Driving While Black: African Americans and the Automobile
Peoples & Things
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The History of Black People on the Road
The earliest police departments in the United States were really started as slave catchers. So they would often think that for example if you had a kind of grummy car, you must be a drug dealer. But then the opposite is also true. If you were a black person, you had a very fancy car, youmust be a drugdealer. And so the police would use excuses for stopping people, fancy car, dilapidated car. It has continued to the present day, these stereotypes about African Americans who are out on the road. Sometimes this has led to a shooting and sometimes it's led to a death.
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