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<\/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>\nI 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