A Black man refused to return his White neighbours package that
was mistakenly delivered to his house and the reason he gave is quite
sad because it shows how society has made Black people suspicious, such
that they are constantly living in fear of their lives.
Sean Carter, a Phoenix lawyer, took to Facebook to explain why he is
refusing to give his White neighbour a package meant for him that UPS
delivered by mistake to Sean's house in Phoenix, Arizona.
He said he is waiting for UPS to come get the package and take it to
the right house instead of taking it to his neighbour himself. The
reason he gave for why neither he nor his teenage sons would be taking
the package to the neighbour is that they are Black and it is dangerous
to have Black kids sent to White people's homes because they might be
mistaken for criminals and killed.
Sean wrote on Facebook:
UPS mistakenly delivered this package to the wrong house. The address
on the package is for a house just a block over, so we are waiting for
UPS to pick up the package and deliver it to the right house.
“But Sean, why wouldn’t you be a decent person and just take the
package to your neighbor? Or better yet, you have teenage sons. Send one
of them. That’s the perk of having teenagers — free menial labor.”
The answer is because we’re black. And it’s extremely unsafe to send
our boys to the home of any family that we don’t know in this
predominantly white neighborhood.
Why? Because there is a realistic chance that one of my neighbors
will see my boy as a threat and call the police or even pull a gun on
him. And if you think I’m being ridiculous or paranoid, Google “Brennan
Walker,” a 14 yo black boy who earlier this month, missed the bus and
tried to walk to school. He got lost and approached a house to ask for
directions.
The owners of this home were convinced that this 14 yo BOY had come
to kill them (in broad daylight), causing the husband to pull out his
gun and open fire on the fleeing BOY.
THAT is why this fucking package will be sitting on my porch until
UPS retrieves it. Because I can’t trust that my white neighbors won’t
see me, a Harvard-educated lawyer (or my 14 yo honor student son) as a
roaming homicidal maniac.
After Sean shared the post, he was called out by White people in the
comment section. He later wrote another post addressing this.
He wrote:
To my beloved white Fam,
I need your help understanding something. As some of you know, on
Friday, I posted about being afraid to send my teenage sons over to the
next block to deliver an Amazon package that had been mistakenly
delivered to our house. My fear arises from the fact that one of my
white neighbors might become frightened by seeing a black male
approaching their house and call the police or even pull a gun on them
in “self-defense.”
As a result of this post, I estimate that I received 10 THOUSAND
comments from white folks calling me everything but a child of God. I
was called a “racist,” “asshole,” “pussy” (by men AND women), “cuck” and
SEVERAL words and phrases that rhyme with the latter term.
So why the vitriol? Because I am afraid for my children? And? Even if
my fear was completely irrational, is that a reason for anger and
hatred? If a stranger on FB posted about having arachnophobia, I can’t
imagine that 10,000 folks would go out of their way to comment, “It’s
just a spider, you dipshit! Grow a pair!”
So what accounted for this somewhat bizarre reaction to a black
person expressing fear of his white neighbors, particularly in this
context? After all, I did not suggest that my neighbors were
“blood-thirsty savages” just looking to pounce on anyone with a package
(“Free package time, Cleetus!”). I simply suggested that they might see
my black sons as a threat (something that has been documented REPEATEDLY
... white Americans find black males threatening and have an
exaggerated fear of us).
And once again, I can understand how someone might disagree with my
risk/reward calculus and suggest that I should have acted differently.
But where did the hatred arise? Because my calculation is off? Because I
have poor math skills (like almost every other American)?
Seriously, does anyone have any ideas as to what caused such an
intensely negative reaction from so many white folks? And I’m not asking
why they thought I was wrong. I can read too (like almost every other
American — barely).
I’m trying to understand where the visceral reaction comes from? What
they found offensive? And why do I want to know? Because pissing off
that many white people at one time was the realization of a lifelong
dream and I want to be able to do it again next week.
P.S. There will be people (I’m feeling generous in using that term)
who crawl into this conversation and write stupid, racist things. It’s
called the Internet, Fam. So try not to get distracted by them and
instead, help me understand this dynamic. After all, Friday is only 4
days away and I’ve set a goal to piss off 25,000 white folks next
weekend, so I need you to help me perfect the “secret formula.”