#CampaigningWhileBlack: Someone Called the Cops on an Oregon Legislator Who Was Out Canvassing

[MrScorpio]

Breanna Edwards

Turns out you can’t even be a politician while black in these American streets. A black Oregon state representative, who was out canvassing and checking in on her community had the cops called on her by one of her constituents.

It be your own people.

But seriously, Rep. Janelle Bynum, a Democrat, who is running for a second term in the state House of Representatives this fall, was knocking on doors and chatting to the residents for about two hours in Clackamas, when a deputy pulled up on her, Oregon Live reports.

Bynum had been taking notes on her cellphone from a conversation she had just had with someone at her second to last stop of about 30 homes when she was on her list that day when she saw the patrol car and immediately saw it for what it was.

“I don’t believe this,” was her first thought, she told the news station.

The deputy asked Bynum if she was selling something. Bynum introduced herself as she was, a state legislator just trying to find out the best way to serve her community.

The deputy confirmed that someone had called and reported Bynum because she was spending too much time at houses in the area and appeared to be “casing” the neighborhood, and making notes about it on her phone.

I think these white moms been reading too much John Grisham or James Patterson or something because what the hell?


https://www.theroot.com/campaigningwhileblack-someone-called-the-cops-on-an-o-1827342703?utm_medium=socialflow&utm_source=theroot_twitter

[meadowlark5]

1. Are people that scared and paranoid or are they doing it because they're just mean?

Seriously. Are they really that paranoid about black people or do you think they are just so racist, they call just to be mean?

If it's because they are scared and paranoid -- what a pathetic existence they have.

[Blue_Adept]

2. If you see something, say something

If they were teens during the 9/11 period, the indoctrination has taken hold 18 years later.

[MrScorpio]

3. 'Calling the Police' Is White People's AppleCare for Black People

Damon Young

You’d think learning that Sarah Braasch—the woman who called the police on Yale graduate student Lolade Siyonbola for #NappingWhileBlack—is a philosophy Ph.D. candidate who’s studied gender and law would add something to this story. A surprise, perhaps, that a person who has undoubtedly encountered lessons on unconscious bias and systemic oppression would be so transparently racist. Or maybe even a shock that someone so educated could do something so, well, stupid.

But nah. Hearing about her academic background is no different from discovering that her hair is brown or that her favorite movie is Die Hard With a Vengeance. It adds no context, provides no insight and doesn’t even begin to nudge the needle in either direction. We know, already, that racism—anti-blackness, specifically—follows white people wherever they happen to be, as if anti-blackness uses Waze to locate and track them. Yale, Yellowstone National Park, the year 2018—it doesn’t matter. For white people, being racist is Liam Neeson in Taken:

I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don’t have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you.

That said, I strongly doubt that Braasch felt a genuine fear for her life. Just how I don’t believe that the white woman who called the police on the men in that Philly Starbucks did, or even that the white woman who harassed the men in Oakland, Calif., for #CookingOutWhileBlack did. Instead, they all felt uncomfortable. And not necessarily a discomfort that comes with mortal fear, but the way you might feel uncomfortable or annoyed if your Spotify playlist keeps crashing or if your new MacBook Pro can’t connect to your home Wi-Fi. For them—and for (too many) white people, in general—the police serve a similar function.

https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/calling-the-police-is-white-peoples-applecare-for-black-1825954790

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. Or they're good-hearted white moderates who wouldn't consider themselves racist but after all you

can't be too careful, and they know everyone in their neighborhood and a black person walking around definitely stands out, so, you know, they're just being proactive, because better safe than sorry, calling the cops just makes sense!!1!1!

[Blecht]

4. Here is the original local story about my state Rep

https://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascounty/index.ssf/2018/07/black_oregon_state_rep_says_he.html

The dumbass who called provided Rep. Bynum with some great publicity here.

I'm looking forward to when she comes to my neighborhood this year -- I didn't have much time to talk to her when she came to my door two years ago, but I will make time this year.

[NY_20th]

6. Thank you for sharing that local story.

You have a wonderful Rep.