Move Along

If you really want to get Minneapolitans edgy about crime, kill some white people. Since the random murders of two middle-class whites in Uptown and downtown, near Block E, both places where affluent people live, work, and spend big entertainment dollars, Minneapolis has dramatically raised its police profile at those locations. Block E, with its proximity to the city’s most populous African-American neighborhoods, has drawn large numbers of black teens and twentysomethings since the $170 million entertainment complex opened in 2002. Even before the March 30 murder of thirty-one-year-old Alan Reitter, black kids frequenting Block E, who often wear hip-hop clothes and enthusiastically embrace the swagger that goes along with it, were sometimes perceived as a menace by white patrons.

On a Friday night in mid-April, I decided to catch a movie at Block E with my sixteen-year-old son Alexander. I wanted to see for myself whether young, African-American males were targeted by security more frequently than other patrons, and, if they were, whether their behavior warranted the extra scrutiny. Beyond that, I wanted to get the African-American males’ perception of how they were regularly treated.

I found that groups of African-American males were scrutinized more closely than groups of white young people by security guards and also were more frequently asked to move along. Admittedly, this was just one evening’s worth of observations, but that was all it took to witness the disparity. Shortly after Alexander and I arrived, we saw a guard order a group of African-American males, who were chatting amiably, to leave the building. Within about twenty feet of them were groups of white teenagers that the guard left alone.

When I asked the guard why he had rousted the black kids, he curtly replied that I was “interfering with his duties.” When I told him that I intended to continue watching his interactions with Block E patrons, he ordered me to leave the building. When I protested, he called the Minneapolis police and asked them to toss me out. After the police arrived, I explained who I was and what I was doing. They told me that I was free to observe whatever I wanted so long as I did not speak to the security guards. A few minutes later, I saw the guard who had tried to expel me engaged in a friendly chat with some white patrons.

I then spoke with the rousted African-American kids, who were dressed in what they called their “hangin’ out with their boys clothes.” One told me that he was tired of security people and cops “mean mugging” him. “The brothas always get singled out down here,” he said. “The cops think we’re up to something and these young white wannabes hit on us for weed.” When I pointed out that some African-American males do hassle white passersby, as attested to by some of my white friends, nineteen-year-old Derrick R., who did not offer his last name, conceded the point. “Yeah, some of the brothas are acting like fools sometimes,” he said, “But hey, we all gotta hang out someplace.” Twenty-year-old Isaiah Thomas added that black guys have to dress more conservatively than whites to get respect. “If a nigga has got a good fit [i.e. nice clothes], and acts like he’s about something, then he ain’t as likely to get hassled.” His friends nodded in agreement, with one adding, “Yeah, that’s true brother, but it ain’t right.”

The following Monday, I spoke with a senior official with Securitas, the company that employs the overly zealous security guard. The official predictably said that Securitas did not train its security guards to profile African-Americans or to hassle anyone engaged in lawful conduct. You know what? I believe him. Securitas is not the problem—it is much deeper and more systemic than that. Ever since the earliest days of slavery, the mere presence of a group of black males has been interpreted as threatening by many whites. That is, unless they are wearing a business suit or a uniform of some kind—say, for a sports team—which signals that they are properly domesticated and under control. One black man can be easily cowed if he gets out of line. A group of black men is more likely to fight back. At some deep subconscious level, white America knows that black men have plenty of valid reasons for wanting to avenge centuries of abuse. And, as we all know, payback is a bitch.

I will candidly admit that some groups of African-Americans males do, to borrow Derrick R.’s phrase, “act a fool sometimes” and exploit this historic white fear. However, as a society we have got to come to grips with the legacy of this fear if we are to peacefully co-exist, as individuals and groups, at places like Block E.