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Driving While Black, abbreviated as DWB, is a phrase in the contemporary American vernacular that refers to the criminalization of black drivers. An alternate phrase, Driving While Brown, is more encompassing, referring to the crime of being a non-Caucasian driver.
Derivation edit
"Driving While Black" is word play on the name of a real U.S. crime, driving while intoxicated. The phrase implies that a motorist may be pulled over by a police officer simply because he or she is black, and then questioned, searched, and/or charged with a trivial offense. This concept stems from a long history of racism in the United States, United Kingdom, and other countries. The term refers to racial profiling, which is said to be used by police and other law enforcement officials.[1]
Variations edit
The related concept of "shopping while black/brown" refers to the notion that non-whites are subject to increased surveillance while shopping[citation needed]. Other plays on the phrase include "walking while black" for pedestrian offenses[dead link] "learning while black" for students in schools,[2] and "eating while black" for restaurants.[3] Actor Danny Glover held a press conference in 1999 because cabdrivers weren't stopping for him in New York City; this was called "hailing while black". The phenomenon was investigated further on Michael Moore's television series TV Nation.
In 2001, the American Civil Liberties Union convinced the United States Drug Enforcement Administration to repay $7,000 that it had seized from a black businessman in the Omaha, Nebraska airport on the false theory that it was drug money; the ACLU called it "flying while black". A pain specialist who treats sickle-cell disease patients at Manhattan's Beth Israel Medical Center reported that for many years doctors forced African American sickle-cell sufferers to endure pain because they assumed that blacks would become addicted to medication; Time magazine labeled this "ailing while black." [dead link][dead link]
Criticism of the term edit
On October 31, 2007, black conservative Thomas Sowell devoted an editorial column to rebutting the common claim that police officers stop black drivers because of their race.[4]
Sowell refers to the book Are Cops Racist? by Heather MacDonald. According to Sowell, MacDonald examined the claim that police officers pull black drivers over because they are black, and found that the empirical evidence did not support the claim. Sowell claims that the mainstream media has ignored this book and its evidence.
See also edit
References edit
- ^ Harris, D. (1999) "The stories, the statistics, and the law: Why 'Driving While Black' matters", 84 Minnesota Law Review. pg. 265-326. Retrieved May 7, 2007.
- ^ Morse, J. (2002) "Learning while black", TIME Retrieved May 7, 2007.
- ^ Coolican, P. (2003) "Chief vows to root out profiling by Patrol," Seattle Times. 11/21/2003. Retrieved May 7, 2007
- ^ Thomas Sowell
Further reading edit
- Kelvin R. Davis (2001). Driving While Black: Coverup. Interstate International Pub. ISBN 093190403X.
- David Harris (1999). Driving While Black: Racial Profiling on our Nation's Highways. ACLU.
- Kowalski, Brian R.; Lundman, Richard J. (2007). "Vehicle stops by police for driving while Black: Common problems and some tentative solutions". Journal of Criminal Justice. 35 (2): 165–181. doi:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2007.01.004. Retrieved 2007-06-12.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - Kenneth Meeks (2000). Driving While Black: What To Do If You Are A Victim of Racial Profiling. New York: Broadway. ISBN 0-7679-0549-0.