The Progressive Media Project: #LaughingWhileBlack (or Brown) burdens people of color.

• Author: Thompson, Elizabeth Ann
• Position: Projects - Brief article

Yale professor Elijah Anderson and Berkeley professor Nikki Jones have analyzed the way white people react to people of color in so-called white spaces, and how we are "policed" by other patrons, as well as by management, in restaurants, theaters, and other public places. Black and brown children and adults alike are more likely to be shushed, stared at, or kicked out of places where white people perceive that we do not fit in.

Norma Ruiz, a Latina, went public with her experience on the same Napa Valley train that ejected black book club members, creating the Twitter trend #LaughingWhileBlack. She described how she was asked by another patron to quiet down. Her group of all Latinas moved to a different area of the train and was then warned by staff, though not booted out. Ruiz had booked her birthday celebration on the train because when she rode it on a previous occasion, she saw a group of white women being boisterous...