Driving While Black: Highways, Shopping Malls, Taxi Cabs, Sidewalks: How to Fight Back If You Are a Victim of Racial Profiling

A practical handbook for people who want to be safe and do something.

Racial profiling does happen. And while cases where victims find themselves looking down the barrel of a policeman's gun make the six o'clock news, dozens of less extreme, yet troubling, examples occur every day. Cabs that whiz by only to be seen stopping for "safer"-looking people just up the block; being asked for multiple pieces of identification when making purchases with credit cards; being followed around a department store by salespeople and security while never being asked if they need any assistance; being detained for hours and extensively searched in an airport or train station--Driving While Black clearly defines the system officially known as CARD (class, age, race, dress) and offers advice about how to handle potentially life-threatening situations with the police, as well as recourse for readers who suspect their civil rights have been denied due to racial profiling.

A book written to save lives, Driving While Black is not just for people of color, but for anyone who likes to wear a baseball cap, baggy jeans, sneakers, and a tee shirt and finds they are often treated like a "suspect."

Author: Kenneth Meeks
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
Published: 05/16/2000
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.50lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.10w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780767905497

Review Citation(s):
Ebony 06/01/2000 pg. 21
Essence 06/01/2000 pg. 74
Booklist 05/15/2000 pg. 1707
Library Journal 05/01/2000 pg. 135
Black Issues Book Review 09/01/2000 pg. 18
School Library Journal 12/01/2000 pg. 170

About the Author
A journalist for more than a decade, Kenneth Meeks is now Managing Editor of Black Enterprise magazine. He lives in New York City with his wife and two children.