Racism and a Cop Literally Cost Me Five-Thousand Dollars
Ā During my senior year, I scratched a car and because I thought it was just paint rubbing off on their car, I didnāt leave a note. 30 minutes after I got home, a cop showed up at my door, pulled me out of my home and told me Iād done a hit and run.Ā
Iād never been more confused.Ā
I thought hit and runs were reserved for things like shooting and driving away or actually hitting someone with your car. I became scared. And I had just changed into my pajamas and had on my motherās smoke scented jacket.Ā
Ā My white mother wasnāt home to protect me from this. To him I was one of those black kids who moved here to āruin the areaā.Ā
If I had been a young white girl, scared and crying, he would have soothed me, assured me my insurance would cover it and take my information.Ā
Ā He left me on my front porch, shaking and crying and thinking I was heading to jail.
Ā In the days leading up to the court date, I was assured that the judge would laugh it off and take it to the insurance. Jail time for a scratch for a high schooler who didnāt even have a speeding ticket? Everyone in my white town laughed because it sounded so ridiculous. They were not laughing after I came back from my first court date with another one.Ā
The family demanded five thousand dollars to buy a new car because the insurance would ājunkā theirs because it was so old. Five thousand dollars to have the paint fixed and to buy a new car. Five thousand dollars coming from a high school student.Ā
It was five thousand dollars or jail.
Ā My family coughed up the five thousand dollars to keep me out of jail and let me go to college. If you think they would throw a white high school student in jail or demand five thousand dollars from them you are wrong. Thatās five thousand dollars I could have used for college. Five thousand for books. Five thousand for dorm fees.Ā
Ā All because a cop thought I was āOne of the bad onesā.Ā
If you wanna donate to me, cool. If you donāt, whatever. The things here is itās another story to show of a copās racism affecting black people is not limited to just killing them. If I had gone to jail, if I didnāt have parents willing to help, if I didnāt have the ability to go to my six court dates, that would have been game over for me. It would have ruined my life.Ā