John Feinstein:
Driving while black. I did not interview one black person who had not had at least one experience with driving while black, pulled over for no apparent reason.
And the first question is always, where’d you get this car? Because a black person, in the minds of many police, shouldn’t be driving a nice car, especially at night.
There’s a story that Doc Rivers, the coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, told me about one of his teammates, Kenny Norman, making the mistake of stopping to get gas in South Central L.A., and the next thing he knew he was across the hood of his car with handcuffs on, because the cops pulled up and just assumed that the car was stolen.
My favorite story, though, is about Cullen Jones, the Olympic swimmer, who went out one night to walk his dog. And a police car went by, made a U-turn, came back, and the police officer said, “Where did you get that dog?”
“It’s my dog.”
“What kind of dog is it?”
“It’s a bulldog terrier.”
“How long have you had it?”
“Since he was a puppy.”
And the guy goes, “OK,” and then he drives away.
And I said to Cullen well, you’re the first person I have interviewed who was a victim of WDWB, walking dog while black. That was different.
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