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You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Racial Justice / This Week In Blackness / When White Privilege Meets The Police

When White Privilege Meets The Police

by Elon James White|  October 23, 20142:07 pm| 18 Comments

This post is in: This Week In Blackness

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Let’s put this story in the “white people sure are ballsy” category. Gavin Seim, who describes himself as a constitutional activist, flagged down a cop in an unmarked car in Grant County, Washington, and filmed an exchange asking for the cop’s identification and whether he was pulling people over:

The cop seems partly amused, partly in disbelief as Seim asks him for identification….The officer then shows two forms of ID.

Seim asks if he’s been stopping people in the unmarked vehicle. When the officer admits he has, Seim explains that it’s against state law to do so.

“I’m not going to write you up today,” Seim says. “What I am going to encourage you to do is take this car back.”

When the officer starts to smile, Seim holds firm: “I could call a sheriff out here and demand that you be written up for this because you are in open violation of Washington State RCWs.”

That, my friends, is called using your white privilege. This is also why all interactions with police officers should be filmed.

Team Blackness also discussed Change.org giving both new mothers and fathers paid family leave, PA Gov. Corbett photoshopping in black people, and an early frontrunner for most offensive Halloween costume of the year.

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Reader Interactions

18Comments

  1. 1.

    Another Holocene Human

    October 23, 2014 at 2:11 pm

    This is what happens when you call the cops.

  2. 2.

    Another Holocene Human

    October 23, 2014 at 2:13 pm

    I know, libertarians, but stopped clock, twice a day, et cet.

  3. 3.

    Betty Cracker

    October 23, 2014 at 2:33 pm

    My large, white redneck dad had one cardinal rule for my sister and me when we were growing up: “Don’t ever do anything to bring the cops to my house.” It was the best advice he ever gave me, and I’ve passed it down to my own offspring.

  4. 4.

    MomSense

    October 23, 2014 at 2:41 pm

    Woah Corbett photoshopping in black people? He couldn’t find one of those stock photo real Republicans to campaign with??

    Going to listen to the broadcast when I get home.

  5. 5.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    October 23, 2014 at 3:01 pm

    @MomSense: Corbett photoshopped EVERYONE in that ad.

    That’s just how well-loved he is, you betcha.

  6. 6.

    MomSense

    October 23, 2014 at 3:10 pm

    @Snarki, child of Loki:

    Let me guess, this is not disqualifying according to Chuckles Todd.

  7. 7.

    rikyrah

    October 23, 2014 at 3:28 pm

    I cannot WAIT for this movie!

    SO excited about it!

  8. 8.

    Dupe70

    October 23, 2014 at 3:38 pm

    It’s great being white.

  9. 9.

    El Caganer

    October 23, 2014 at 4:04 pm

    @Dupe70: But it’s not easy being green.

  10. 10.

    Citizen_X

    October 23, 2014 at 4:37 pm

    Might as well laugh to keep from crying: Dave Chapelle’s take on the subject.

  11. 11.

    kyle

    October 23, 2014 at 4:41 pm

    “That, my friends, is called using your white privilege.” No, that’s using your rights. And sure, most blacks couldn’t do what this guy did. But that’s not because the guy is privileged, it’s because blacks are oppressed.

  12. 12.

    Ripley

    October 23, 2014 at 4:44 pm

    @kyle: And whites are privileged. Both things can exist in the same space.

  13. 13.

    MattR

    October 23, 2014 at 4:52 pm

    This is nothing compared with the guy (perhaps the same guy – I can’t find the youtube video now) who noticed an unmarked police car on the highway and sped past him just so the cop would pull him over and he could lecture the cop (which ended without him getting a ticket). That cop was quite calm and took things in stride but warned the guy that other officers in the future might overreact to the situation.

  14. 14.

    Jebediah, RBG

    October 23, 2014 at 4:54 pm

    @Ripley:

    I think if one exists, the other must also.

  15. 15.

    Villago Delenda Est

    October 23, 2014 at 5:10 pm

    “Constitutional activist” = Right wing sack of shit.

  16. 16.

    MattR

    October 23, 2014 at 5:14 pm

    BTW – one reason police should not be using unmarked vehicles is that other police from an overlapping jurisdiction may not know you are actually a police officer. Exhibit A

  17. 17.

    Ella in New Mexico

    October 23, 2014 at 5:27 pm

    I wasn’t born into a wealthy family who allow me to administer their philanthropic foundation. I wasn’t born with a giant IQ that would have gotten me into MIT where I discovered the cure for cancer. I wasn’t bequeathed that special something that meant I didn’t even need a college degree to become a billionaire like Bill Gates. I can’t draw or paint or play an instrument to change the world with my art. All I got is my whiteness.

    And dammit, if I can use the benefits of my skin color and ethnic background to make the world a better place for anyone else who suffers from it’s oppressions, then so be it.

    Let’s hear it for White Privilege!!!

  18. 18.

    aimai

    October 23, 2014 at 5:42 pm

    @Ripley: You know what? It still takes daring to take on police authority. And luck to get out of it without getting your ass kicked or your ass arrested. Certainly relative to black people a white person is priviliged but there is no certainity that this privilige, vis a vis a same race police officer, is going to count for anything.

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