Shreya Venkayala,
Worcester, MA
Living in Massachusetts and being Indian, I have had the privilege of never having anything particularly bad happen to me because of my race. It was not until this incident that I realized that my race could have a major negative impact on my life.
We were driving with the flow of traffic in South Carolina, feeling content after coming back from a day at the beach, when we were signaled to pull over by a police officer. A white police officer in a conservative state. And as all law-abiding citizens do, we did. He told us we were speeding and gave us a “special” ticket that he promised would not affect our insurance. And when this ticket transferred over to Massachusetts, my father was charged with reckless driving, which meant a suspension of his license. I watched for weeks as my dad went through the painful appeals process to get his license back.
It was only after this that I realized that we were probably the only brown people on the road that day down in South Carolina.
