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SI article - DWB

Discussion in 'Other Sports' started by drapg, Aug 12, 2002.

  1. drapg

    drapg Member

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    If you're a black pro athlete who owns a sweet ride and lives in a ritzy neighborhood in this country, chances are good you've been busted for DWB.

    Driving While Black.

    "It happens to me all the time, especially in Tampa," says Atlanta Braves outfielder Gary Sheffield, who grew up in Tampa. "I go home to see old friends, and I get stopped. Or if I'm driving slow, looking at my old neighborhood, I get stopped. It never happens in my truck, just in my nice cars."

    Denver Broncos defensive tackle Trevor Pryce says an officer followed him home once, pulled him over and said, "I don't think this is your car." And Pryce replied, "Why, because I'm black and driving a Corvette?" <b>Pryce has been pulled over for DWB so many times he has a new strategy. "I pull up right next to cops," he says, "roll down my windows and play my music as loud as I can. Nobody would do that driving a stolen car, right?" </b>

    "It's happened to me eight or nine times," says Miami Heat guard Jim Jackson. "I asked one cop in Dallas why he pulled me over, and he goes, 'Oh, we're just doing random checks.' Right. Random checks of black men in nice cars."

    When comedian Chris Rock was pulled over on a DWB, he jokes, "It scared me so bad, I thought I had stolen my car!"

    Three times this summer, Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams says, Fort Lauderdale police have stopped or hassled him for nothing more than the color of his skin.

    "One cop pulled me over for no other reason than I was a black man driving an expensive car [a Hummer]," says Williams, the former Heisman Trophy winner who moved to south Florida after being traded to the Dolphins in March. "They said later it was because my tags were expired. But it was a handwritten temporary license they couldn't possibly have been able to see. For that they call the drug dogs and I get handcuffed?" The stop and search lasted an hour and a half, Williams says, and then he was ticketed for expired tags and for not having his driver's license and proof of insurance in his possession.

    Twice cops have knocked on his front door to tell him his garage was open, Williams says, and then asked him for proof that he owned his cars. They questioned him about what he did for a living and how much he paid for the cars. It's the kind of frustration that white athletes never have to deal with.

    Williams has started taking the long way to work so he doesn't have to drive past a police station. Other guys just give up and drive crappy cars. Sometimes these guys don't even have to be in a car.

    "You go into a Tiffany's in the mall," says Jackson, "and right away you notice the lights [brighten]. Then the clerk follows you around, pretending she's just cleaning up. I came out of a restaurant once and the valet goes, 'Man, what did you do to get a car like this?' I was like, 'I got a job, that's what I did!'"

    The dreadlocked Williams says that when he flies first class, more times than not attendants ask to see his ticket, assuming he's in the wrong seat. Houston Rockets forward Glen Rice wasn't allowed to check into a five-star hotel by a woman behind the desk who insisted, "I know what you're about."

    "What am I about?" asked Rice, who refused to leave until he was given a room. The desk clerk called police, who recognized Rice and advised the woman to give him a room. That's when Rice said no thanks and walked out.

    Says Jackson, "I don't think most of white America understands how it feels. You work hard to be successful, to get some nice things, and people treat you like you stole them."

    "I guess cops think we're drug dealers," says Latrell Sprewell, the New York Knicks guard. "It pisses you off, but what pisses you off more is that when they see who you are, they suddenly change it to, 'Uh, I pulled you over to, uh, can I have your autograph?'"

    When you mix cops with young men who feel persecuted, things can get volatile. "I feel myself boiling over," says Jackson. "But if I started yelling at the cops, next thing you know, I'd be in jail." Or worse. Remember the four young unarmed black men on their way to a basketball tryout who were profiled by troopers and stopped on the New Jersey Turnpike, then had 11 shots fired into their van, wounding three of them?

    Williams was so frustrated by his treatment after one DWB stop that he started to walk home in protest, got a block and a half, then sat down on a curb and cried. "It hurts your feelings," he says. "Nobody likes to be treated like a criminal."

    <b>And we wonder why so many black athletes are angry. </b>

    Issue date: August 12, 2002



    I don't know about the rest of you, but sometimes I forget that multimillionaire athletes are accostomed to the same trials and tribulations as us po' folks.

    Trevor Pryce is my new hero! :D
     
  2. RocketsPimp

    RocketsPimp Contributing Member

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    The bit about Rice is unreal. I hope that lady is no longer an employee at that hotel.
     
  3. Hydra

    Hydra Member

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    I would gladly be hassled by cops if I was allowed to play a game for 9 million dollars a year. I never feel sympathy for pro athletes outside of health matters like 'Zo and Sean Elliot's kidney problems and Lance Armstrong's bout with cancer. Especially when there complaints are about money, but even in cases where they have a legitimate beef.
     
  4. Prempeh

    Prempeh Member

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    It's not about money or fame -- it's about racism. Do you have sympathy for people who have to put up with that?
     
  5. Refman

    Refman Contributing Member

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    The cops are supposed to behave professionally and in accord with the Constitution whether you are black, white, red, green, purple...or if you're colored like a bag of Skittles. :)

    When I was in high school a white, preppy friend of mine was stopped and questioned for 20 minutes. The cop never answered him when he asked 3 times why he was pulled over. I think it was because he was driving through Champions in a really old, beat up car. He worked hard to afford that car...and they pull him over for driving it.

    This does happen to black men a lot more often...but that's not the only bad thing cops have been known to do.
     
  6. Joe Joe

    Joe Joe Go Stros!
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    <i>It's the kind of frustration that white athletes never have to deal with. </i>

    Never say never.
     
  7. Baqui99

    Baqui99 Contributing Member

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    Houston Rockets forward Glen Rice wasn't allowed to check into a five-star hotel by a woman behind the desk who insisted, "I know what you're about."

    I think she was referring to his inability to stay healthy the last few years. Maybe she was a big Shandon Anderson fan, and was sad to see him go.
     
  8. Htownhero

    Htownhero Member

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    I think being pulled over for being black is horrible. I also think that it is naive to believe that if you're riding around in a car that looks like a drug dealers the police have no right to be suspicious.
     
  9. drapg

    drapg Member

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    what does income have to do with racism?

    so all rich people should be submitted to subhuman behavior b/c they have money? :rolleyes:
     
  10. Dr of Dunk

    Dr of Dunk Clutch Crew

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    It doesn't. It's just Hydra's usual inane post on topics of discrimination and/or racism... just ignore him.
     
  11. Refman

    Refman Contributing Member

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    Yeah...that'll make him stop posting in this thread. :rolleyes:
     
  12. Another Brother

    Another Brother Contributing Member

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    What does a drug dealers car look like? Please help me out on this one!
     
  13. Refman

    Refman Contributing Member

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    I think they look the same as a Mafia boss' car...I'm just guessing though.

    Drug dealers drive high profile vehicles. But just because somebody drives that kind of car doesn't give the cops to pull them over for no reason. Just my $0.02.
     
  14. Htownhero

    Htownhero Member

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    How many drug dealers drive a Ford Focus? Would you say that drug dealers usually drive a tricked out ride? Would you say pro athletes have a tendancy to trick out theirs?

    When you are a young black athlete living in an almost exclusively rich white neighberhood I think your chances of getting pulled over for no damn reason are already high. So to think that painting your Navigator purple and putting it on 20" Blades is going to decrease the odds of getting harassed is naive.

    Do I think that it is wrong? Absolutely!!! Then again, I don't agree with a lot of things that cops do.
     
  15. Another Brother

    Another Brother Contributing Member

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    Not trying to be unduly curt but...

    Drug dealers figured out long, long time ago that big, nice, shiny cars with custom wheels and loud stereos don't bode well for business.
     
  16. Htownhero

    Htownhero Member

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    It's not like I'm a wiseguy or anything, but every dealer I've known (more than the average guy I imagine) had a tricked out ride. Almost to a man, every inmate I did time with in Harris County, who was in on a dope case, bragged about his ride. I have no doubt that the smart dealers have learned, but how many smart dealers have you ever met? So to insinuate that cops aren't pulling over young black men in high dollar rides because they suspect some sort of drug connection is, again , naive.
     
  17. VooDooPope

    VooDooPope Love > Hate
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    Teach your children not to judge a person by the color of their skin. That is what I'm doing and I suggest you do the same.
     
  18. Another Brother

    Another Brother Contributing Member

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    Having been a Harris County cop for five years, I have never caught a smart drug dealer, probably because he was well...smart.

    And yes the Ford Focus is a popular car when it comes to transporting, so in the Chevy Monte Carlo, and the Toyota Camry and the car my friend got arrested in, the Geo Metro.

    I think we're on the same side here HTown, I'm just trying to address some of the misconceptions.
     
  19. DAROckets

    DAROckets Contributing Member

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    I've been pulled over several times with no "real" reason....guess I was guilty of DWW
     
  20. Hydra

    Hydra Member

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    Income has nothing to do with racism. I never said that it did. I just don't like to hear/read about complaints from people who get paid millions of dollars to play a game. I guess I am just bitter or something. I did imply that I felt that they had a legitimate beef. I just happen to think that maybe they can take their millions and ease their own suffering a little. There are millions of other people who have much more serious problems than being pulled over, and then released. Please excuse me if I can't get worked up because it takes Glen Rice an hour to get checked into his hotel room. Was the receptionist a racist b****? Yes. Does that mean Glen Rice is suffering horribly at the hands of the white man and needs all of our love and support on the issue? I think not. I don't think anyone should be subjected to racism. I just don't worry about it too much when the victim doesn't really suffer any harm, and is well off enough that he doesn't really need to worry about it. It is the same reason I am not too concerned when Chris Rock calls me a cracker.

    I'm not sure if you can see this, since you are at least advising others to ignore me, but I don't see how my post was non-sensical or substanceless. I agree that it was tangential to the main point of the thread, athletes being subjected to the racist act of racial profiling. Many other tangents are discussed all of the time on the BBS though and it is rarely spoken out against. I think that is just the nature of the medium. Someone posts something that sparks a thought in us, and if we choose to, we share those thoughts with our friends in the BBS community. I understand that some on this board think I am a racist or something (I doubt anyone that knows me would agree), but I don't agree with ignoring posters that I do not agree with (obviously), I am sorry that you, as a well respected poster around here, do not feel the same.
     

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