Jeanette R, California, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

Street harassment is most commonly discussed as the sexual harassment of women in public spaces by men. However, that is only one way to begin to think about this issue. It is important to bear in mind that street harassment is often complicated by things like race, sexual orientation, gender, ability status and class, among other things. This post focuses on the experience of men of color and street harassment through racial profiling.

The case of Andy Lopez is a recent example of the experience of men of color with street harassment. Lopez, 13, of Santa Rosa, California, was walking to a friend’s house holding an airsoft gun that closely resembled an AK-47. He was shot eight times by a police officer after allegedly failing to drop the toy gun, and the injuries were fatal.

While some may argue that Lopez should not have been walking around with a toy gun, or that he should have dropped it when law enforcement asked, I think it is important to consider a few things. First, many children and teens in the US have at some point played with toy guns. That in and of itself is not exactly uncommon, and not something a child should be killed over. Second, I think it is very important to think about how Lopez may have felt as he was approached by the police. Being approached by an officer or followed by a police car is not exactly a pleasant experience. As a woman, I will probably never experience heightened surveillance from police that lots of men and boys of color have become accustomed to. But many of us have had the experience of driving near a police car, or even being pulled over while driving. It can be a nerve-wracking experience, for no one wants to be in trouble with the law. I can imagine that at only thirteen being approached by the police can be very confusing and frightening.

I remember my first experience with street harassment. I was only eleven, and I remember feeling so scared, confused, and shaken. I had no idea what to make of that, it was something that my young mind could not fully understand at that point. I only knew how it made me feel, and those feelings were not something I completely understood either.  Perhaps the tragic events on the day that Lopez was killed were his first encounters with police. Maybe he failed to drop the toy weapon because he too felt afraid and confused. Maybe he froze out of panic. Maybe he could not understand exactly what was happening.

Lopez was shot at eight times, with seven of those shots hitting him, an excessive use of force, especially against a thirteen-year-old child. The officer who fired the shots claims he mistook the toy gun for a real one (according to KTVU, there are allegations that Sonoma County knew the officer suffered from vision problems and had a history of using excessive force), but if he did consider Lopez a threat, would it not have made more sense to perhaps tazer him or subdue him in some other non-fatal way? Which leads to the next question: could Lopez have been racially profiled?

It is no secret that African-American, Latino-American, Native American, Muslim and/or Arab-American) men (and in some cases women too), are sometimes subjects of racial profiling from law enforcement, airport officials, and sometimes even by everyday folks. This then leads to the public harassment and heightened surveillance of these groups from authorities and the public. Perhaps the officer who shot Lopez immediately assumed he was planning to commit a crime, to endanger the safety of the public, instead of perhaps considering that he may just be a kid looking to do what kids do all the time: have a good time with friends. Now I am not saying that the officer is a blatant, out and proud bigot who specifically targeted a Latino kid. Prejudice can take many forms, from very overt to very subtle, so subtle that many are often unaware of their own internalized biases.

For women of color, the experience with street harassment is different from that of men of color and white women. We have not only sexualized street harassment to unfortunately deal with, but racism as well, and sometimes these converge. If a person is queer, transgender, gender nonconforming, disabled, poor, or a combination of these things, there are other sets of –isms to deal with. Sometimes these –isms come to light simultaneously when we are harassed in the street or public places. In part II of this post later this month, I will discuss how street harassment can vary depending on our intersectional positionality.

Jeanette R. is a recent university graduate with a lifelong passion for social justice and change. She is particularly interested in issues of gender, human rights, race, equality, and immigration. She has had a lifelong love affair with writing as not only a creative medium, but also as a powerful tool for socially transformative change and advocacy.