WorkingWhileBlack: Police question Black lawmakers right to enter Statehouse ‘You don’t look like a legislator’

https://twitter.com/Mr_Scorpio/status/1003917014237351937

By Angela Burt-Murray

Black legislators in Ohio report that security is cherry-picking who they allow in and if you’re black that means you’ll more often than not get stopped at the Statehouse doors.

It’s a discriminatory culture that State Rep. Emilia Sykes said she’s had to deal with several times, reports USA Today. Last year, she said a security officer searched her bag, but not the belongings of the 65-year-old white colleague she was with.

The junior Democratic state representative from Akron said she was told by a security officer:

“You don’t look like a legislator.” Then the trooper tried to clear up his tongue slip: “You look too young.”

The 32-year-old believes she is being targeted because she’s black. The profiling happened again on Wednesday when she had an issue gaining access to the Riffe Center for a meeting. Sykes said she showed her badge but security kept saying they couldn’t see it and then proceeded to closely examine it.

Sykes said these situations make her uneasy because not every lawmaker faces the same scrutiny, Sykes said.

“It’s just hard to find out what is the security rule,” Sykes said. “They seem to be a moving target for different people.”

An African-American Rep. Alicia Reece, D-Roselawn, said it happened to her too.

https://thegrio.com/2018/06/04/workingwhileblack-police-question-black-lawmakers-right-to-enter-statehouse-you-dont-look-like-a-legislator/

"White people in North America live in a social environment that protects and insulates them from race-based stress. This insulated environment of racial protection builds white expectations for racial comfort while at the same time lowering the ability to tolerate racial stress, leading to what I refer to as White Fragility. White Fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium."

Robin DiAngelo, Ph.D