while black
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#ShoppingWhileBlack: Indiana Officer Fired After Harassing Shoppers for 'Acting Suspicious'
Deputy constable Daryl Jones has been fired after a viral video surfaced in which he was seen harassing a pair of black men in a parking lot for—you guessed it—“acting suspicious.” From NBC News: In the video posted to YouTube on Nov. 13, the description says the two men first noticed the officer watching them…
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#GrievingWhileBlack: Family Demands Apology After West Memphis, Ark., Police Handcuff Grieving Mother
Far too often, police force black people to audition for their humanity. This is one of those times. According to writer and digital strategist Richard Brookshire, his family is owed an apology after a traumatic confrontation with the West Memphis Police Department that resulted in his sister being handcuffed. On Saturday, Brookshire’s four-year-old niece was…
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#FundraisingWhileBlack: White Woman Pulls Gun on Black Teenagers Raising Money for Their Football Team
Well, hello there! In today’s edition of #ExistingWhileBlack, we have a despicable human being named Jerri Kelly, who pulled a gun on a group of black teenagers whose only crime was raising money for their high school football team. ABC News has the scoop: The wife of an Arkansas jail administrator was arrested and charged…
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#LookingWhileBlack: Police Stop, Question Black Man for ‘Looking Suspiciously’ at a White Woman
In what serves as the latest example of #ExistingWhileBlack, I present 20-year-old Devin Meyers, who was stopped by police for—wait for it—“looking suspiciously” at a white woman. No, really. Have you ever seen a white woman in public? They do a lot of suspicious shit. But regardless, according to the Daily Dot, police in Royal…
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#ProposingWhileBlack: Manager Fired, Security Team Replaced After Interrupting Wedding Proposal With Racial Profiling
After being accused of racially profiling a black couple during their wedding proposal, several Angry Orchard employees are now former Angry Orchard employees. People reports that unlike President Nincompoop, owners of the brewery want no parts of being affiliated with racist behavior. In a statement, Angry Orchard announced that they’d fired a manager and replaced…
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Stand Your Kampground: Gun-Toting Granny Arrested for Pulling Gun on Black People Attempting to Picnic
The pistol-packing, 70-year-old sentient packet of Mississippi sour cream known as Ruby Howell was arrested on Tuesday for brandishing a gun at a black couple as they attempted to access a campground, according to the Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Office. Is Mississippi getting tough on scary, trigger-happy septuagenarians? Well, probably not. According to CNN, Howell turned…
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A Late-Night Food Run at Barnard College Turns Into a Racial Hashtag for One Black Student
A college student’s quest for late-night leftovers turned into a racially charged episode where the student was roughed up and six Barnard College security guards ended up on administrative leave pending an investigation by the school into their actions. “We deeply regret that this incident occurred, and we are undertaking a thorough review of our…
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Lawyering While Black: Cop Detains Attorney in Courthouse, Accuses Him of Impersonating a Lawyer
It’s a shame there isn’t a tag for stories on The Root called “dumbassery on your tax dollars,” because I promise you, there would be at least one cop story filed there every day. This latest example comes to us from Harford County, Md., where the local sheriff’s office now finds itself the subject of…
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#PickingUpTrashWhileBlack: Colorado Cops Draw Guns on Man Cleaning His Yard
A black Colorado man was doing the suspicious work of cleaning his yard when he was confronted by police who wanted to know what the black man was doing on his own property. According to the Daily Camera, on Friday, a Boulder police officer saw the man sitting on a patio in an area that…
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#RappingWhileBlack: Neighbor Calls Cops on Black Man After Hearing Him Recite Jay-Z Lyrics
We can add reciting Jay-Z lyrics to the growing list of things black people must refrain from doing after a Tennessee man found himself at the center of an armed police confrontation and quickly realized that he had 99 problems and his neighbor accusing him of domestic abuse was one. According to TMZ, Davon Eddington…