On Thursday, April 12th author Melissa DePino shared a video of two African-American men being arrested in a Philadelphia Starbucks.
@Starbucks The police were called because these men hadn’t ordered anything. They were waiting for a friend to show up, who did as they were taken out in handcuffs for doing nothing. All the other white ppl are wondering why it’s never happened to us when we do the same thing. pic.twitter.com/0U4Pzs55Ci
— Melissa DePino (@missydepino) April 12, 2018
According to DePino, the police were called because the men, who’ve been identified as commercial real estate professionals, hadn’t order anything. They were waiting on a friend, identified as Alan Yaffe, who showed up after authorities had arrived.
In the video posted by DePino, you can see Yaffe, a real estate developer, questioning the authorities’ decision to arrest the two men.
Additional footage released depicts the minutes leading up to their arrest and Yaffe’s initial encounter with authorities who claimed the men were trespassing and had previously been asked to leave.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Yaffe called attorney Lauren Wimmer about the incident.
“He was meeting with the two gentlemen at the Starbucks to discuss business,” Wimmer said Saturday.
Wimmer, representing both men pro bono, said authorities were considering a charge of “defiant trespass,” but that both men were let go at 12:30am on Friday.
A spokesman for District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office said they were released “because of lack of evidence” that a crime had been committed.
The viral incident has garnered national attention and shined another light on Philly’s law enforcement and judicial system.
The incident has also sparked yet another conversation on racial injustice in America, and more specifically, how it impacts Black mental health.
Award winning media creator Elon James White penned a thread on Black anxiety.
I'm sorry for anyone who watches this video and it fucks with their anxiety. There's no violence or death–just yet another caught-on-tape moment of black bodies being criminalized simply for being Black and I'm getting so fucking tired of it. https://t.co/qw77GAgaaO
— Elon James White (@elonjames) April 13, 2018
This is one of my MAJOR fears about entering an establishment to wait for anyone. I’ve been w/ NB friends/associates and I’m nervously trying to make sure I buy something quickly and they’re like “relax, we’re just waiting.”
Yeah. Ok. Maybe YOU. I know fucking better.
— Elon James White (@elonjames) April 13, 2018
We talk about mental health all the time #onhere but can we really drill down to Black folks? Navigating the world w/ anxiety is already hard AF. Now imagine having to navigate White people and their fears while dealing with your own shit.
— Elon James White (@elonjames) April 13, 2018
Any predominantly white space, be it store, restaurant, bar, neighborhood, I carry a level of anxiety that I didn’t even realize. I just assumed it was normal. The constant checking to see who’s staring at you, what space you’re occupying and can it be challenged in anyway.
— Elon James White (@elonjames) April 13, 2018
I have terrible anxiety. And it’s really hard to explain to folks, even friends and loved ones, the feeling you get in your chest. How everything becomes heightened. Now imagine that kicking in just because you happen to walk into a white space and you know they don’t see “YOU.”
— Elon James White (@elonjames) April 13, 2018
I’m not kidding when I tell y’all that only very recently did i realize that the feeling in my chest and my constant awareness of how I was perceived by the white gaze was my anxiety kicking in. I thought that was just how it is and I needed to relax.
Nope.
— Elon James White (@elonjames) April 13, 2018
Then I enter a predominately Black space & I can breathe. I literally started thinking “Sheesh, I just must really REALLY like Black people.” Sure I do. Its my community. But that feeling? That’s the feeling of not having your every move questioned to see if you’re a “good one.”
— Elon James White (@elonjames) April 13, 2018
I said this when I went to Baltimore during the unrest and uprising when I went to a group session that discussed the feelings we had about what was happening.
Black people seriously need therapy just to cope with what it’s like living in America.
— Elon James White (@elonjames) April 13, 2018
I was about to write a bunch of situations that Black folks have to stay alert in or are keenly aware that there being watched/observed/checked out. Then I realized that I simply don’t have that type of time. It’s too fucking often.
— Elon James White (@elonjames) April 13, 2018
This is also why when Black folks are called “sensitive” or that we’re “overreacting” it stings in a special way. Oversensitive? I’m not claiming every time a BP ever thought something was racial it was, but I am claiming that most times we know what the fuck we just experienced.
— Elon James White (@elonjames) April 14, 2018
And well-meaning white folks who try to offer other non-racialized/racist reasons for our experiences? You are never helping. There’s never been a white person who said “Well it may not have been racist. Maybe it was…” that was helpful.
— Elon James White (@elonjames) April 14, 2018
When any marginalized group says “I deal with this all the time” & you go “Really? You can’t say that…” you’re making it so much worst. Now we feel like you think we’re liars and/or too stupid to verbalize our own traumatic experiences. It’s insulting and enraging.
— Elon James White (@elonjames) April 14, 2018
White’s depiction of anxiety line up with the realities of racial trauma.
In a 2016 article by Erlanger A. Turner, PhD and Jasmine Richardson titled Racial Trauma is Real: The Impact of Police Shootings on African Americans, the scholars explore the impact of the racial climate on Black mental health.
According to their work, repeated exposure to racism and discrimination are capable of leading to increase vigilance and suspicion, increased sensitivity to threat, increased psychological and physiological symptoms, such as anxiety and more.
Fortunately their article lists ways to cope with racial trauma, but it doesn’t stop the drastic amount of consumable discrimination in person and in media. And it doesn’t begin to tackle the trauma in Black DNA left by slavery.
Mental health in the Black community is an important topic, but Black mental stability in a racist society is a subsection of equal importance.
It’s imperative to keep having conversations concerning the trauma left from consuming mass amounts of discriminatory media. It’s vital for the Black psyche.
Thankfully, this situation didn’t play it out how it’s played out countless times before. It’s sad to rejoice that these young men didn’t become another hashtag.
*Starbucks’ CEO released a statement. It can be read here.
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