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| 12-year-old Reginald Fields cutting grass in Ohio |
On Monday, as the temperature and humidity made it feel like it was in the upper 90's, I marveled at the members of the grounds crews working outside on the landscaping of the residential apartment community where I work.
From the vantage point of my mercifully air-conditioned office, I had nothing but sympathy and admiration for their ability to operate equipment in such sweltering conditions.
So it was a little weird reading a New York Times story about a 12-year-old boy named Reginald Fields (pictured above) having the cops called on him because he was cutting a woman's lawn on a hot summer day for some extra money in a Cleveland, Ohio suburb.
I was immediately struck by the absurdity of an enraged white neighbor calling the police on a self-motivated and enterprising young black boy exercising some initiative and work ethic.
For all practical purposes, that was me once.
Cutting grass was my first summer job as a 12-year-old boy growing up in the suburbs of Bethesda, Maryland and it never would have occurred to me that someone might have considered me suspicious for doing so.
As WABC News-5 in Cleveland reported last Thursday, a woman named Lucille Holt-Colden was visibly impressed when she saw 12-year-old Fields with his organized array of lawn-cutting equipment and asked the youngster to cut her grass.
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| Reginald Fields with his siblings and cousins who make up "Mr. Reggie's Lawn Cutting Service" |
Why?
Because she alleged that Reggie's lawnmower had strayed onto a tiny section of their half of the yard.
Now in the current American political climate, where Trump has essentially sanctioned racial, ethnic and religious bigotry, and encouraged archaic, small-minded thinking, I can't say it's surprising that a white person would call the police on a young black boy for something as petty as running a lawnmower over a section of their grass by mistake.
But it is a truly sad and rather pathetic indicator of the effect that Trump's toxic influence has had on civil discourse in this country.
Honestly, if you have an issue with someone's lawnmower straying onto your lawn, why not just walk outside and just take a few minutes to politely show the kid the boundary lines of the property?
After all, there's no fence or line of shrubs or trees that clearly mark the boundary where Ms. Holt-Colden's property ends and the as-yet-unnamed neighbor's begins.
I'm willing to bet that the afore-mentioned neighbor voted for Trump and has a red MAGA somewhere in her house.
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| Lucille Holt-Colden and Reggie Fields [Photo - NY Times] |
If you want to harbor prejudice against someone, fine, this is America.
The Constitution protect's your right to believe what you want.
But don't pick up the phone and call the cops to try and cloak your repugnant personal beliefs in a veneer of legitimacy or legality - that phone call struck me as a bit gutless.
Regardless, the positive aspect of this story is the overwhelming response that the story's explosion on social media has had on the broader community, and on the life of Reggie Fields.
After more than a million people viewed a video about the incident that Lucille Holt-Colden posted on Facebook, she set up a Go Fund Me Page for Reggie seven days ago to help raise $1,000 for him and his crew of siblings and cousins to buy some lawn cutting equipment.
As I'm writing this, the Go Fund Me page has already raised over $48,000 from people all over the U.S. and from folks from as far away as Scotland.
Seriously, take a couple minute to click the link above and scroll down and read some of the comments from people of all ethnicities and nationalities and read their comments.
As a result of Ms. Holt-Colden's decision to share this story on social media, Reggie now has enough to start a college fund for himself.
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| Writer Brent Staples |
While the overwhelmingly positive response from the larger American and global community is a clear signal that most people found the neighbor's decision to call the police on Reggie repugnant, it's indicative of a much broader issue here in this country.
One that has nothing to do with intentional Russian interference in the U.S. electoral system, or the Trump family and members of his campaign being complicit in conspiring with a foreign power to undermine democracy in order to enrich themselves financially.
The decision by that neighbor to call the police clearly points to how some Americans still view what writer Brent Staples calls "young male blackness."
Back in 2012, in the wake of outrage over racist psychopath George Zimmerman stalking, confronting and murdering unarmed African-American teenager Trayvon Martin, Staples wrote a piercing op-ed in the Sunday New York Times.
Titled, "Young, Black, Male, And Stalked By Bias", his thought-provoking and widely-shared essay sparked conversation, timely introspection on race in America, and offered insight into how some people view young men of color.
As Staples noted:
"Young black men know that in far too many settings they will be seen not as individuals, but as the "other", and given no benefit of the doubt. By the time they have grown into adult bodies - even though they are still children - they are well versed in the experiences of being treated as criminals until proved otherwise by cops who stop and search them and eyed warily by nighttime pedestrians who cower on the sidewalks."
Staples' observations cut to the heart of recent incidents that have taken place in America, where white people have faced ridicule on social media after calling the police on African-Americans engaged in perfectly routine activities.
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| Allison "Permit Patty" Ettel calling 911 on an eight-year-old girl selling bottled water |
After a video of her calling the police on 8-year-old Jordan Rogers, who was simply selling bottles of water on the street back on June 22nd, was viewed on Instagram more than 1.4 millions times, she quickly earned the nickname "Permit Patty".
Audio of her ludicrous 911 call reveals her telling an operator, "I have someone who does not have a vendor permit that's selling water across from the ballpark."
Call out the SWAT team!
All kidding aside, the fallout from Ettel's behavior had some pretty serious consequences for her career and TreatWell, the company she until recently worked for.
TreatWell lost business with at least six companies after it was revealed that Ettel was the company's CEO - she was forced to resign and the company released a statement condemning the incident.
She initially lied to the San Francisco Chronicle claiming that it was only a "pretend call" until the actual 911 tape of her call went viral - Ettel then went on The Today Show claiming that 8-year-old Jordan Rogers was yelling as she tried to sell bottled water outside Ettel's (and Jordan's) home - but Rogers's mom disputes that.
Turns out Jordan was trying to help raise money to help the family go to Disneyworld.
More serious was 38-year-old Stephanie Sebby-Strempel who was arrested and charged with third-degree assault and two counts of assaulting a police officer after she repeatedly struck a 15-year-old African-American teenager in the head and chest because she claimed that he and his friends "did not belong" at a pool located in a private community in Summerville, South Carolina.
After video of the incident went viral she was quickly dubbed, "'Pool Patrol Paula" on social media.
The teenager had been invited to use the pool on June 24th by family friends who live in the community, but Sebby-Strempel began yelling at the teenager and his friends and allegedly used racial slurs as she berated the teen (who filmed her with his cell phone) and chased them from the pool.
Apparently enraged over the idea of black teens using the pool, she later slammed a police officer trying to intervene against a wall an sank her teeth into the skin of another officer drawing blood.
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| "Pool Patrol Paula" Stephanie Sebby-Strempel |
Particularly in the sense that the common thread seems to be apparently-privileged middle-class white women calling police on black people.
Not because they are under physical threat, or being assaulted, or their personal property is being compromised in some way.
Like "BBQ Becky" calling the cops because a group of African-Americans were legally barbecuing in a public park in Oakland back in May, one of the many disturbing aspects of these incidents is that these women feel like laws were being violated.
As if members of law enforcement are going to show up and start reinforcing these women's personal prejudices simply because they picked up the phone.
Again, carefully consider the choice of words of Allison "Permit Patty" Ettel in San Fransisco when she she saw an 8-year-old girl with dark skin selling bottled waters: "I have someone who does not have a vendor permit that's selling water across from the ballpark."
" I have someone." Like Ettel's skin color somehow imbues her with some kind of inherent authority over people who she views as "others" - like an 8-year-old selling bottled water is a threat.
Are these women "racist"? I don't know, but it's certainly clear they have issues with skin color.
As Brent Staples observed in his New York Times op-ed back in 2012:
"Very few Americans make a conscious decision to subscribe to racist views. But the toxic connotations that the culture has associated with blackness have been embedded in thought, language and social convention for hundreds of years. This makes it easy for people to see the world through a profoundly bigoted lens without being aware that they are doing so."
Whether these women are consciously "aware" is a question that only they can answer.
But when you see American children hustling to try and make extra money in the summer, or a family barbecuing in a public park, and you try and criminalize those actions, it's not about what they're doing.
It's all about the lens through which you view them.
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