Last Thursday, two men entered a Starbucks location in Philadelphia. They were waiting for a third man to discuss a business deal. They sit down at a couple of benches and kill time by looking a their phones. They are bothering no one.
The next thing they know, they are arrested for trespassing.
This happened to two black men last weekend.
This story makes me sick to my stomach. These men were not making trouble. They were merely waiting for the person who they were going to discuss the business deal with. While one could argue that they did not buy anything, I find that argument ridiculous. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve stopped in Starbucks without buying anything. I’ve also used the bathroom without buying anything. I was not harassed nor was I arrested.
I don’t blame the police, they were merely doing their job. Even though, one could argue that the arresting officers could have been not so quick to put the handcuffs on the men and do a little more digging. I blame the manager who called the police.
I’d like to hope that in 2018, we live in a post racial world. We judge others, especially minorities, as Martin Luther King Jr. said “not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character”. But hope often springs eternal, so unfortunately does racism.
Writergurlny 