While I was having coffee on Hollywood Boulevard the other day A Black man violated an Asian woman. I didn’t pay her or her friend any mind when I saw them come and go. Ten minutes later the security guard, a Black man who I’m friends with, pops his head out to the patio to tell me a Black man with a hoodie slapped one of the Asian women’s drink from her hand. I immediately became incensed and asked if the guy was still around so we could confront him. He said that the man had already left.
You see, Hollywood Blvd is a community, and most of the vendors, performers, business staff and regular patrons like myself know each other. I could rally a crew to right a wrong in minutes. Another friend of mine, a sightseeing tour promoter, came by and said hi. I mentioned the violent act to him and he gave me the “what do you want to do about it” look. I told him the guy was long gone. I thought about buying the woman another drink and apologizing about my brother’s actions but she too had left.
On my way out, I mentioned to my security guard friend how messed up that guy’s actions were. What he said next eliminated all of my motivation to help the Asian woman. He told that me she asked if she should report a hate crime. HUH??? That one statement showed me that this woman didn’t need my help at all nor my reassurance that I had her back; America had her back. By instantly leaning on hate crime laws this woman showed me that society had already efficiently communicated to her that it would fiercely avenge crimes against her. She had the faith in Law Enforcement that we Black people lack.
Law Enforcement and the American government have preferences in who they wish to enforce laws against. They also enforce those laws selectively. This causes different groups to view law enforcement’s role in society differently. Had an Asian man slapped a Black woman’s drink to the ground the Black woman would have likely took the law into her own hands, not because she’s tough, but rather because, unlike the Asian woman, Black women (generally speaking, of course) don’t see law enforcement as the solution to these types of situations and would likely feel they are on their own. If the Black woman in the example above were to report the crime, Law Enforcement would likely take it less seriously and give it less pursuit because of the racial dynamic. However, the shoe being on the other foot would likely cause the cops to pursue the criminal. I’ve seen police pursue and arrest two of my Black Hollywood Boulevard friends, when they weren’t guilty.
An Asian woman claiming a hate crime sets into motion Law Enforcement’s hurt-the-Black-man proclivities. It creates an avenue for them to do what they do best and what their original purpose as slave patrols was, hurt Black men under the color of authority. An Asian woman saying “hate crime” sets law enforcement into motion like a Black person claiming racism sets social standard enforcement into motion. The former makes the police pursue Black men and the latter makes them think before they act. It also causes them to make efforts to evade racism accusations.
A country’s citizens and subjects’ behavior indicates the character of that nation. Dr. Francis Cress Welsing taught an effective tool for understanding the government’s disparate treatment of different types of American citizens;
If you’re White, you’re alright.
If you’re Yellow, hello!
If you’re Brown, stick around.
If you’re Black, get back!!!
This “Yellow” lady feeling she could lean on the government to right her being wronged stands in stark contrast to my recent attempts to get LAPD to address my car being burglarized by a tow company that illegally towed my car. I filed a report and, nothing. I visited the station to ask what the investigation’s status was and, nothing. I called the Detective Roger Klohr, the detective assigned to the case, and nothing. Then I wrote a letter and had I not use the tactic of implying race possibly being involved, I doubt if they would have even responded. As I stated above, allegations of criminality and Black men sets law enforcement in motion. Allegations of racism, set social standards in motion. LAPD called me, not to address my criminal complaint, but to clear up my inferring racial bias. I had to compel the officer evaluating the possible bias to have the detective call me about the still unaddressed criminal complaint. When Detective Klohr finally did call, he was combative and was steadfast against investigating my complaint because it was beyond the two year statute of limitation. But it was beyond the statute of limitation solely because they ignored my complaint. Since my earlier complaint to Chief Moore only resulted in them calling me to clarify I wasn’t calling them racists, I wrote a complaint to Mayor Garcetti. As of this writing Mayor Garcetti has too ignored my complaint. So much for me thinking government is for me. It doesn’t even see me. I wouldn’t call LAPD if I were robbed at gunpoint and knew where the robber lived. The Asian woman whose drink was slapped from her hands clearly has the opposite impression of what government and law enforcement does.
I may not be able to stop myself from taking it to heart when a man violates a woman but I will definitely keep in mind that if they are Asian or White, I can stand down because America has put extra measures in place to ensure the violator will face harsh consequences.