Letter: See life as a minority before judging

I can no longer sit back and read some of the letters and comments in this paper without a response. I don’t know if the grand jury process in Ferguson, Mo., was correct or flawed but I do know that black Americans are treated differently than their white peers.

To my Clark County neighbors who have known my family for years, my African-American husband has been stopped several times because he “resembled” a suspect. Some might claim it’s only because black people commit more crime yet a bit of research can tell you that the bulk of crime in Clark County is committed by people who are not African-American.

My husband, after calling 911 in the middle of the night to report his vehicle was being broken into, was required to prove he lived at our residence (despite meeting police in his pajamas and robe). The officers ran a check for warrants before they even took a report. Do you think that would have happened to any of my white neighbors in our stable middle-class neighborhood?

Those who haven’t experienced being a minority should stop making statements suggesting we live in a non-racist world and only people with bad intentions get arrested.

Am I excusing illegal behavior or indicating that my family and I don’t have the utmost respect for law enforcement? Not at all. I’m saying that there are members of law enforcement who come to every interaction with an African-American man with a sense of trepidation, and there are African-American men who have the same trepidation about any interaction with law enforcement. Before we can improve, we must know this potential bias.

It’s a shame that along with teaching my children the importance of respect for the police, I also had to teach them that their response must be very careful to never give the impression of a threat by reaching for a wallet or insurance paperwork. I’m guessing that most Clark County residents don’t have to go that far in their training.

This is why so many are protesting with a message that “Black lives matter” because too often, they have not.

Lynn Samuels

Vancouver