Week Four, Post One (Notes)

Discussion Prompt: Describe how the weather fares with you, hour to hour, or day to day. Keep a diary (real or mental) of how the law weighs on you. Remember, being able to not think about the law is itself a luxury.

Do you spend any time thinking about how to avoid the police?

Does this issue ever cross your mind? Why or why not?

This discussion has the potential to create a collective ethnography of the law’s weather and how we live beneath it.

Discussion Response: As a young black woman, I am lucky that I do not have the same target on my back that a black man would have. However, it is a target nonetheless. I have found that when driving, especially at night, I pay a lot of attention to the police in my town. It is not because I am doing anything wrong, but because I have heard too many horror stories about black individuals having poor encounters with the police that they simply could not prevent and with damages that they could not mitigate. It is frustrating that in the past two years that I have begun driving that this has plagued my mind, but nevertheless, for many people that look like me, it is necessary for survival.