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Your First and Last Name
Professor Rodrigues
ENG 101
23 September 2022
Narrative Essay
Racial Profiling
On a Fall afternoon in 2017, I was walking home from school. I’d walk home often, always taking the
same route. On this afternoon, a white woman, driving by in her car decided to call the police on me.
The sad thing is, all I was doing was picking up old football and baseball cards up from the sidewalk.
They were scattered everywhere because someone had thrown them away. When the garbage man
poured the trash into the truck, the cards must have fallen out and ended up littering the sidewalk. The
cards were several feet apart due to the wind. Without hesitation, I picked them all up. I was a 16 year
old sports fan, so why wouldn’t I pick up thrown away sports cards? At that moment, I then realized that
I had been a victim of racism. This woman told the police there was “a black man lurking in and out of
bushes with a book bag on”.
Anyway, me being oblivious to the fact some random person, not even from my town, just
called the police on me, I continued on my walk home. Suddenly, as I’m crossing a driveway to get to the
other side of the sidewalk, this police car cuts me right off and parks in front of me. I had no idea what
was going on. The officer hopped out of his cruiser and instantly started questioning me. He asked me if
I was hiding in people’s backyards, if I had any weapons, where I was going, where I was coming from,
what was my name and so on. I told him I was just walking home from school, and I was only picking up
thrown away basketball and football cards. I assured him I was not in Mercado 2 anyone’s yard. The
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cards were scattered on the sidewalk of a house that had huge privacy bushes, and that’s where the
woman got her story that I was ducking in and out of bushes. The cop was understanding and not
aggressive or anything like that. Thankfully for me, he was nothing like some of the police officers we’ve
seen over the last year and a half killing innocent people of color. Of course, doing his job, he had to
write down all my information which made me quite upset. I thought to myself, that if I had been white,
that lady would have thought I was just getting up from the sidewalk, that maybe I tripped or
something.
It is extremely concerning to think of the fact that if this woman was so impulsive to call the
cops, how easily she could have reacted in a different manner. The current news shows incidents of
innocent teens of color being shot simply because of a misunderstanding. For me, that could have been
the case considering she was so quick to inappropriately react. Lastly, when I got home, I told my
grandfather and then called my mom and dad informing them of what had happened. My mom was
furious and emotional, like all mothers are when they’re kids’ lives are put in danger. She called the
police department requesting a Freedom of Information request and was given access to the recorded
phone call. In the phone call the woman said to the police that there was “a tall black man lurking in and
out of bushes with a book bag on”.
At the time I found her description of me so odd because I’m not black or tall. From far away
maybe it seemed that way to the lady or maybe she was just exaggerating my image. After my mom had
gathered all the information, she needed she decided to give this woman a phone call. My mother
criticized the lady about her despicable actions and informed her of the type of person I really was. I
wasn’t a “lurking” criminal or menace to society.
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Before concluding I want it to be known that although my experience back in 2017 was a white
woman targeting me, I do want to clarify that it is not only white individuals who are racist. I understand
that racism exists within all races and is targeted toward all. It’s unfortunate to admit that racism
shapes society as it is today. Though some people will claim that racism does not exist, I believe that it is
solely because they have never been a victim.
As a man in this world, this incident taught me to be more vigilant to how people are treating
me and how I am treating them. Racism is not only targeted to one specific race. At the time of this
incident, I was underage, and this woman did not seem to have any idea of how her actions would
forever impact my life. If I had to chose one positive lesson learned from this event, I can happily say
that this woman made me never want to be anything like her