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My selected Wikipedia topic for this project is Driving While Black, and after reviewing the page and the topic, I think I have a good opportunity here to make some constructive changes. For one, I think the origins of the phrase could be better documented. In the movement of Black Lives Matter, there are a lot of associated phrases that gained popularity on social media, so it might be worth exploring how the use of social media impacted this concept of "Driving while Black." There is also considerably more research regarding discrimination of Black drivers that can be added to the page. As of now, the article only relies on statistics in Florida and New Jersey, but national statistics can be added, as well as documented statistics in other states. The document should also talk more about the advent of Black driver discrimination in the context of the war on drugs in America, as the two are related.

One of the first and major edits I plan to set forth to this article is the strange structure of its layout. The article begins with "generalizations" and I am unsure of the meaning of what that word means. I would prefer to structure it as beginning with "origins." Of course, this kind of edit would have a two-fold result. It would be more aesthetically and organizationally pleasing, but it would also help to give legitimacy to the term 'Driving While Black' as an entrenched concept in American academia and politics. I bring up the latter result because one of the main issues I observed on the talk page is the assertion that "Driving While Black" is simply vernacular, and the page should not encompass actual statistics and examples of discrimination of Black motor vehicle operators.

Additionally, I think it would be good to catalogue/add examples of how this term is used in academia and politics. Obviously it has its dimensions as a vernacular word, but it has risen to such prominence as a word that it has become the title of scholarly articles and has been used in court cases (see below). Thus, cataloguing these various examples shows the structural and conceptual underpinnings of the word and its importance in today's society. It should be differentiated as a wikipedia page from Racial Profiling, although it has its roots in this larger phenomenon.

Some of the origins of the phrase I've put below:

Washington v. Lambert (1996), U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. (One of the only instances where the phrase is used in public discourse). The Court writes, "There's a moving violation that many African–Americans know as D.W.B.:  Driving While Black.”"[1] The Court quotes Henry Louis Gates' Thirteen Ways of Looking At a Black Man in this use of the phrase Driving while black. Gates also uses the phrase in a New Yorker article also named "Thirteen Ways of Looking At a Black Man."[2] These are some of the origins I have been finding of the phrase. I will continue to look into the origins to see when it became vernacular.

This source from the ACLU talks about the interrelatedness of the drug war and the emergence of Black driver discrimination. It also talks about how the media played into the stereotype of the Black driver, including origins in the crack epidemic and the war on drugs.[3]

The existing article mentions the precedent set in Whren v. United States but I think it would be helpful to note how this case has been interpreted by lower courts, including the cases of New Mexico v. Ochoa, Morena v. Baca, Washington v. Ladson, and Delaware v. Health. This Cornell page talks about their impact and subsequent interpretation of Whren v. United States.[4]

Origins

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The phrase "Driving While Black" has been used in both the public and private discourse relating to the Racial Profiling of Black Motorists.[5] The influential scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. used the term in his 1995 article in the New Yorker called "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man."[2] The term rose to prominence in public discourse during the 1990s, in the wake of the War on Drugs, when it was brought to public knowledge that police stations across the country were intentionally targeting racial minorities to curb the trafficking and sale of drugs in the U.S.[6] For example, New Jersey released state documents in 2000 which showed police training memos instructing officers to make racial judgments in order to identify "Cccupant Identifiers for a possible Drug Courier" on the highway.[7]

The phrase was further magnified after the ruling of Whren v. United States (1996), when the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that police officers may stop any motor vehicle operator if any traffic violation has been observed.[8] The case has been criticized by scholars for allowing too much subjectivity on the part of police officers to use racial bias as a justification for the stop.[9]

Subsequent media coverage of the phrase "Driving While Black" since the 1990s has been expansive and more common.[3] The phrase is often used in anecdotal accounts of racial profiling of motor vehicle operators as well as statistical and legal analyses of racial profiling.

State Studies

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A multitude of quantitative and qualitative studies have taken place at the state level across various states, often either prompting or prompted by political action. The ACLU has been involved in many of the studies.

New Jersey

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In New Jersey v. Soto (1996), a case where Superior Court Justice Robert E. Francis consolidated 17 claims of racial profiling in traffic stops, Dr. John Lamberth of Temple University conducted a study to determine the level to which racial discrimination occurred on the highway in the state of New Jersey.[10] Dr. Lamberth found that cars driven by African American accounted for about 42% of the total drivers pulled over out of a total 43,000 cars. However, cars operated for African Americans accounted only for 13.5% of the total cars on the road.[11]

New Jersey later received public attention for its racial profiling on the highway in 1998 when police wounded three Hispanic men during a traffic stop, prompting then New Jersey Governor Christie Whitman to let a federal judge monitor the NJ police. As a result, thousands of documents were released to the public, displaying ample evidence that police were instructed to use race-based tactics to identify and stop possible drug couriers on the highway.[6]

Maryland

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In Robert L. Wilkins, et al. v. Maryland State Police, et al. (1993), the ACLU sued the Maryland State Police for racial profiling of then defense attorney Robert L. Wilkins. Part of the settlement agreement between the parties held that the state of Maryland had to maintain racial statistics regarding its traffic stops, making Maryland the first to do so.[12] The case started a "national conversation on racial profiling" and was seen as a large victory by the ACLU.[13] Dr. Lamberth conducted a study again in the state of Maryland, once again finding evidence of racial discrimination in traffic stops, although the scope of his study was more limited.[5]

Illinois

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On April 18, 2003, the Illinois State Senate passed a bill that mandates Illinois law enforcement to maintain racial statistics regarding traffic stops. The bill originally mandated the statistics-keeping to continue until 2007, but the bill was extended and traffic stop statistics will continue to be maintained until 2019.[14] An ACLU analysis of the 2013 Illinois traffic stop report found that African Americans and Latinos are "twice as likely" to be pulled over by police even though whites were more likely to have been discovered with contraband in their car.[15]

Examples

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A number of well-known African Americans have described experiences of being racially profiled in their cars and some have related it to the phenomenon of DWB. In his memoir, The Sky Is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist, prominent astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson recounts his many encounters with police on the road and their ambiguous reasons for pulling him over. After learning about other African American physicists who have had similar encounters, he writes, "we were guilty not of DWI (driving while intoxicated), but of other violations none of us knew were on the books: DWB (driving while black), WWB (walking while black), and of course, JBB (just being black)."[16] Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only African American Republican in the Senate, spoke on the Senate floor in 2016 about how he experienced racial profiling while driving in his car, adding "I do not know many African-American men who do not have a very similar story to tell -- no matter their profession, no matter their income, no matter their disposition in life."[17] Other prominent African Americans who have recounted their personal experiences of racial profiling include but are not limited to Barack Obama, Chris Rock, Johnnie Cochran, Will Smith, Gary Sheffield, and Eric Holder.[18][19][20][21][5]

  1. ^ "FindLaw's United States Ninth Circuit case and opinions". Findlaw. Retrieved 2017-02-16.
  2. ^ a b Gates, Henry Louis (October 23, 1995). "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2017-02-16.
  3. ^ a b Harris, David A. (June 1999). "DRIVING WHILE BLACK: RACIAL PROFILING ON OUR NATION'S HIGHWAYS". ALCU. Retrieved February 16, 2017.
  4. ^ "Driving While Black". Cornell University. Retrieved 2017-02-16.
  5. ^ a b c Harris, David (1999). "The Stories, the Statistics, and the Law: Why "Driving While Black" Matters". Minnesota Law Review. 84 (2): 265–326 – via Hein Online.
  6. ^ a b Kocieniewski, David; Hanley, Robert (2000-12-03). "An Inside Story Of Racial Bias And Denial; New Jersey Files Reveal Drama Behind Profiling". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-03-08.
  7. ^ Heumann, Milton (2007). Good Cop, Bad Cop: Racial Profiling and Competing Views of Justice. New York: Peter Lang, Inc. pp. 187–188. ISBN 978-0820458298.
  8. ^ "Whren v. United States 517 U.S. 806 (1996)". Justia Law. Retrieved 2017-03-08.
  9. ^ Maclin, Tracey (1998). "Race and the Fourth Amendment". Vanderbilt Law Review. 51 (2): 333–393 – via ProQuest.
  10. ^ "STATE v. SOTO | 734 A.2d 350 (1996) | Leagle.com". Leagle. Retrieved 2017-03-14.
  11. ^ Lamberth, John (August 16, 1998). "Driving While Black; A Statistician Proves That Prejudice Still Rules the Road". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 10, 2017.
  12. ^ "ACLU of Maryland (ACLU-MD)". www.aclu-md.org. Retrieved 2017-03-14.
  13. ^ "ACLU, Civil Rights Groups and Maryland Officials Reach Landmark Racial Profiling Settlement". American Civil Liberties Union. Retrieved 2017-03-14.
  14. ^ "Illinois Traffic Stop Study". idot.illinois.gov. Retrieved 2017-03-14.
  15. ^ "Traffic stop data shows persistent patterns of racial bias, according to new report « American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois". www.aclu-il.org. Retrieved 2017-03-14.
  16. ^ Tyson, Neil deGrasse (2004). The Sky Is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. pp. Chapter 4. ISBN 978-1591021889.
  17. ^ "Senate's lone black GOP member says police stopped him 7 times in a year". Fox News. 2016-07-14. Retrieved 2017-03-16.
  18. ^ Goff, Keli. "Celebs Who've Been Racially Profiled". The Root. Retrieved 2017-03-16.
  19. ^ Lewis, Taylor (2015-10-28). "6 Times President Obama Honestly Shared His Own Experiences With Racism". Essence.com. Retrieved 2017-03-16.
  20. ^ CNN, Michael Pearson. "Comedian Chris Rock posts selfies of police stops". CNN. Retrieved 2017-03-16. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  21. ^ Reilly, Rick. "Color Scheme". SI.com. Retrieved 2017-03-16.
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