Political Quotes

“U.S. Senator Tim Scott, who is an African-American Republican from South Carolina, once told our Bible study that police in his hometown had stopped him several times for being a ``Black man in the wrong place'' even though, at the time, he was serving as chairman of the Charleston City Council. During these last few days, I have been thinking a lot about what Tim Scott told us, and I wondered how many White Americans know things like that happen--White Americans like me. I wondered how I would feel if I were stopped for being a White man in the wrong place in my hometown, especially if most of the people in the town were Black. Would I feel hurt? Scared? Disillusioned? Angry? Weary? Disappointed? Intimidated? Probably all of those things. One result of George Floyd's killing is that Black Americans are telling more stories like Tim Scott's. A professor of religious studies in Nashville wrote in The Tennessean that he carries a licensed firearm with him when he goes for a run. A columnist remembers that, as a 6- year-old, a White woman outside a Dallas gas station restroom said to him: Now, you don't belong here. Well-educated Black businessmen count the times they have been profiled because of their race. One of my friends in Memphis, who is now vice president of Memphis's largest hospital, told me that when he went to Memphis State in the 1960s, it was clear to him that almost everyone thought that he didn't belong there.…”