever pulled over by police, I am to speak slow and clearly, announce what I am about to do before I do it, and to always stay calm and respectful no matter what. Following these steps has become second nature to me. While these seem like common steps, for African Americans and other minorities, they can be the difference between going home or becoming the next hash-tag on Twitter.