Racism At DC Park Causes Online Uproar

WASHINGTON, DC -- At a time in history when African-Americans have to worry about waiting in a Starbucks while black, booking Airbnb while black, or sleeping in the common room at the college you attend while black, you can add another one to the list: walking in a D.C. park while pushing a baby in a stroller while black.

Devoted dad Donald Sherman decided to take his baby Caleb on a walk at Kingman Island in Southeast recently. At one point, he noticed a white woman on a bike "who veered off as Caleb and I were walking in her direction," he wrote in a May 10 post on Facebook.

Only minutes later, a security officer flagged Sherman down and told him that someone had registered a complaint that there was a "suspicious man" walking on the bike path with a baby.

"After a pleasant conversation with the officer, she said she just wanted me to know what happened and sent me on my way," Sherman wrote. "If this complaint had been made to a different security officer or an actual cop, things could have gone very differently. This is exactly why we have to talk about white privilege and why black lives matter. Because at any point doing any thing anywhere my safety and my child’s safety could been in jeopardy because some well intentioned complaint. But today is a good day, so we are gonna finish our stroll."

As of Monday morning, the post had received more than 2,000 reactions and more than 100 comments, mostly expressing shock at the treatment of Sherman.

"Donald, thank you for sharing this experience," wrote Maria Helena Silva. "So disheartening and just outrageous. I’m glad you are both safe and sorry this happened. You handled this with much more composure and class than most could have mustered."

"A 'suspicious man' with a baby in a stroller?" added Charlemayne Walker. "How is that threatening? So ridiculous, man. Some things never change. Thanks for sharing."

Civil rights activists have pointed to incidents like the one Sherman experienced as an example of the systemic racism that still exists in American society. There have been many, many other examples in recent years, including cases where African-Americans have been harassed or suffered violence for seeking help after a car accident, inspecting their own property, driving in a car with a white girl, wearing a hoodie, and going on a snack run to 7-Eleven, to name a few examples.

Image credit: Donald Sherman, used with permission