"Last week, I was talking with a young man, Pinot, during my time in another country. He told me that he really wants to visit America, but one thing seriously frightens him: the possibility of police officers stopping, harassing and potentially inflicting violence on him. He asked me if these situations really happen as often as it seems. Pinot is Black."
"Yesterday, I was scrolling one of my social media timelines and saw this CBS News video of police officers in Jacksonville, Fla., terrorizing William McNeil Jr. I felt my blood pressure and anxiety rising as I watched. I had not previously seen it, but maybe Pinot had. It is plausible that others around the world have as well. Videos like these teach young people across the U.S. and abroad a set of heartbreaking, inexcusable truths about crimes committed against Black men in America."
"As was the case in last week's conversation with Pinot, I would not be able to tell a talented young Black male prospective college applicant from Africa, Jamaica, London, Paris or anyplace else that what he has seen on television or social media are rare, isolated occurrences. I would be lying. Truth is, racial profiling and police brutality happen far too often. As I said to Pinot, "What you see and hear about this is not not true.""
A young Black prospective student named Pinot fears visiting America because of the risk of being stopped, harassed, or subjected to violence by police. A widely shared video showing Jacksonville officers terrorizing William McNeil Jr. triggered anxiety and illustrates how social media spreads painful images that influence perceptions globally. Many talented Black prospective international students may opt out of applying to U.S. universities because such incidents signal that racial profiling and police brutality are common rather than rare. The narrator withheld a personal 2007 encounter initially to avoid deepening Pinot's fears, then began to recount that incident.
Read at Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs
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