(Editor’s note: I originally wrote this in July. I was leery about posting a controversial piece. I decided it’s too important.)
I don’t know why the video footage of Sandra Bland’s arrest has me so shaken-up?
I can relate to the stress and annoyance Sandra felt that day. I hear it in her voice. She was smart and articulate. She was an “Angry Black Woman”. She was exasperated and tired. She was “Driving While Black”.
If she had been a White woman, if that had been me? Would I have been treated the same way? Would I have been pulled over? Would I have been spoken to in the same way? Would I have been arrested? Would I have died?
I am a smart, outspoken, sassy and sarcastic (White) woman. It gets me in trouble sometimes. It’s never gotten me arrested. It’s never gotten me killed.