<story><title>Walking While Black</title><url>https://lithub.com/walking-while-black/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>superkuh</author><text>This was a wonderfully written piece and a lot of it rings true to me even as a white as you can be person in a smallish state university town in the midwest. But maybe being 6&amp;#x27;2&amp;quot; with a big unkempt hobo beard is almost as scary as being black.&lt;p&gt;I too love walking the streets at night. And I too have to not be myself and behave in very conscious ways to avoid being hassled and detained by the police. Police just assume that if you&amp;#x27;re out at night you are a criminal.&lt;p&gt;So much of his descriptions of having to learn to dress a certain way, behave a certain way, and literally go out of my way to avoid scaring people rings true. I get detained by the police a handful of times per year just for walking or being in places at times that most people aren&amp;#x27;t. I particularly get the police called on me if I walk through in rich neighborhoods. I&amp;#x27;ve had firearms pulled on me just for photographing trees in a public park (at night).&lt;p&gt;I tried to take up jogging for half a year but I quit and bought a bike after being stopped by police for being suspicious three times in as many months. Apparently jogging while not wearing a joggers uniform means I&amp;#x27;m up to no good. No non-criminal jogs in cargo pants and a t-shirt. And that was in the day time. I wouldn&amp;#x27;t even consider trying it at night.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not trying to marginalize his message that skin color is the cause. But it&amp;#x27;s certainly not the only cause. The root of the problem lies with the police, and society, villifying anyone who isn&amp;#x27;t diurnal.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>belorn</author><text>I remember one of those very minor study that had a person trying to dismantle a bike lock in a park. Male with dark skin, male with white skin, female with dark skin and female with white skin.&lt;p&gt;The man with the dark skin had people tackle him down while calling the police. The other people on the team that was observing had to rush in to disarm the situation. The white man had people stare and point, but nothing dramatic happened. The woman with dark skin was practically ignored by people walking the park. For the white woman several people walked up and offered to help her with the bike.&lt;p&gt;I am not sure a beard and night time and actually changes this. The assumption about who can and can&amp;#x27;t be a criminal seems to be based on gender first, race second, and appearance&amp;#x2F;environment last. Would be very interesting to see a more deep study on that, through I expect they will mirror related studies such as those that look at outcomes from courts and criminal psychology.</text></comment>
<story><title>Walking While Black</title><url>https://lithub.com/walking-while-black/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>superkuh</author><text>This was a wonderfully written piece and a lot of it rings true to me even as a white as you can be person in a smallish state university town in the midwest. But maybe being 6&amp;#x27;2&amp;quot; with a big unkempt hobo beard is almost as scary as being black.&lt;p&gt;I too love walking the streets at night. And I too have to not be myself and behave in very conscious ways to avoid being hassled and detained by the police. Police just assume that if you&amp;#x27;re out at night you are a criminal.&lt;p&gt;So much of his descriptions of having to learn to dress a certain way, behave a certain way, and literally go out of my way to avoid scaring people rings true. I get detained by the police a handful of times per year just for walking or being in places at times that most people aren&amp;#x27;t. I particularly get the police called on me if I walk through in rich neighborhoods. I&amp;#x27;ve had firearms pulled on me just for photographing trees in a public park (at night).&lt;p&gt;I tried to take up jogging for half a year but I quit and bought a bike after being stopped by police for being suspicious three times in as many months. Apparently jogging while not wearing a joggers uniform means I&amp;#x27;m up to no good. No non-criminal jogs in cargo pants and a t-shirt. And that was in the day time. I wouldn&amp;#x27;t even consider trying it at night.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not trying to marginalize his message that skin color is the cause. But it&amp;#x27;s certainly not the only cause. The root of the problem lies with the police, and society, villifying anyone who isn&amp;#x27;t diurnal.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>michaelgrafl</author><text>I used to take lots of walks at night before I had a full time job and children. I live in Austria and it seems bizarre to me that police officers would check you out just for walking around at night. I never had such an experience whether I was living in Vienna or my small hometown.&lt;p&gt;What I did see was black men having to show their ID at subway stations, which to me was a very unsettling thing, because it was pretty obvious that they were looking for drug dealers and focusing on a specific race.&lt;p&gt;I was held up in Croatia and had to show my ID twice. But I was with a group of people in a party area, so that kind of made sense.&lt;p&gt;Is taking walks maybe an uncommon thing in the USA?</text></comment>