Police Racial Profiling from a Privileged Perspective

On our way to our first meeting today we were driving along in a taxi when I noticed a gun barrel pointing out of the vehicle next to me. I looked at the people in the car then looked away because I didn't want them to think I was doing anything suspicious. Next, the police decided to slow down and continue looking into our car. I wasn't too scared because I knew that once they saw that I was not a suspect, they would drive off. Yet, George and Na'Shaun who are Black were much more scared and nervous than I was. In my mind, I figured that the police thought that I had been kidnapped by 2 Black men so I tried to remain calm and not make them think I was calling for help. After driving next to us for about 2 blocks with a rifle pointed in our direction they finally drove away.

After that incident, George and Na'Shaun remained completely silent in the backseat. Although this incident was tense for me, I knew that I was considered white in Brazil and that I would be fine. Throughout the entire time that the gun was pointed at us, I was not as scared as George and Na'Shaun were. I was pretty sure that I would not end up killed by the police. George and Na'Shaun did not have the same racial privilege and the security that comes with it. This incident demonstrates the racial privilege that most white people take for granted in Brazil. Because white people take their privilege as naturally occurring they claim that they are living in a racial democracy. Unlike Black people, whites don't have to live extremely tense moments wondering if the police is going to kill them, so everything seems fine to them.

A military police officer wheels the body of a suspected drug dealer killed during a police operation in Rocinha, a favela in the south of Rio de Janeiro, April 2004.
© Genna Naccache