Black Men Get Used to Your "Suspect" Status

Black Men Get Used to Your "Suspect" Status

The following document is an excerpt from an editorial in The Nubian Message, North Carolina State University's African-American student newspaper, which was first published on November 30, 1992.

In this article, Banwo recounts a personal experience in which NCSU Campus Safety questioned him because he fit the description of black male suspect who they believed committed a crime. Moreover, Banwo cites another example of a police conversation that focused on the description of a suspect as a "black male." Although Banwo claims that the individuals making these statments were not doing so in a "racist" or "derogatory manner," but reflect the common assumptions that "when the skin is dark," no other identifiers matter. Lastly, Banwo speculates about how his grandfather must have felt the same way under Jim Crow, although he admits that his grandfather could never have published such an article.

Adedayo A. Banwo

Adedayo A. Banwo, "Black Men Get Used to Your 'Suspect' Status," The Nubian Message 8, no. 2 (September 14, 2000), 7. Digitized by the Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC

2000-09-14

Madison W. Cates

English

Last year while walking down Gorman street at night, I was stopped and questioned by Public Safety. The reason was simply because I was a black man. In fact, the officer told me so.

“Son, we had a description come over the radio of a black male. You’re a black male, what do we do?”

Simply put, this was racial profiling at its best. While I was standing there on the side of the road, surrounded [sic.] by at least three squad cars, lights shined in my face; I received a message loud and clear. My dark skin, my existence as a black man, makes me a suspect. No matter how well I dress, no matter how proper my diction, how well I dot my “it”’s, all of that does not matter. I am a suspect.

Indeed a few days ago, I was sitting inside my dorm room when I over heard a conversation going on outside my window. The key speaker was a girl, and this is what she said, “Some black guy got into some suites downstairs.”

When I heard the official announcement, the description remained “black male.”

Bam! A suspect again, I better stop going outside my room or else. The person who made the statement is not a racist, the comment wasn’t even meant in a derogatory manner, but that the way I took it. I know there are people out there right now going, “So what do we say? How do we pose these things without offending someone?”

Well if you are one of those people then listen to what I have to say because you obviously do not get it. If that girl had made the announcement of “some white guy,” the common reaction would have been one of, “why did she say white?” The bottom line is that a description as basic as that would not have cut it. Attached to the white male label would have been: short hair, blue eyes, thick build, early 20s, about 5-10. There would have been more identifiers in order to distinguish the “suspect” from all of the other white males in the residence hall. For some reason, when the skin is dark, all that doesn’t matter.

And if any of you are wondering, after my run in with Public Safety, I had a meeting with the Assistant Director of Public Safety, Mr. Terry Wright. Also present were an administrator and a director on campus. Mr. Wright, if you are ready to follow through on the things you promised me over 8 months ago, you have my number. I am still waiting.

Perhaps this is just the way it is, maybe I just need to get used to my “suspect” status. I know my grandfather had to. I wonder what would have happened to him if he had wrote an article like this in North Carolina.

Well, no time to ponder such things, public safety just sent me a crime alert.

“What!,” a shooting at the bookstore. Here is the description: “black male, 6 ft tall.”

“Damn, I guess I better stay in tonight.”

newspaper article