Walking While Black

About

“Walking While Black” is an expression referring to the racial profiling of black pedestrians using a play on words derived from the United States criminal offense of driving while intoxicated. Variations of the phrase include “driving while black,” “learning while black,” “shopping while black” and “eating while black.”

Origin

The earliest known use of the phrase “walking while back” was printed in a New York Times^[4] article about New York City law enforcement on February 12th, 1999, claiming that black people are often racially profiled by the NYPD:

“But his numbers, however accurate, cannot reflect the anger felt by people stopped and frisked by the police each day only because they are W.W.B. -- Walking While Black.”

Spread

On October 31st, 2007, conservative author Thomas Sowell wrote an editorial column titled “Driving While Black,” which criticized those who automatically assume they are being racially profiled by police. On August 19th, 2008, Jezebel^[10] published a review titled “Traveling While Black” of the travel essay book Go Girl. In May 2009, ABC News aired a social experiment titled “Shopping While Black,” in which an actor portraying a shopping clerk pretends to racially profile a black actress to test the reactions of nearby shoppers (shown below).

On June 23rd, 2012, the Tumblr^[9] blog “Cosplaying While Black” was created, which highlights photographs of black cosplayers.

On June 5th, 2013, the ACLU^[8] reported that a 14-year-old boy was arrested for “playing with a puppy while black.” On July 15th, 2014, Viner rashid polo posted a Vine video showing a convenience store employee following him around (shown below). On July 19th, Redditor angryblackmann submitted the video in a post titled “Shopping while black yes it exists!” to the /r/videos^[7] subreddit, where it gained over 3,000 votes (74% upvoted) and 3,600 comments in the next two months.

Daniele Watts Detained

On September 11th, 2014, actress Daniele Watts was briefly detained by police officers in Los Angeles, California after witnesses reported seeing her performing lewd acts in a car passenger seat with her boyfriend. That evening, Watts wrote a post on Facebook^[6] about the incident, claiming her wrist was hurt by the officer’s handcuffs and recounting her family’s history with racial profiling:

“As I was sitting in the back of the police car, I remembered the countless times my father came home frustrated or humiliated by the cops when he had done nothing wrong. I felt his shame, his anger, and my own feelings of frustration for existing in a world where I have allowed myself to believe that “authority figures” could control my BEING… my ability to BE!!!!!!!

I was sitting in that back of this cop car, filled with adrenaline, my wrist bleeding in pain, and it occurred to me, that even there, I STILLHADPOWEROVER MY OWNSPIRIT."

On the following day, Watts’ boyfriend Brian Lucas posted a photograph on Instagram^[5] showing Watts crying while being detained (shown below).

On September 14th, The Daily Dot^[3] published an article titled “Actress Daniele Watts detained by LAPD after kissing husband in public.” On September 15th, TMZ^[2] published an article claiming that witnesses at a nearby Art Directors Guild office told police Watts was seen having sexual intercourse with her boyfriend in a car passenger seat with the door open. The article contained audio in which Watts accuses police of targeting her for being black, refuses to give them identification and informs them she is an actress with a publicist.

The eyewitnesses said the guy was sitting in the seat, she was straddling him and it was for everyone to see. One eyewitness told cops they cleaned themselves up afterward with a tissue.