{"id":791,"date":"2014-12-08T22:01:28","date_gmt":"2014-12-09T06:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/r9f.352.myftpupload.com\/?p=791"},"modified":"2014-12-08T22:01:28","modified_gmt":"2014-12-09T06:01:28","slug":"benefit-of-the-doubt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/?p=791","title":{"rendered":"Benefit of the Doubt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"http:\/\/maverickphilosopher.typepad.com\/.a\/6a010535ce1cf6970c01b8d06105e4970c-pi\"<\/a>The other night I walked out of CVS without paying for photos I\u2019d just printed. By the time I realized my mistake, I was back home and too exhausted to return to the store.<\/p>\n

I confessed my inadvertent shoplifting to my husband.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you were a black man, the police would be here hauling you in,\u201d he remarked. \u201cYou might end up dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was the same day a grand jury failed to indict<\/a> a white policeman for the choking death<\/a> of an unarmed black man whose crime was selling individual cigarettes. Less than two weeks earlier, the Ferguson grand jury<\/a> let another white officer off the hook for killing an unarmed black teenager who had recently stolen a pack of cigarillos. Two days before the Ferguson decision, a 12-year-old black boy playing with a toy gun was shot to death <\/a>within seconds by the responding white police officer. Earlier this summer, a black man who was inspecting a toy gun while browsing in Walmart was shot to death<\/a> after alarmed shoppers called the police.<\/p>\n

Each situation is different, of course. But the key difference is that they were black, and I am white. I do not have to think about clerks tailing me in stores. I can come and go without arousing suspicion. Even if I were somehow caught in the act with my purloined photos, I would be given the benefit of the doubt. I could buy a toy gun for my child and count on not being killed.<\/p>\n

But Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, John Crawford, and so many boys and men whose skin is darker than mine cannot. That\u2019s the real crime.<\/p>\n

I returned to CVS the next morning to pay for my photos.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for your honesty,\u201d said the clerk, smiling as he handed me the change.<\/p>\n

I continued on with my day–another key difference between me and those whose days have been cut short.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other night I walked out of CVS without paying for photos I\u2019d just printed. By the time I realized my mistake, I was back home and too exhausted to return to the store. I confessed my inadvertent shoplifting to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[63,276,277,278,279,280,281,282,283,284],"class_list":["post-791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","category-personal","tag-racism","tag-white-privilege","tag-tamir-rice","tag-michael-brown","tag-eric-garner","tag-john-crawford","tag-racial-tension","tag-unarmed-black-men-shot-by-police","tag-ferguson","tag-grand-juries"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2F8Ch-cL","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=791"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":796,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791\/revisions\/796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shrinkrapped.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}