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The Psychological Trauma of Racial Profiling
Mathias Ometu knew he was innocent, and his wrongful arrest felt like a violation
On August 25, Mathias Ometu was jogging in San Antonio, Texas, when he was arrested by police who claimed he fit the description of a domestic violence suspect, “even though the victim’s description differed from Ometu’s physical profile.” Ometu was detained in jail for two days; in his words, “I was guilty before proven innocent.”
In a press conference, Ometu talked about how the traumatic experience was. As Zack Linly writes for The Root, “White people often don’t understand why Black people tend to respond so aggressively to police officers after being racially profiled. What they don’t get is that constant racial profiling — whether by police or by the public in general — takes its toll. It gets annoying and inconvenient and because Black people are human beings, there will be days when we just ain’t in the mood and ain’t got the time.”
Ometu said of his time in jail: “I experienced true darkness.”
