Qasim Basir

At 16 I got my license and had $800 saved to buy my 1st car, a 2 dr Buick regal, my homies called it ghost. 10 mins into my 1st drive I was stopped by police. The cop, hand on his gun, didn't explain the stop, didn't believe I bought the car. Within mins he made me get out so...

he could search the car. There I was, hands on the hood, his partner watching with his gun as he searched my car. Turned one of my proudest moments into a deeply painful one. Welcome to driving. My friends and I were stopped relentlessly almost every month all thru high school.

At 17 I was arrested by 10 cops, shut down the block, trained their guns on me. "Put your fucking hands where I can see them!" I was pulled out the car, cuffed with a knee in my back while they found what what they were called about. A bebe gun. Well why'd u have a bb gun? U ask

I used it to shoot one of my first high school short films. Fine, on me, didn't have a permit. But AFTER they found out it was an unloaded bebe gun, the prosecutor decided to charge me, a 17yr old kid, with a felony for carrying a concealed weapon . Mind you, I was graduating..

from high school in days, omw to college, a good student/athlete, homecoming king, but to them I was "black man with gun". Had to fight like hell, mom had to pick up hours at her jobs, had to pay every dime I had saved for a lawyer to ensure I didnt go from high school to prison.

In college I cannot even remember how many Karen's crossed the street or clutched their purse or sped up when I was near or, tap tap tap, tried to hit that elevator before I could get on or on & on & on...

At 21 a cop approached me while in my car in a store parking lot. When asked for my license I questioned if this was even considered a stop. He got aggressive af, hand on gun and all, so I complied. Found out my license was suspended for parking tix, so I was arrested, car towed

Also at 21, trying to recover from the financial burden of that arrest, $500 bail, broke college student, still had to drive to work, I was stopped again, for nothing again (he actually wouldn't tell me), he found out my license was still suspended, I was arrested again.

It'd take another 4 yrs of cops & courts & fines to get from under all that and finally get my license back. I don't even remember all of it, but it was a hell of a time that added to trauma that was yet to be healed. Gonna fast forward over the next few years bc there's a lot...

I don't remember. Also I moved to NY, where I didn't drive. Was therapeutic for me. A refuge from the trauma of DWB, something still not recognized by many as real, even tho so many of us have it. But after NY I moved to LA, where even after a couple films it didn't stop. NYE '18

My wife was driving us home from a party and we got a flat on the 10. While waiting for AAA, both on our phones, I get a knock at my window, startled me so I turned to a bright flashlight in my face. I cracked the door and the cop grabbed his gun. Get back in your car! YOU CAME..

TO MY CAR. Turns out it was 2 cop cars. 4 cops. Wife had to talk them down. They said "I don't see a flat". U wanna go on the 10 to see? It's the drivers side. Ended up making us drive on the flat to the nearest gas station. Possibly ruining the rim too. My ultimate Karen moment

My friend & I rented 2 rooms in an airbnb, met the couple who owned it the night we checked in, the next morning I went to the kitchen which was a shared space. The wife was there. She turned to me and AAAHHHH!! Dropped her plate and screamed. The woman I MET last night! Her GUT

REACTION from seeing me. I just stood there. I knew what she was going thru. I knew from a life of people like her, who feared people like me. I knew I had to be calm. That if a neighbor, her husband or a cop had come shooting, I knew who's side they'd be on. Cuz in that moment..

and every one I described, I couldve been Tamir, Trayvon, Mike, Philandro, Sandra, Ahmaud, Breonna, or George. I’ve probably escaped death 30 times. & every time I see brothers or sisters who don’t, I am reminded of these trauma's, and a piece of me dies with them. I am them.