I'm going to read a piece that happened to me.
Many of these pieces were told to me,
and I listened and rewrote them, trying
to stay honest to what I had heard.
And this is a piece that happened to me.
And I'm not proud of this moment.
But I wanted to include it because it's one of the ways
we get caught.
"You and your partner go to see the film The House We Live In.
You asked a friend to pick up your child from school.
On your way home, your phone rings.
Your neighbor tells you he is standing at his window
watching a menacing Black guy casing both your homes.
The guy is walking back and forth talking to himself
and seems disturbed.
You tell your neighbor that your friend whom he has met
is babysitting.
He says, no, it's not him.
He's met your friend, and this isn't that nice young man.
Anyway, he wants you to know, he's called the police.
Your partner calls your friend and asks him
if there's a guy walking back and forth in front
of your home.
Your friend says that if anyone were outside,
he would see him because he is standing outside.
You hear the sirens through the speakerphone.
Your friend is speaking to your neighbor when you arrive home.
The four police cars are gone.
Your neighbor has apologized to your friend
and is now apologizing to you.
Feeling somewhat responsible for the actions of your neighbor,
you clumsily tell your friend that the next time he
wants to talk on the phone, he should just go in the backyard.
He looks at you a long minute before saying
he can speak on the phone wherever he wants.
Yes, of course, you say.
Yes, of course."
So you know that phrase "a teaching moment?"
That was mine because I wanted--
my initial instinct was to pull him out of the line of fire.
I was going to hide him away in case that were to happen again.
And what's ironic about that whole scenario is
when our friend moved to town, to Claremont,
I knew this would happen.
So I had a dinner party.
I got really nice wine and cheese.
And I invited my neighbors over, and I introduced them to him.
It's like, see this friend of mine?
And he's Black.
He is my friend.
He will be coming in and out.
I didn't say any of this out loud.
But this was the intent.
You know, he will be in and out of our house.
Do not call the police.
And still the police got called.
And then my husband and I were on the 10 in LA,
and we're trapped.
It's rush hour.
And we can hear the sirens.
You know how many?
Four police cars-- and so by the time I get home,
I am just like, oh, my god, I hope nothing happened.
And so the minute I saw him, I was like,
just go in the backyard next time.
But you cannot, you cannot take away people's liberties
in the face of white racism.
You can't do it.
So I was glad that he just looked at me like,
are you out of your mind, lady?