Police in Monongalia County, West Virginia could be a bit more specific when describing suspects for capture. Earlier this week, The Dominion Post printed an extremely vague ad for information about a suspect accused of unspecified suspicious activity. The only description provided: a Black male, a description that matches, well, every Black male.
The common illustration was retracted by the newspaper, with additional information. The alleged crime included stolen credit cards, with a Black male suspect approximately 5′ 8″, in his late-30s to mid-40s. A picture was also included in the correction.
Of course, unfortunate incidents such as these aren’t rare, whether reported or not. Earlier this month, the Daily Planet published an article detailing the anxiety Black male students faced after police described a suspect wanted in a string of incidents on the campus of the University of Minnesota.
“Or they feel that people are looking at them differently because they are a male of color, and that the descriptions constantly say, ‘Black male,’” said U of M Vice Provost for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Danita Brown Young. “The problem is this: Most of the perpetrators of the crimes have been people of color,” she continued. “They could be Dominican or Cuban or Ethiopian. We do need to try to move away from those descriptors and just focus on crime.”