Today, one needn't be black to be hassled by cops, nor does being white immunize or decrease in any dramatic way of being a target of corrupt, martial, or incompetent police officers. As a statistically random black person, it would be more rational to be afraid of driving than police officers; or for that matter, it would be more rational to be afraid of other random black people than any random police officer. The fear that many black people express toward the police or white people in general is not consistent with reality and their other fears. There is policeaphobia and whiteaphobia in some of the black population.
This can certainly be understood rationally from a historical perspective, as legitimate fears that black people held in the past are passed down generationally even as the world changes (Take for example Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates); additionally much of the corporate media and many political factions actively attempt to distort the world in such a way as to exacerbate otherwise irrational fear. And given that Michelle Obama is among those political factions that want to cultivate and sustain irrational fear among black people, her comment was certainly outrageous.
Today, one needn't be black to be hassled by cops, nor does being white immunize or decrease in any dramatic way of being a target of corrupt, martial, or incompetent police officers. As a statistically random black person, it would be more rational to be afraid of driving than police officers; or for that matter, it would be more rational to be afraid of other random black people than any random police officer. The fear that many black people express toward the police or white people in general is not consistent with reality and their other fears. There is policeaphobia and whiteaphobia in some of the black population.
This can certainly be understood rationally from a historical perspective, as legitimate fears that black people held in the past are passed down generationally even as the world changes (Take for example Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates); additionally much of the corporate media and many political factions actively attempt to distort the world in such a way as to exacerbate otherwise irrational fear. And given that Michelle Obama is among those political factions that want to cultivate and sustain irrational fear among black people, her comment was certainly outrageous.