Jaywalking & Telling Better Stories

Friends, this was in my newsfeed this morning and it made me weep.  This happened right outside my hometown in Stockton, California.   Reports say that the boy jaywalked as he went to catch his bus and an officer stopped him.  The rest is in the video below.  He’s 16.

9 officers to arrest a 16-year-old kid for jaywalking?   Seriously?  I jaywalked this morning when I dropped my boys off at school.

There was a study released last year by UCLA that showed that police are far likelier to dehumanize and use force against Black children.  It’s unconscious, most of the time, but the research, which noted that black boys are perceived by White people to be far older than they actually are, found that “black boys can be seen as responsible for their actions at an age when white boys still benefit from the assumption that children are essentially innocent.”

It’s tempting to watch this, shake my head, and then go on with my day.  There is nothing I can do about it and that feels so frustrating.  But how can I watch that boy, who was reportedly lead away in tears, get hit with a baton and forcefully arrested for not using the sidewalk, and not do something?

Part of our Culture

The belief that some races of people are better than others (the definition of racism, btw) is completely pervasive in our culture but many of us are wholly unaware of it.  Culture is the knowledge, values and beliefs shared by members of a particular society and it is nurtured and perpetuated by the traditions, language, literature, art, music, and systems of said society.

So if we want to explore our culture and our socializing, we need only look so far as the stories we are telling ourselves– the books we read, the movies we make, the music we produce, the art we share, and the traditions we esteem.

Selma & American Sniper

For example, did you know that Selma grossed six times less than American Sniper?   They were released the same weekend.  That’s not necessarily to say that American Sniper isn’t a good movie (I haven’t seen it) but it does say a lot about the kinds of stories we like to tell ourselves.  As a culture, we value war and being number 1 and it shows at the box office.

I’m going to work on my novel today.  It’s about 1/3 finished and who knows?  It might be terrible but it’s my attempt to tell a good story.  We can’t change the culture by ourselves but we can collectively work toward change by committing to telling and consuming better stories.  That’s what we can do when we see a video like the one above.  We can re-double our efforts by choosing to read, watch, listen, and tell better stories.

Oh, I’m also going to lodge a complaint with the Stockton Police Department.  I’ve only ever signed online petitions and form letters so this feels a little scary to me.   It’s not as easy as a quick online fill-in-the-blank but it still shouldn’t take longer than 5-10 minutes if you’ve got a printer.

Want to join me?  Here’s the address:

Police Department’s Professional Standards
22 E. Market Street, Stockton, CA 95202

UPDATE: I just finished my letter and I tweeted SPD as well (@StocktonPolice).

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Other Posts on Race

Can I Get An Amen… from the Awkward White Lady?
Misplaced Imagining
The (Not So) Subtle Racism of The Gilmore Girls
Fury in Ferguson