How to offend people of color by telling them how to behave with Modesto police
“Welcome to (our restaurant). I’ll be your server. Can I start you off with something to drink?”
The question seemed odd.
Not the words, which every diner hears every day in every restaurant like this one in downtown Modesto.
The question caught me off-guard because it was directed straight at me, and not at my boss, Don Blount, who had asked me to lunch several years ago. He wore a necktie and slacks. I did not.
He’s black. I’m not.
It went like that the rest of the meal, every time our white server approached: Can I take your order? Refill your water glass? And so on. By the time the bill was presented — to me — I was struggling to control my irritation.
Don wasn’t struggling. In fact, he did not seem annoyed in the least.
My guess is that Don — a mid-level manager at the time who now is executive editor of The Record in Stockton — had encountered variations of ignorant behavior, or prejudice, so many times over so many decades that he had become numb to it. Maybe he even expected it.
I was reminded of this while watching a recording of Modesto Councilman Bill Zoslocki address the audience in a budget workshop last week while discussing policing. He said his father taught him, as a white boy growing up in the 1950s, to be obedient when approached by an officer. Zoslocki urged parents to “train your kids” to do the same.
“(The policeman) is there to do his job,” Zoslocki said. “And he may have to arrest you if you try to challenge him. Would you rather just go home?”
I’m 100% positive that Philando Castile in 2016 would rather have just gone home than to be shot five times at close range by the officer who stopped his car near Minneapolis. Despite his compliance, Castile went to the morgue.
White privilege in Modesto
What makes Zoslocki think that his experience is the same as everyone else’s?
Does he really think that perfect obedience is a guarantee that cops will not kill? Does Zoslocki read the papers or watch the news? Does he know anything about Black Lives Matter, about how many innocent people of color have ended up in the morgue because police escalated a simple traffic stop, or the alleged selling of loose cigarettes or the alleged passing of a phony $20 bill?
What made Zoslocki feel compelled to dispense unsolicited advice on parenting? And what makes him an authority on what prompts a cop to become aggressive?
Does Zoslocki truly believe that parents — particularly parents of color — have not advised their children what to do when stopped by police? Does he really imagine that some mother or father out there watching a 9 a.m. City Council finance committee meeting on a laptop with rapt attention would hear his sanctimonious little speech, pause to ponder, and say to themselves, “You know, I never thought about warning my kid against resisting a cop. Gee, now I’m inspired. Thank you, Councilman Zoslocki! You just saved my kid’s life.”
Here’s the truth: Every word Zoslocki said in his smug mini-sermon came from a position of white privilege and completely ignored the reality that people like Philando Castile and Eric Garner and Breonna Taylor and Daunte Wright and George Floyd and so many others live with their entire lives.
Zoslocki’s words, coming at a time of heightened sensitivity to race relations and police violence — only days after he and the rest of the Modesto City Council agreed to host a listening session, to learn from our Black and brown and white residents about their interactions with police — were simply callous.
He removed from the person with the badge and gun the entire weight of responsibility for whatever might happen and put it directly on the civilian. This is blaming the victim, pure and simple.
Here’s another truth: I like Zoslocki. I’m convinced he has a good heart. Our editorial board endorsed him in his last political race. And I don’t for a second believe he wants to be on the wrong side of this issue.
But that’s exactly where he landed when he decided to provide tone-deaf answers to people who weren’t asking him any questions.
This story was originally published April 27, 2021 at 11:45 AM.
