This week, police were called on a Black Yale University student who fell asleep in a common room while working on her paper. (Image courtesy of Google Images)
In the last few weeks alone, there have been at least six instances of police being called on Black Americans for ridiculous reasons, many times leading to unjust arrests and increased chances for things to end badly. A college professor is completely fed up with it all.
Laura Seay took to Twitter this week to offer a few nuggets of advice to white women who feel their comfortability being threatened whenever Black people are around. In a series of tweets, Seay addressed the hot button issue, chiding white women who are quick to call 911 when no one’s life is in immediate danger.
“Okay white women, apparently this needs to be said,” she began. “You call the police when someone’s life is in danger, or the potential for someone’s life being in danger or property being destroyed is strong. That you’re uncomfortable or nervous is not a good reason to call police.”
Policing public spaces isn’t white women’s job, argued Seay, an assistant professor of Government at Colby College in Maine. Blasting loud music, barbecuing out at a park or sleeping in the common room of a dormitory aren’t destructive behaviors and shouldn’t warrant a call to the authorities, she wrote.
So when is it actually appropriate to call the police? Seay happily offered several examples.
Examples of when it *is* appropriate to call the police:
-When you see a car accident happen
-during an active shooting
-a child is left alone in a parked car on a hot day
-you witness a robbery or kidnapping
-live electrical wires fell due to a storm
-someone is being assaulted— Laura Seay (@texasinafrica) May 10, 2018
All of these ^ involve situations of *active* harm or destructive behavior that requires an immediate response. People just living their lives – even in ways you don’t like! – is not a good reason to call the police.
— Laura Seay (@texasinafrica) May 10, 2018
Seay’s informative thread comes on the heels of a string of incidents involving Black people who had the cops called on them by whites. Earlier this week, a group of Black filmmakers were swarmed by cops and suspected of burglary after they failed to acknowledge a white neighbor who waved as they were checking out the bed and breakfast they rented. Over in California, a Black family’s barbecue was interrupted by a white woman who called the cops on them for “illegally” grilling in an Oakland park.
A Black Yale student who dozed off while working on a paper was also confronted by police after her white neighbor called to report her sleeping in their dorm’s common room.
Saey, who previously taught at Morehouse College, said the incidents made her fear for the students she used to teach at the historically Black College.
I keep thinking about my students at Morehouse. Every single one of them had stories about being racially profiled, followed around stores by ckerks, pulled over by cops for no reason. Every one.
— Laura Seay (@texasinafrica) May 10, 2018
Every time a black man gets shot for doing nothing wrong, I lose my breath. My heart races & I start mentally running through the names of every forner student I can remember who comes from the city where it happened. It’s an uncontrollable reflex. And it’s awful.
— Laura Seay (@texasinafrica) May 10, 2018
If it’s that bad for me, what does living with that level of stress do to those young men over a lifetime? What does it do to their mothers, aunties, grannies, & the others who raised them & love them?
— Laura Seay (@texasinafrica) May 10, 2018
If you call the police on people of color for petty reasons, you put their lives in danger. It’s that simple. And that deadly.
— Laura Seay (@texasinafrica) May 10, 2018
Some users, primarily white women, took offense to Seay’s comments, however, and accused her of painting all white women with the same brush. Many also offered their two cents on the incident involving the Black Yale student.
Why are you blaming all white women for what this one did? How is it that I’m guilty for someone else’s actions?
— N.G.McClernan (@ngmcclernan) May 10, 2018
Again, just because one person of a specific race did something terrible doesn’t mean everyone of that race is evil
— Lucas Tudor (@OssoMysteriOsso) May 10, 2018
I think that’s what we are all wanting to avoid. No one is defending the action of the girl who called the cops. Or defending the response officers. But just as fellow decent humans not categorizing anyone based on race, gender, age,… whatever. We can all do better.
— CWest631 (@Cwest631) May 10, 2018
I am as white as they come and this is the most absurd thing to ever happen during a nap. What has to be wrong with you mentally to cause you to call the police. Wait… I know. RACISM.
— Queen Darci ❤⚽💙 (@queendarci) May 10, 2018
Right. Because someone napping in a common area on campus just screams “unsafe”. The fact that you feel this tweet was condescending and racist, but not someone calling the police and wasting resources over a fellow student sleeping in a common area speaks volumes.
— L. Monique Marrie (@LMoniqueMarrie) May 10, 2018
