Driving While Black

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Driving While Black, abbreviated as DWB, is an American culture phrase that refers to the alleged criminalization of black drivers. An alternate phrase, Driving While Brown, is more expansive, referring to the supposed crime of being a non-white driver.

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[edit] Coinage

"Driving While Black" is word play on the name of a real U.S. crime, driving while intoxicated. The phrase implies that a motorist may be pulled over by a police officer simply because he or she is black, and then questioned, searched, and/or charged with a trivial offense. This concept stems from a long history of racism in the United States, United Kingdom, and other countries. The term refers to racial profiling, which is said to be used by police and other law enforcement officials.[1]

[edit] Variations

The related concept of "shopping while black/brown" refers to the notion that non-whites are subject to increased surveillance while shopping. Other plays on the phrase include "walking while black" for pedestrian offenses,[2] "learning while black" for students in schools,[3] and "eating while black" for restaurants.[4] Actor Danny Glover held a press conference in 1999 because cabdrivers weren't stopping for him in New York City; this was called "hailing while black". The phenomenon was investigated further on Michael Moore's television series TV Nation.

In 2001, the American Civil Liberties Union convinced the United States Drug Enforcement Administration to repay $7,000 that it had seized from a black businessman in the Omaha, Nebraska airport on the false theory that it was drug money; the ACLU called it "flying while black". A pain specialist who treats sickle-cell disease patients at Manhattan's Beth Israel Medical Center reported that doctors long allowed African American sickle-cell sufferers to agonize because they assume blacks will become addicted to pain medication; Time magazine labeled this "ailing while black."[5][6]

[edit] Criticism of the term

On October 31, 2007, black conservative Thomas Sowell devoted an entire editorial column to rebutting the common claim that police officers stop black drivers because of their race. He wrote:[7]

"Twice within the past few years, I have been pulled over by the police for driving at night without my headlights on... Both times I thanked the policeman because he may well have saved my life... In each case, the policeman was white.

"Recently a well-known black journalist told me of a very different experience. He happened to be riding along in a police car driven by a white policeman. Ahead of them was a car driving at night with no headlights on and, in the dark, it was impossible to see who was driving it. When the policeman pulled the car over, a black driver got out and, when the policeman told him that he was driving without his lights on, the driver said, 'You only pulled me over because I am black!'"

Sowell refers to the book Are Cops Racist? by Heather MacDonald. According to Sowell, MacDonald examined the claim that police officers pull black drivers over because they are black, and found that the empirical evidence did not support the claim. Sowell claims that the mainstream media has ignored this book and its evidence.

[edit] In popular culture

Several popular culture mediums typify Driving While Black, generally either in a humorous light or through a critical perspective.

In the book Stupid White Men, director Michael Moore suggests techniques that a black man could use to evade detection for DWB. In the film Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, a Rutgers college professor is arrested "for being black." It is explained that the character was arrested because the police were looking for a robbery suspected described as a "Black guy from Newark." Later the same police force arrests an African American attorney who then assists the Rutgers professor in a racial discrimination lawsuit that sends those police officers to prison. In the 2003 film National Security, Martin Lawrence's character states, "This isn't the first time I was arrested for DWB." The 2004 film Crash contains a scene in which a black couple is pulled over and mishandled by a racist cop.

A 1979 sketch on Not the Nine O'Clock News depicted an overzealous policeman arresting a man for "possession of curly black hair and thick lips". In a 2001 episode of Angel, African American character Charles Gunn and his friends monitored police officers suspected of brutality to see if they could draw their unprovoked ire. When asked why he thought they would succeed, Gunn responded, "'Cause we'll be the ones walking while black." In an episode of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air entitled "Mistaken Identity", African American characters Will and Carlton get pulled over and put in jail for delivering the car of their uncle's friend. The issue of whether the cop that pulled them over did so just because they were black is discussed. In the 1996 Spike Lee film Get On The Bus, a bus full of African-American passengers is pulled over by white Tennessee state troopers and searched without cause, despite the protests of one of the passengers, an LAPD officer. In a 1997 episode of NYPD Blue entitled "Taillight's Last Gleaming", black police lieutenant Arthur Fancy is pulled over while off-duty by a white uniformed officer due to racial profiling. The uniformed officer is then transferred by Fancy from his mostly white beat in Queens to an all-black area of Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn as punishment. A 1998 episode of Law & Order entitled "DWB" featured a storyline about a police traffic stop that got out of hand and resulted in a black motorist being beaten to death.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Harris, D. (1999) "The stories, the statistics, and the law: Why 'Driving While Black' matters", 84 Minnesota Law Review. pg. 265-326. Retrieved May 7, 2007.
  2. ^ Mosedale, M. (2007) Critics say a Minneapolis law criminalizes walking while black: What Lurks Beneath?" City Pages. 28(1369). Retrieved May 7, 2007.
  3. ^ Morse, J. (2002) "Learning while black", TIME Retrieved May 7, 2007.
  4. ^ Coolican, P. (2003) "Chief vows to root out profiling by Patrol," Seattle Times. 11/21/2003. Retrieved May 7, 2007
  5. ^ Cloud, J. (2001) "What's Race Got to do With It?", Time magazine. Retrieved 5/17/08.
  6. ^ Washington, J. (2000) U.S. Customs Applies A Double Standard In Two Directions At Once, JINN. Pacific News Service. Retrieved May 7, 2007.
  7. ^ Thomas Sowell

[edit] Further reading