Acting White: Life In The Crosswalk

I was driving from Berkeley the other morning, heading for Oakland, when ethnicity presented a mini-performance right there in the crosswalk. The 'actors' were a young white woman, three teenage black youths (male), followed by an older white man. They were crossing in the same direction at a stop light of a four lane downtown parkway, with a center divider.

As I came to a stop in front of the crosswalk, the walk-signal beckoned the pedestrians. The white woman led off, followed by the three black youths. The white man brought up the rear, as he was tardy to the initial signal. The woman’s pace was exactly in sync to the amount of time she had to get to the other side. The white man moved in double time, to make up for his late start.

The only way to describe the pace of the black boys was as exaggerated sauntering. Now this sauntering is no problem in and of itself, but when combined with traffic it creates a problem. By the time the signal had expired, the three had only made it to the center island, but this was of no matter to them. They continued at the same pace (against the signal) through the second half of their crossing, even while traffic backed up. Long after the white woman and man were safely across, the three innocent-looking black man-boys held-up traffic, with their drooping pants, sideways caps, and no-concern attitudes.

As I watched this, my thoughts swirled about the futures of these boys, beginning with the grounding my mom or dad would have given me, if they had ever gotten a report of such behavior from me. I wondered how these boys would ever convince anyone, black, white or otherwise, to take a chance on them for that first job to jump start a future, where moving fast, when you don’t have to, is the difference between success and failure.

At that crosswalk, I was sad for their plight at the hands of their own obliviousness. But that’s just it, they were not oblivious! Their control and disruption of that intersection was very purposeful, and, sadly, an exercise of the most control (perhaps) they may ever experience in their ‘day late-dollar short’ lives. Yes, I was very sad that my delay of a few minutes was but a minuscule moment next to the self-imposed limitations of these young men.

James C. Collier

READ MOST RECENT POSTS AT ACTING WHITE...

Technorati Tags: Acting White: Life In The Crosswalk, Black Males, Profiling, Disparity, Culture, Acting White