Jeanne Sager, writing for cafemom on Cops Go Overboard in ‘Protecting’ Black Girl From Her White Grandfather :
Picture this: you’re walking down the street, and you spot a middle-aged white man strolling down the sidewalk. Beside him is a black girl, about 5 years old, bouncing and chattering on as 5-year-olds do. Now for the pop quiz portion of our day: would you A) smile and keep walking, or B) call the cops?
Unfortunately for Scott Henson, a blogger from Austin, Texas, people in his ‘hood believe “B” is the proper response. For the second time in five years, the grandpa was recently detained by police for doing what grandfathers do: hanging out with his granddaughterTy. So much for progress, huh, America?
It gets worse, when you read Scott’s blog about his experience:
As soon as we crossed the street, just two blocks from my house as the crow flies, the police car that just passed us hit its lights and wheeled around, with five others appearing almost immediately, all with lights flashing. The officers got out with tasers drawn demanding I raise my hands and step away from the child. I complied, and they roughly cuffed me, jerking my arms up behind me needlessly. Meanwhile, Ty edged up the hill away from the officers, crying. One of them called out in a comforting tone that they weren’t there to hurt her, but another officer blew up any good will that might have garnered by brusquely snatching her up and scuttling her off to the back seat of one of the police cars. (By this time more cars had joined them; they maxxed out at 9 or 10 police vehicles.)
This is a very clear example of parenting while male and with a multiracial child. I remember a female transit cop at O’Hare stopping me with my multiracial son and demanding I show her ID and defend my right to be his father – with her hand on her holster, of course. Meanwhile, several women with children and no husbands in tow walked right by us without concern or harassment. Hmmm.
According to several of the commenters on the cafemom article, people like me are expected to just suck it for the safety of the children. Of course, I am a horrible person for taking exception to some authoritarian monoracial person assuming I could not be the father of a biracial child. By the way, the female cop I was refering to earlier wasn’t white, in case that was what you were thinking.
Racism is ugly folks, stop perpetuating it with your apologia and cop worship. The abilty to give birth doesn’t make you a “good mom”, nor does it grant you some form of ultimate and unassailable intuition. You are not a “good mom” when you defend and promote harassment of interracial families based on what SOME other men have done at other times and places. It makes you an unrepetent racist and a sexist bigot who happens to have been blessed with the biological ability to give birth. Do people really think that traumatizing children by harassing or arresting their grandparents for having a different phenotype makes the child safer or leads to a healthier perspective in the long run?
Motherhood does not excuse racist and sexist bigotry. Get the fuck over yourselves and gain a little humanity.
James Landrith
Founder and Publisher
The Multiracial Activist
https://www.multiracial.com