Great information. And important. And possibly life-saving.

I've never been arrested, but I've had the cops in my white face since moving to a black neighborhood 4 years ago.

I've been pulled over, questioned at my neighborhood gas station while filling up, questioned while sitting in my car outside a campaign office I was working in, questioned while visiting a good friend at her home in the projects (almost every time), questioned while standing on a sidewalk in the middle of the day. The cops once approached me while sitting outside my own apartment building with my neighbors.

It always starts the same way: "What are you doing here?"

My gut reaction: "What...

Great information. And important. And possibly life-saving.

I've never been arrested, but I've had the cops in my white face since moving to a black neighborhood 4 years ago.

I've been pulled over, questioned at my neighborhood gas station while filling up, questioned while sitting in my car outside a campaign office I was working in, questioned while visiting a good friend at her home in the projects (almost every time), questioned while standing on a sidewalk in the middle of the day. The cops once approached me while sitting outside my own apartment building with my neighbors.

It always starts the same way: "What are you doing here?"

My gut reaction: "What do you mean, 'what am I doing here'? I'm an American on an American street in an American city. This isn't the Soviet Union. I don't need your permission to be here, and if the only reason you're stopping me is because of the color of my skin, that's racial profiling, and it's illegal. Now get out my face, you fascist."

Of course, that's never what I say. What is say is: "My name is Deborah. Here is my ID. Here is my work ID. I'm working/ visiting a friend/ I live here.

Polite, respectful, even deferential. Smiling the whole time.

On a somewhat lighter note, Chris Rock on How Not to Get Your Assed Kicked by the Police .