Cops called on black staff member at UMass Amherst for walking to work
Reginald Andrade is a creature of habit. Each morning, according to the Massachusetts Daily Collegian, he rises at 4 a.m. to exercise at the campus gym at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he’s worked for 14 years. Living with Stargardt disease, a condition that causes vision loss, Andrade resides within walking distance of both the fitness center and the nearby Whitmore Building, where he is the Consumer Manager of Disability Service Offices.
Typically, after finishing his workout, he heads to Whitmore around 7:45 a.m., and gets going on his work of assisting students with disabilities. On Friday, that routine was disrupted when Andrade was met — an hour later — by two plain-clothes police officers. According to the Collegian, the student newspaper that broke the story, an anonymous tipster had called the university’s tip line at 7:45 a.m. to report an “agitated black male” entering the building with a bag that “appeared to be dragging.”
The cops, according to Masslive.com, were concerned that the bag contained weapons and proceeded to shutdown the entire building for 30 minutes. Once inside they asked to speak with Andrade, bringing up a series of questions that were increasingly perplexing. “What time did you wake up? What did you do at the recreation center?” Andrade recalled to the Collegian. “When you came into the building today, were you agitated?”
After questioning Andrade, as well as others, the police officers confirmed that he was in fact an employee in the building — and had been for more than a decade. It wasn’t until after the incident that Andrade learned that he was the victim of racial profiling. “I’m a black male, shaved head, you know what I’m saying?” Andrade told MassLive.com “There are not too many black employees who work in Whitmore. This is the situation that occurs — where black people get racially profiled for doing normal, daily activities. All I was doing was going to work.”
There have been an influx of calls against black people nationwide recently, some of which have turned fatal. One of the most examples came in April when the manager of a Starbucks called the police on two black men, whom it was later revealed were simply waiting for a friend at the store. The incident led to Starbucks’ owner to close every store nationwide on May 29 for racial bias training.
But while it may have an impact on how employees treat their customers, the training did little to curb racial profiling nationwide. Since then, stories of individuals calling the cops on black people for simply engaging in every day activities continue to populate the news. Each story now bears its own hashtag, including #golfingwhileblack, #wearingsockswhileblack, and #barbecuingwhileblack.
The trend took an even darker turn on September 6 when a black man named Botham Shem Jean was reportedly shot and killed by an off-duty police officer who mistakenly entered his apartment, allegedly believing it to be her own. The attorney representing Jean’s family said the shooting is indicative of the current climate in America. “You know, we’re still dealing in an America where black people are being killed in some of the most arbitrary ways: Driving while black, walking while black — and now, we have to add living while black,” Merritt said during a press conference, according to the New York Times.
For Andrade, the new addition is working while black. As one of the few people of color at his office, this was already on his radar. According to the Collegian, he requested that the location of the staff retreat be moved from Smith College, where the police were called on a black person for eating lunch. “I made a point to note that I felt uncomfortable going to Smith College because of racial profiling incidents and I would not feel safe for two days at that campus,” Andrade said.
Unfortunately for Andrade, it didn’t take going to Smith College for racially profiling to occur. The incident has sparked concern from leaders at the school, with the university’s Chancellor, Kumble R. Subbaswamy, issuing a formal statement to students. In it, Subbaswamy called the incident “difficult” and “disturbing,” and a call to action for greater sensitivity overall.
“We are living at the intersection of two very trying issues. We must all do our part to respond quickly to perceived threats of potential violence on campus, and we must build an inclusive community that respects everyone and rejects profiling,” Subbaswamy wrote. “As this incident illustrates, we still have much work to do…we will be fully engaged to build awareness and to educate in the months ahead.”
As for Andrade (who didn’t respond to Yahoo Lifestyle’s request for comment), the incident still stings. “It’s got me feeling uneasy,” he told MassLive.com. “It affects you psychologically, emotionally, physically. This is not something where I’m going to go to bed today and forget about it tomorrow…that’s not how it works.”
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