Lauren Holiday and New Orleans Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday have dealt with their share of racism and bigotry throughout their relationship, now a husband and wife that face it on a daily basis as a biracial couple.
Yet Lauren revealed an anecdote that fully encompasses what racism is all about and how she learned the extent of her white privilege as a white woman at the ribs of her own husband.
Lauren was going out for a quick post-workout trip to Starbucks when she was stopped by a police officer on her way back home. When asked for a license and registration, neither Lauren nor Jrue's sister (also named Lauren) had their licenses at hand.
Jrue's sister called him to come to the rescue, but the following was something Lauren (the wife) could not expect:
“They handcuffed him,” she wrote on The Players' Tribune. “No, seriously: Even though the officer knew in advance that Jrue was my husband, and that he was coming to the scene, and why. Even though no one had explained to us why we had even been pulled over in the first place. And even though Jrue could not have been more careful, or more deferential, in how he made his approach. All the cop saw was this large black man getting out of a car.
That was it — apparently that was enough.
He came at Jrue and slapped handcuffs on him.”
Lauren was angry, but Jrue Holiday was calm — though his sister had a completely different look on her face — one of complete terror that resonates with her to this day:
“The image that most stays with me is the look I saw on Lauren’s — Jrue’s sister’s — face. I think it was seeing her react that made me actually register the danger Jrue was in,” she wrote. “Lauren wasn’t staying calm like her brother, or getting angry like me.
She was just….. terrified.
Her face was completely paralyzed with dread. It was the face of something that, as a white person, I’d never experienced before: the feeling — no, the knowledge — that any interaction you have with the police could potentially be fatal. That any breath you take in the presence of a cop could potentially be your last.
We got lucky.”
Lauren acknowledged that her lack of urgency getting out of the car was a perfect example of “white privilege,” something she didn't realize until after the fact.
Jrue was one of the many cases of racial profiling in the United States, a sad situation that too many African Americans fall victim to every day, some not-so-lucky to get out unscathed.
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