Facebook Publication Date: 10/31/2021 22:10

Yet Another Black Tax

About a month ago, I got pulled over on Interstate 15 on my way to physical therapy.

I was not showing current tags on the Santa Fe.

They were right about that.

And I was lucky.

I had a really nice highway patrolman who gave me a Fix-It ticket instead of a moving violation so that I could get new tags.

What he said was interesting though, and concerning, even though I plastered on a thick smile and nodded and made small talk with him (code switching like a mofo) until he pulled off in his patrol car.

He told me that this was nothing more than a revenue generator. As he put it, ‘Got to make my salary!’

I kept on grinning while I told him that I used to be in public safety as well and gave a knowing nod.

And then stayed there for about five minutes thinking about the implications of his words, and also about my acquiescence.

I’m a black woman driving alone in the morning. I’m neither stupid nor prone to self-immolation.

Until he got into his car and drove away, but not before he complemented my glasses, until he drove away I was more than a little terrified. I knew the situation could turn in a millisecond. And I have no doubt that he is knew too.

And- I also know from the agency that I used to work for that fines and fees are local and state governments’ bread-and-butter.

Was my particular stop racialized? Probably not.

But as we dig into the numbers not just in the areas that the New York Times identified, black and brown people are indeed more routinely targeted and stopped.

And also have the potential for far bigger consequences.

A woman my age being tasered because she voiced her displeasure over being stopped.

Others being beaten in jail.

And let’s not forget those, like Sandra Bland and Philando Castile, who ar killed because of a busted tail light or infractions far less, making what should be routine traffic stops literally life-threatening events.

*Public Safety cannot be used as a cover for targeting and terrorizing entire cohorts of people.*

And yet they are.

Mostly for communities that are mostly wipipo, funded and subsidized by cohorts who are mostly black and brown.

Let’s talk.

Queries:

Do you know the history of your own community?

Do you know the statistics for your own towns and cities?

Does the disparity in stops and for the potential of violence strike you as unfair?

What can you do about it?

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