Police hate me cuz im theyre sworn enemy
Niggas hate me cuz the themselves they se in me
And thats the side effects of the sickess this contagious disease
a planted spiteful seed grew into a hateful tree
no normal oxygen every inhalation
is another reminder of my place in the nation
and what success will bring about my head
without tryin I live on the Edge
-The real DNA of the Black experience
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King Anyi on NPR 7/14/2006
DNA of the Black Experience
NPR, News and Notes with Ed Gordon
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5557545
July 14, 2006

Intro:
Youth Radios Anyi Howell says for many young black males, being detained or harassed by police can be like a rite of passage into adulthood.

Script:
The first time I fit the description of a suspect, I was ten. And the more I was stopped for conversations with police...the more I began to make adjustments in my life. I had to learn not to stand outside the house with nondescript cups, or ride four deep to the club. Some of my friends like to keep all the registration papers in their glove box ultra updated. Others get nervous about how many people in their backseat are wearing ballcaps.

For as long the term racial profiling has been around, fools have been denying the phenomenon exists. But I contend every black man in America at some point will be racially profiled or harassed by the police. It's a part of the DNA of our experience in the United States.

One morning last spring, while I was parking my car at the BART train station, a police officer looked at me and ran my license plate. He entered a false number, and my Oldsmobile Royale Brougham 88 came back as a stolen Honda. So now, Im a car thief. My friend Elmer and I weren't prepared for what happened next...

Elmer: Our conversation was interrupted very rudely and abruptly...in the distant background, I hear a voice of an officer in the back saying Everybody move aside... (cut to) and I turned around to see the barrel of the officer's gun face to face and he tells me to step back and stand on the concrete. He was like, brothers like you guys, I know how yall get down" (cut to)...He's not talking to us like citizens - he's talking like we're convicted felons he's delivering to Massachusetts for multiple murders.

The BART Police Officer realized his mistake on the triple check, and after embarrassing himself, he let us go. That wasn't the first time a police officer came at me sideways. But I was floored by the reality that an officer's simple mistake was enough for him to approach me at gunpoint.

The situation is so bad, I know brothas who are putting magnets and stickers on their cars that read, "Support Our Troops" because they think displays of patriotism will stop them from getting profiled.

That strategy would only work if you could slap a "Caucasian" bumper sticker on your black self. But please believe when I got my new car and went to the auto parts store, I bought a case of oil, transmission fluid, and a couple of American flags. You know, just to keep my car running.

When you go from being a black boy to a black man, you start to understand police will use deadly force on you. I could sneeze and get shot to death. The next time police harassment happens to me, Im demanding a certificate of release. Its a document saying a person was detained but not arrested - and then let go. Almost like a receipt for racial profiling. More than just another story to add to my experiences with out-of-pocket police.

Im Anyi Howell.

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Had a conversation with a cop
on a routine traffic stop
Im letting you off
he said i said thanks alot
really i was shocked when i he said with a smerk
if you wrote the book on how to get pulled over it'd work
u knew how to respond and you didnt act nervous
all i could say was practice make perfect
-Now that yours gone i can fire this back up