Ken Jones, who is a regular on The White Horse Inn, a radio show that I love, recently observed a traffic stop outside of his church. A car was directed into the parking lot and a young African-American man was taken from the car and patted down. The police man searched the young man's car. Pastor Jones went outside to take a closer look. He asked the officer if everything was alright and the officer told him that yes, everything was fine and that it was just a "routine" traffic stop.
As a young man, I was pulled over many times for many stupid behaviors. I was never patted down. My car was never searched. Routine means different things to me and this young man.
Jones writes, "In far too many instances when young black males are involved this is 'the routine.' I recalled incidents from my youth in South Central Los Angeles, where standing on the street with two or three friends would prompt a U-turn from law enforcement passing by. We would be told by these officers of the law that we were gang members (when we weren’t); that we matched the description of perpetrators of some crime in the area, or they were sure we were on our way to no good. That was 'routine.' It was also routine, when I started driving, to be pulled over and detained for up to an hour. When my son came of age it was also routine for him to be detained on his way home from his university job for similar periods of time. There seems to be something suspicious about young African males that warrants re-defining 'routine' when dealing with them."
Raising sons is hard. Soon, I will have two sons--one white, one black. I pray for wisdom to help my sons navigate these difficult waters.
Read the rest here.
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