Walking While Black
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&#x27;2&quot; with a big unkempt hobo beard is almost as scary as being black.<p>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&#x27;re out at night you are a criminal.<p>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&#x27;t. I particularly get the police called on me if I walk through in rich neighborhoods. I&#x27;ve had firearms pulled on me just for photographing trees in a public park (at night).<p>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&#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&#x27;t even consider trying it at night.<p>I&#x27;m not trying to marginalize his message that skin color is the cause. But it&#x27;s certainly not the only cause. The root of the problem lies with the police, and society, villifying anyone who isn&#x27;t diurnal.