The other night I was walking back to my house from the Taft building after finishing up a project that I completed in record time, 20 minutes more or less, and feeling pretty confident I got an A before noticing Ada Police in the Mac parking lot. Naturally I just continue to walk to my house and mind my own business until the strangest thing happened, the car's headlights turn on and the cop starts slowly driving behind me. I just thought, "Oh I must be in his way" so I move to the sidewalk out of the way, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
As I start to cross College avenue to head down Union street the cop turns on the red and blue lights. Again, I'm just walking and minding my own business, so I don't turn around, I keep walking straight, and keep walking at the same pace. The moment I reach the corner of Union street the cop's lights go out, he makes a left and proceeds down College avenue, towards Rite Aid. I tell this story to my brother Chem and the first thing that comes out of his mouth is, "That's racist. That's real messed up, bro."
Now I for one never pull the race card, at least not in a serious way, but that situation did get me thinking about why the cop would do that and reasons why he shouldn't have. Now here is a few reasons why I would imagine the cop would do this:
-I'm a black man in Ada, OH (sorry for being so blunt but we all were thinking it and you know it)
-Anyone wearing BOTH a snap back and big deejay headphones would grab anyones attention
-I was walking relatively fast just for it to be 10:30 at night
-White Bear fourth meal was happening and ONU must be cracking down on people who leave without using their meal swipes
Now here are the reasons why he shouldn't have:
-Despite my head accessories, I was dressed in a shirt, tie, and dress pants due to my laziness of not wanting to change after the meeting I had earlier in the evening.
-I was wearing my book bag and had extra books and papers in my hands, so I was obviously just your typical college student walking from doing school work.
-I naturally walk fast since I'm from a big city. Walking is kind of our thing.
-I did absolutely nothing wrong.
After it's all said and done it all could've been worst. The cop could've gotten out of the car and approached me, or continue to follow me with his lights on. Hell, I could've even been arrested. But is that racist? Or is it just a cop doing his job? Or could he just be looking for anyone to bust no matter race?
I'm not quite sure how to answer your question, but I can say that I've had my share of, "Is that Racist?" type stuff happen to me since I've been here too. Our freshmen year, my roommate and I were walking to McDonalds at about 7 pm and we had someone spit at us as they drove by and what made it sting a little more is they sped off to quick for us to even get a license plate number or even react. The second time, my roommate, a few of our friends, and I were just walking around campus the same year and had a cup of liquid thrown at us. And again the car sped off before we could get the license plate number. Now, on the second one we weren't sure whether it was racism or just the fact that we were freshmen.
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