Some of My Best Friends: A White Woman’s Journey into Racial Profiling
I became aware that I was negatively profiling young African American men, even though I was quick to denounce this practice by others. To confront my hypocrisy, I drove around and stopped young black men—effectively profiling them. I would offer to take their portraits, then asked for a picture of us in the ‘best friends” format which dictates closeness and a smile. The title of the work comes from the expression, “Some of my best friends are black,” which tends to be as much of a fiction as these photographs. Though in the end, my experience left me standing in a truer place.
Published Tuesday, September 10, 2013 by Jane Critchlow
110 pages