Had the cops called on me while playing with my son at the park. Even with the taco sauce stain on my corny cardigan I was labeled as suspicious! #GTFOH Even when I try to appear suspicious it’s laughable. 😂 https://t.co/pnTl8N1yOe
— Romany Malco | Actor | Director | YouTuber (@TeamRomany) February 20, 2018
Romany Malco doesn’t think he looks suspicious even if he tries, but unfortunately, someone in the park he visited with his son thought otherwise. The actor posted a Periscope stream on Twitter Tuesday, Feb. 20 saying a cop showed up when someone thought he was “moving my hands in weird ways” as he listened to music through his headphones.
“In fact, I was talking to my lady and letting her know what our little man was doing and asking her why he’s got so much mucus coming out of his nose,” the “Think Like a Man” actor explained. “But it was interpreted as suspicious behavior. And it made me go, ‘This is why I opted to live elsewhere.'”
Malco, who is currently in California but usually resides in Puerto Rico, said when the police officer arrived, he recognized him as an actor and complimented him on his work. He also explained the community is “culturally insulated” and that he was “sorry that I even had to come out here and bother you.”
“He goes, ‘Look around, the only two people of any ethnicity here, is you and me, and that lady right there,'” the officer, who Malco said was Japanese, told him.
Malco added that he and his partner have been experiencing “aggression” since arriving back in the United States.
“And what’s really crazy is, because of my experiences of life in the USA, I kept looking at the cop car because usually, the cop car is for the brother … Never once … have I been given the benefit of the doubt in the United States of America over someone Caucasian”
“I feel like I’m at the height of my life right now, I feel like I’m at the height of my career right now. I have a really good, supportive family,” he adds. “I also feel as though I’m living the dream. … When I encounter a lot of these angry people who are dealing with racism internally and trying to impose it on others, the thing that keeps coming to me is, ‘Don’t lift one f—— weapon … their anger will do the work for you. … They will suffer at the hands of their own anger.”
“Do yourself a favor and try not to engage in it,” he says.
