Racial profiling isn’t just a traffic thing. For Black people, it’s everywhere

Richard C. Jackson sits in the driver seat his vehicle outside his Bellwood home, Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2023, in Bellwood, Ill. Jackson was featured on a recent project WBEZ’s Alden Loury worked on with colleagues and the Investigative Project on Race and Equity documenting racial disparities in traffic stops in Illinois. Loury, who is also Black, writes that traffic stops aren’t the only ways African Americans are profiled everyday. (Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times)

The last time I was pulled over by a police officer was a couple of years ago on DuSable Lake Shore Drive. Seeing two other drivers who were pulled over, it dawned on me that I probably needed to slow down, as I was driving probably a good 10 miles per hour above the speed limit.

Then, I saw the flashing lights behind me. It was my turn to pull over.