NOLA White Privilege Example

Today, I had to meet a contractor who owed me money. The contractor is black and I'm white. We do quite a bit of work with each other and to not put him out, I agreed to meet him near a job site located on Felicity Street, near Claiborne Avenue.

While I was parked on the street for 20 minutes, NOPD drove by four or five times. When the contractor arrived, he pulled up to the front of my car and parked on the wrong side of the street.

His work truck is white with tinted window and brand new. Now, NOPD passed us up, did an immediate U turn and parked to see what the hell was going on with this white truck and white man.

My black contractor friend mentioned that the NOPD probably thought it was a drug deal, which for that area would not be a stretch to imagine. I told him I'd take care of it.

I then walked to the front of the truck so that the NOPD officer could see me, I waved that I was OK, and he left.
This same event takes place in cities across America every day. Nothing out of the ordinary.

In a crime ridden city like New Orleans, as a white businessman, I know the police will not question me without a very good reason. My friend, on the other hand, knows all too well what being profiled is like.

I joked with the contractor about my ability to wave off NOPD simply by showing my middle aged white face. His son, watching the whole thing didn't look very comfortable with the NOPD scrutiny his dad was getting. Institutional white privilege is real. What happens when someone like me isn't there to simply wave away profiled attention?

My contractor friend's brother was shot and killed less than 6 months ago for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. No big deal, just another dead person in NOLA. No news coverage, no public outrage. Just a normal thing in the black community.

Something has to change.