#stopfrisk

A powerful video emerged online this week called "The Hunted and the Hated: An Inside Look at the NYPD's Stop-and-Frisk Policy." There's so much you can walk away with after watching the video. The opportunities for conversation are endless. 

One thing that really stuck with me is the entire narrative of suspicious and what comes to mind when we think of the word. 

Out of the thousands of Black and Latino men that have been stopped over the years, I don't know a single one. I have a lot of friends of color that live in Harlem but they have never been stopped.

I think missing in this conversation is honesty about the class component. Traditional communities of color like Harlem and certain parts of Brooklyn are becoming increasingly socioeconomically diverse. There are a variety of incomes all existing in the same neighborhoods. 

The men that I know that have never been stopped don't usually wear hoodies. They don't own a single pair of Timberland boots. They don't sport doo-rags or wear pants below their waist.

We have to talk about class. We have to talk about attire. We have to talk about the image of suspicion. It is extremely specific. 

After Trayvon Martin was killed, I asked men of color in Syracuse about their experiences with racial profiling. Syracuse doctoral candidate Don Sawyer made a special point to emphasize that young men like Trayvon are deemed suspicious not just because of their hoodies but because of their black bodies inside of their hoodies. 

I think having a conversation about race, class and by extension clothes is necessary when talking about Stop and Frisk but I haven't really seen that discussion emerge.