Why I learned to run from cops
A reflection on how our experiences shape the way we see the world
We inherit thought processes and ways to understand the world from those around us, and we question why later.
I was on my way home from the center when I saw the raid begin. I'd watched the previous raids through the windows of my grandma's house, the first house on the dead-end street, but this time, I was out. I knew the protocol - everyone runs and does their best to get away from the cops, and though I hadn't done anything wrong, I ran too. I didn't question why. I was five or six at the time.
I made a beeline for the house, but I realized I wouldn’t make it there before the authorities saw me, so I found a tree almost halfway between grandma’s house and the center. It was five lots away from grandma's, and I didn't stop until I was up in the branches where I couldn't be seen.
There was no stopping to question my choice; running was what everyone did. I don’t know how long this had been the norm in the neighborhood, but it had been long enough for a norm to be established.
I began to question my context for understanding the world in high school. I attended a magnet school far from my country town in an affluent neighborhood of Orlando, and my peers hadn’t grown up the way I had. One day, I heard a loud POP and reacted by flattening myself on the ground with my hands over my head.
Everyone laughed.
Nobody had shot a gun - someone’s tire popped. I was considered jumpy because of the context my peers had from their experiences. It didn’t occur to them that my reaction was in accordance with the way I’d learned to interpret the world. In their understanding, violence was on the television or in neighborhoods that students of the school didn’t go to or come from.
Why didn’t my high school friends join me on the ground? Why did I run as a child?
Some of us never question why we make the choices we make or how influenced they may be from our experiences. Some of us never need to question, as our context for understanding the world is never challenged.
As I think about how impacted we are by the lens through which we see the world, I’m reminded that many of us have a hard time understanding each other. We don’t stop to consider how our experiences have shaped us or how different experiences yield different understandings.
When I laid on the concrete after the tire popped, my friends had an opportunity to learn from my experience, but it was too foreign for them to consider it. They didn’t know how I grew up, and they didn’t have the awareness to ask. I didn’t hold it against them, but in the moment, I realized I was questioning my context for understanding the world, and they weren’t.
Questioning my lens was one way I broadened my scope of understanding the vastness of the human experience. In doing so, I opened myself up to learning from the experiences of others. I became more patient and more sympathetic. It became easier to understand what leads people to make the choices they make, and I’ve used this skill to connect deeper with others.
Do you even run without stopping to consider why?
How have your experiences shaped your context for understanding, and how often do you question it?
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A good story, well-told. Thank you.