Page 39 of I Can't Even Think Straight

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Nathan looks at me. “He’s mixed race,

and he’s my half brother—

we have different mums—

the police stopped us.

They said gangs were recruiting

boys as young as him

and they needed to verify

our relationship.

Not only were they insinuating

that I was a gang recruiter,

they were also insinuating

that my brother wasn’t my brother.

When I called his white mum

to come chat to them,

the feds were so different with her;

they were apologizing

for the inconvenience,

but they were apologizing to her,

not me or my brother.”

Kwesi, Kojo, Abdi, and Sam speak

about similar experiences

of police stops and racial profiling,

but Matt and I say nothing.

There’s one minute left of detention

when Ms. Sarpong calls this sharing to a close.

“I know you may have more to say,

but I don’t want to keep you

for longer than your detention time.

I can’t respond to each

incident you’ve mentioned

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