I'm a Black Female Scientist. On My First Day of Work, a Colleague Threatened to Call the Cops On Me

[gollygee]

This isn't an odd thing here and there. It is our culture, and we have to acknowledge it, interrupt it every single time - both in others and ourselves - and create a world where this doesn't happen.

From Mother Jones: https://www.motherjones.com/anti-racism-police-protest/2020/06/blackintheivory-racism-academia-science-stem/

She says, “No, I’ve never seen you before. I’m gonna need to see your identification.” And I’m like, fair, you know? I pull out my ID. It says assistant professor of biology, the name of the school, my picture, the year. Also, there was a copier machine in there and I recognized the scanning pad. I scan my card and hey look! It buzzes me into the printer. And she was like, “I don’t think that’s real. I’m gonna have to call the cops.” I’m like, “What? Wait a second. No, I work here.” She asks me where my office is, and I didn’t know because nobody had shown me where my office was. It was so overwhelming.

I couldn’t find my mailbox. I was too frustrated. Too surprised. Too shocked. I was only about 23 years old when this happened, and so I didn’t have enough of a voice. I was still pretty young to say, “Hey lady, get off my back. I work here. I just showed you my ID. It’s my first day. Leave me alone.” Instead, what I did was walk with her to the department office so the secretary could vouch for me—another white woman—so that they could communicate to each other that I am an actual person and that I exist and that I actually work there. And so the suspicious woman said, “Oh, well, why didn’t you say anything? You just don’t look like you could work here.” And she walked away. There was no apology. It was so uncomfortable. And I don’t know if the worst part about it was the secretary was just like, “All right. That’s solved. And now go about your day.”

When I made the #BlackintheIvory post, people said, “Oh, well, you’re probably young.” Yes, but there’s a difference between a misunderstanding and threatening to call the police. You don’t threaten to call the cops on somebody that you think is too young to be somewhere, unless they’re at a bar. I was checking my mail. I had a suit on. There was nothing violent going on, there was no reason to call law enforcement. Professors send students in the faculty mailroom all the time to run errands. To make copies. To go fetch things from the printer. So it didn’t even occur to her that I could be even one of those students. She didn’t ask me, “Are you somebody’s student?” It just went straight to, “I’m gonna call the police.”

This is the Black experience. Because being a professor in higher education is a privilege. And when people see that a Black person has that privilege, they automatically are suspicious.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. What happened to this Black Female Scientist was, and IS, WRONG, ALWAYS.

And we must call it out and stop allowing it to happen.

And shame to the secretary who didn't back her up. Disgusting.

We have a very long way to go.

[StarfishSaver]

2. This happens ALL the time. Most black people can give you a long list of times

some random white person demand we "show them our papers" verifying our right to be in the space we were both occupying and, when we refused, threatened to call the authorities on us.

Not only are the lists long, the most recent events on them are likely very recent.

[ProfessorGAC]

3. Very Insulting

I wouldn't have experienced any such thing, but I can feel your anger.
I don't blame you.
"Show me your ID"? A racist insult.
They'd never have done that to me.

[gollygee]

6. It's even more than insulting. It's dehumanizing and potentially dangerous.

Calling the police is dangerous.

This is not an odd thing. It's the norm. This is what is normal.

[StarfishSaver]

7. Yes, it is

And the insult is compounded when our white allies instruct us on how we should have handled it by telling us what THEY would have done.

"Why didn't you just show them your ID? That's what *I* would have done," etc.

[ProfessorGAC]

8. I Wouldn't Have Told You That

Because I would have told someone questioning me to step off.
"I'll call security". Go ahead. I don't have to answer to you.
You would not have gotten "That's what I would have done", from me. Because I wouldn't have complied.
But, then I'm a white guy.

[tulipsandroses]

18. As the writer said, she was young. I can relate. My first real job out of college

I had to deal with a racist co-worker who supervised me. Not only did he say racist things to me, He took credit for work that I did. Unfortunately, I was young and insecure and had not found my voice yet. I quit instead of speaking up. Today, it would be a different story. I would not have quit. Not before giving him a piece of my mind and filing a complaint with HR and letting them know that I would take it further if they did not take action.

I come from a family of blue collar workers. First to go to college. My parents were so proud. It sounds weird, but they were so excited that I was the first in the family to have a " professional" job. I didn't have the heart to tell them what was going on.

[ProfessorGAC]

19. That's A Drag, Too

I don't share your experiences, but fwiw, here's one white guy who gets pissed off when I hear this kind of stuff.

[Blue_true]

40. My experience is almost exactly like yours.

My parents were laborers, my Mom was literate, but barely, my dad was illiterate. I was the first in my family to go to college, one of the few in the Black community where I was raised. So, I had no role models who could mentor me on how to handle college. It was hard, but I got my degree in Engineering.

At work, every boss that I had except three were either racist or hard conservatives who resented "affirmative action", so I got precious few breaks and almost no mentoring (that came from the three decent bosses). Despite that, I rose to senior ranks and a six figure income that put me in the top 10% of earners, yet, if I had been White, given the things that I accomplished, I likely would have been a corporate president.

You know how hard it is to be Black and a professional class worker. The isolation is almost unbearable. When I was young, meeting a professional woman to date or hang out with was impossible, add to that all my jobs were Surburban, to get to a big city where there were professional Black people would have taken a big drive.

[Chemisse]

36. It's so hard for white people to fathom being treated this way.

Last edited Mon Jun 29, 2020, 09:34 AM - Edit history (1)

In 2008 Michelle Obama made the comment “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m really proud of my country . . . " and was hotly criticized for it. At the time I tried to explain to a couple of people that black people don't grow up in the same America that whites do, that their reality is different and it's not good. It was like talking to brick walls. The only reality was theirs. Period.

It takes significant effort and imagination (assuming a willingness) to understand what someone else's life is like.

[LittleGirl]

43. That wasn't 2016

That was 2008 and Fox spews latched on to that and still haven't let it go. I knew exactly what she meant.

[Chemisse]

49. Of course. It was during his first election season. I just mixed up the years. I'll fix it. TY.

[2naSalit]

31. And you don't even have to be balck for a lot of them

To get their panties in a wad. I have an olive complexion and I grew up being called the N word and treated as such. My BC says "white" whatever that means. I have spent my life being sidelined and belittled and lied about for well over half a century, it's a wonder I have made it as far as I have.

[Blue_true]

41. You have a feel for how degrading and enraging it is.

Every thing that you listed happened to you happened to me almost daily. You know that a person is lying about you and even the people that don't believe that person refuse to or are afraid to intervene.

[2naSalit]

42. And whenever something is

"missing" the first place they look is at you because you're one of them who are thieves because darker skin..

[uponit7771]

4. K&R, I worked NOCs in the day time and wore my badge around my neck because being big and black

... means you didn't work IT.

It was awkward until I got to a place that was more diverse

[mrsadm]

54. what is an "NOC"? thanks...

[uponit7771]

56. Network Operating Center ... operations, lotsa rigs, big screens, regae music, flower shirts etc etc

[albacore]

5. And... if you'd blown your top and chewed her out..

..in their eyes, anyway.... shrill, nasty, and "one of those" black people.

A white man... and I speak with experience... would tell her to fuck off and a lot more, and that person would walk carefully around me the rest of her time in the company.

THAT is what white privilege looks like.

[2naSalit]

32. +1

How dare you speak for yourself in the face of bigotry? That's how I always see it.

[ck4829]

9. K&R

[WhiskeyGrinder]

10. All of the major institutions in the U.S. are built on white supremacy. We've got a lot of hard work

ahead of us.

[ismnotwasm]

11. And this is way to often simply the unexamined norm.

I bet the woman who wanted to call the cops would deny race had anything to do with it. Because that’s what we are down to now.

[gollygee]

16. Exactly

She would be offended that anyone thought it was racially motivated. But the thing is, this is such a part of our culture that we don't see it or notice it, and we have to. We have to consciously and intentionally look for it so we do see it and notice it. And it isn't just other people or Trump supporters. It's the whole culture.

[malaise]

20. It is racist to the core

She'd never have seen my ID.

[gollygee]

26. Absolutely, and somebody at that work place should have specifically told her so.

Like a supervisor or something. Someone needs responsibility to keep people accountable.

[gollygee]

29. Though I should add

This woman tried to hold someone accountable in the most relaxed and nicest possible way at her previous job and had a horrible experience as a result. It's at the front part of the article (I linked the end). She can't have the responsibility to call people on it. White people need to take on that responsibility - and that's why it's so important for us to be aware of it. We white people need to hold each other accountable.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

17. "[T]he unexamined norm" -- That's even scarier and more embarassing!

[Kid Berwyn]

12. Benefit of the Doubt.

It’s only for uh.

[erronis]

13. The day when all of us can embrace our very complex heritage and accept one another can't come soon

enough.

Every single person walking around in the US (and the rest of the world) has genetic material from many races.

I came "out of Africa", apparently up through the fertile crescent to northern asia (now russia) and then to scandinavia/england/US. Well, according to my male DNA. Over that period my ancestors interbred with many other tribes and races. And of course the viral infections along our long path have changed our genetics mightily.

Someone claiming to be a true "dixie" is just ignorant. Their grandparents and further back intermingled with people that have a lot more intelligence and culture than a "dixie".

[WhiskeyGrinder]

47. Race is not genetic.

[ladym55]

14. This seems a good place to remind people of this

Ohio State Representative Emilia Sykes launched "We belong here" because as a young woman of color she was constantly questioned on whether she had the right to go to her own office because she "didn't look like a legislator." (Sadly in the Ohio State House looking like a legislator means being a tubby white male with a vacuous expression.)

Rep. Sykes is bright and talented and Ohio should be grateful that she is a public servant, but ....

https://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/footnotes/what-legislator-looks-catch

[Mr.Bill]

15. There was a black gentleman who lived in my apartment building

in the 80s. He had just finished college and was a Pharmacist. He was nearly seven feet tall.

He used to tell me every day he is asked what college gave him a basketball scholarship so he could learn to be a Pharmacist. He had never played basketball.

He was resigned to the fact that he was going to be asked this for the rest of his life.

[TNNurse]

21. I have been on a rant today

elsewhere (but I have seen it here), about how ignorant and racist everyone in the south is. I bitched on the site and said I was leaving for awhile to calm down and might come back.

This should never have happened to this smart and competent woman, but I looked to see if it happened in the south. Western New York is not in the south. Neither is Minneapolis, Wisconsin and Arizona but racism has certainly been in the news there as well.

Hell, there are awful parts of the south and we need to fight it, but this kind of thing happens all over this country.

[gollygee]

30. I'm in Michigan and it happens here

It happens everywhere. It's a myth that it's just a southern thing. It's also a myth that it's just conservatives who do it.

[robbob]

37. Not only that, but I thought (hoped?) this was a story from a few decades ago!

At least! But no, apparently she left this job in 2017 so probably it’s from the last decade. And the horrible thing is that same prejudice that make the white coworker threaten to call the police instead of just asking what department she works in (in a friendly, non confrontational way) is the same prejudice that makes a cop upholster and draw their gun when approaching a person of colour, instead of politely approaching them.

[KentuckyWoman]

39. It is not southern at all.

I lived most of life in Kentucky, was in Georgia for quite a few years and now in Ohio. Yes, it had be called out in Kentucky and Georgia but Ohio is horrendous.

[Cal Carpenter]

22. This is so common

The plaza where I work, property management hired someone to monitor the parking lots (along with a few other duties) a couple years ago. They communicated that to all of the tenants, who were happy about it bc our lots were always full bc of illegal parking.

The guy's third day? One of the tenants called the cops on him for 'looking suspicious'. Would that have happened if he were white? Doubt it. There was nothing suspicious about him. They could have realized he was the guy who got hired to be there all the time that they knew about. Or maybe just assumed he had gotten a job at one of the 25 businesses here. Or, I dunno, just approached him and talked to him like a human being.

I noticed he was here a lot after a few days, introduced myself, chatted a bit (plaza is full of small businesses, generally a friendly place). As we got to know each other he told me about the cops getting called on him. Still dont know which tenant did it. Assholes. Fortunately the cops had been pretty chill about it, although they did call the landlord to verify his story. But anyone who calls the cops on a black man for no fucking reason knows damn well it could end badly.

Nothing shocks me anymore. Virtually every person of color I know well enough to get personal with has told me stories like this.

[Solly Mack]

23. K&R

[bobbieinok]

24. Strongly urge you read entire linked Mother Jones article!

[gollygee]

27. Yes, there is more! nt

[Joinfortmill]

25. What a terrible first impression for you. Ignorant, racist fools.

[jpak]

28. Assistant prof at 23 YO - good for her!

Still sucks how she was treated.

Hope she's a tenured full prof now...

And fuck off Karen.

[McCamy Taylor]

33. In hospitals Black doctors get asked to empty the trash

[whistler162]

34. On this I will put about 33% of the fault

on her department head or department secretary. Most schools, primary education, I have worked in I am taken around and introduced to my co-workers and the important people(secretaries/custodians).

[Maine-i-acs]

35. Friend of mine had an AA boyfriend, he would walk to her place from the bus stop

About 5 blocks. Nice neighborhood, nearly all Caucasian.
3/3 times he made this trip, cops were called and stopped him.
"Suspicious male seen in the area" was the call.
"He doesn't look like he lives around here" said the caller on one 911 call.

[Smackdown2019]

38. I would of ignore her.

I would let view the identification and same request to time see hers. Then after the exchange, walk about your business. If she then told you to stop, tell her to asked for administrator. But it seems cops would be this coworker's play, I would of said to go ahead call them. Then I would file an EEO. I would not went to no Secretary to prove I belong there.

[JI7]

45. black people have done that and many white people respond by saying

"why didn't they(black person) just _____".

And it becomes the black person's fault.

[Smackdown2019]

62. American.

I was not bringing up the color of ones skin. I was bringing up how I would pushed back and never be at the mercy of a Secretary who did not know who I was. If you act as you was to belong there with credentials and put it on the coworker to choose their own path, you will show that you are strong. Never show weakness! The administrator knows who are the employees. This would of been a good EEO case.

Now, as putting what you respond what white people say.....

White, Black, Asian, American Indian, Mexican..... etc

We are ALL Americans, I am of American Indian Choctaw heritage.

Stand UP for yourself.... NEVER back down... it shows you are weak...


People feed off of weak!

Be STRONG!

[JI7]

63. To not bring up Race in this case is ignoring what happened

[Smackdown2019]

64. What do you suggest

What do you suggest she of done? You seen my suggested action, which was stand ones ground and use the words EEO. What do you suggest she should of done? I get the race issue... that's what EEO are for...

What else do you suggest she should of done?

[BumRushDaShow]

48. It's an everday thing

not one-off.

* You go to a supermarket in an urban area and open your pocketbook in the store to pull out your shopping list and a guard is standing right there staring at you.

* You take paid purchases in your shopping cart out to your car but have to manually drag your bags there because they block carts from going past the store perimeter into the parking lot using pole barriers

* You go to any "big box" store, pay for you purchases, and on your way out, a guard and/or store staff are standing there to check your receipt against the purchases in your cart before you can leave

* You walk into a clothing store and they follow you around, not to "help" but to make sure that you don't "shop lift".

This is what makes Amazon a shopping experience of choice.

It's every fucking day that "micro-aggressions" occur that have to be "ignored" to try to go on with life but enough is fucking enough.

[StarfishSaver]

50. You don't know WHAT you would have done in her position

Telling black people they did it wrong and they should have done what you think you would have done is not helpful.

Please just listen to what she says, try to feel some empathy, and refrain from second-guessing her.

[gollygee]

51. Rather than thinking about what you would have done if you were her

think about what you would have done if you were a white person witnessing this. Could you have interrupted this? What might you have done?

[JI7]

44. When White People are shown to be Wrong they continue to see themselves as the Victim

It's the black persons fault that the white person did all that.

And it's all about resentment on the part of white racists.

[greymattermom]

46. I'm a white woman in science.

I used to be taken for staff, not faculty, but never in 50 years did anyone threaten to call the police.

[vlyons]

52. I hope you teach your children

to say something like, "What are you? A white bigot? Why can't you accept that people of color are smart and capable of holding all sorts of professional jobs?

[llashram]

53. I thank you for this thumbnail

of the microaggressive systemic racism that this encounter with 2 racists entailed and describes. As long as White people continue to think they are superior in some manner to POC, they will never acknowledge the humanity, intelligence, worth, ability nor place earned in this society by the hard work of a POC still having to climb 2 mountains to one anthill of the 'superior race'.

This goddamn shit has to end. And it will but not well with the First Family of racists and grifters and their patriarch calling the shots these days.

[calimary]

55. I should be used to getting my mind blown on this issue by now.

But I'm not. This stuff just blows my mind.

Maybe that's a good thing.

[mrsadm]

57. OK here's a story - just to illustrate a point

My (black) sister-in-law was walking her 3 dogs in her nice suburban neighborhood when an Asian homeowner said hello and remarked how nice it was that she had a dog-walking job in the area. It's racism and presumptuousness as well.

[titanicdave]

58. .....Being The Smart Ass That I Am....

....I could very well have mooned the entire office and told them all to kiss my ass and I'd have walked out of that joint !!!!........This reminds me of an experience I had while serving in the Army.........I was stationed at a now defunct U S Army post in one of the reddest of the red southern states during the Viet Nam Era prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.......my best friend in the Army was an African American and I am Caucasian as opposed to "white" and that is another story altogether.....well, we both loved the hamburgers at this one place in town.......and he was refused service at this place because he was black !!!......so, we hated to do business with this place, but being young and foolish, we loved the burgers.......to make a long story short, he'd have to sit in the car and wait while I went in and ordered what we wanted, and then I'd bring out the burgers and we'd drive back to the Army Base and sit outside together and eat our lunch or dinner, whatever time of day it was.....it sounds as though things have not changed much in the past 60 years......DAMN !!!!

[llashram]

60. I love it when people tell me

"it's better than it used to be". Couldn't prove that by me. All I have to do is look toward 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. with the head "Karen" who shall now be known as an Ivanka and her father, brothers and husband, racists all.

[LiberalFighter]

59. Was it even in her duties to call police?

I would say she overstepped her authority.

[Nature Man]

65. I think anyone can call the cops

if they have access to a phone and can dial 911. There is no special authority required to do this.

[LiberalFighter]

66. This was in a company or organization setting.

An underling does not call the police unless it is an emergency in which case it would be 911.

You report an issue to your superior, an office secretary, or company security. And they handle it.

[electric_blue68]

61. Shocked but NOT Surprised :- ( .....

What an effin' shame for her!
Hopefully there's been a bit at least less now for her at least.

It shocks me because as someone who was raised to do my best to be anti-racist for over 50 yrs I'd hoped there'd be a lot less institutional, and individual racism by now.

OTOH it doesn't surprise me because I've been listening to by radio, and tv, on line, reading about black people's experiences for 50+ years. So I know in general how much it still goes on. Always more to learn.

Since I live in a multi racial city I have gotten, I get to have the benefit of enjoying good commaderie with work colleagues who are Black (and other POC), good bosses, good teachers/profersors, people with professional services I need, and good friends.
So I have many more circles of good possibilities for connections.