On Sunday, September 8, cops in Miami reminded us of just how dangerous it is to be Black in the United States.
Miami-Dade police stopped Dolphins player Tyreek Hill before the game on Sunday morning for speeding. After stopping him and having a back-and-forth debate about keeping his window open, the police rapidly escalated the situation, first threatening Hill and then almost immediately ordering him to open his door and get out. When he began to do so, two officers immediately dragged him out, forced him face first onto the pavement, and handcuffed his hands behind his back. They and other arriving officers then aggressively threatened two of Hill’s teammates who pulled up to see what was happening, arresting one of them when he didn’t leave the scene. Throughout, officers profanely talked trash to Hill, trying to make clear that they were in charge, not him.
When asked later how he was processing the event, Hill asked a very important question. He said, “What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill?” Based on hundreds of years of U.S. history and a brief review of just the last ten years, we can confidently predict that if he wasn’t Tyreek Hill, things would have turned out much differently. The only thing that saved Hill was his fame, although even that didn’t help him in the first part of the encounter. It was only after they realized who he was that they changed their tone and released him and his teammate.
Hill’s treatment is yet another reminder of the racist repression that has destroyed the lives of millions of Black people in the U.S. Black men in particular have been the target of this repression since they were first brought here against their will beginning four hundred years ago. Despite superficial changes between then and 2024, the basics are still the same. If you’re white, the cops might give you the benefit of the doubt. If you’re Black, no chance. It’s all part of the system.
