Dr.

Jimenez interview
DJ = Dr. Jimenez
MP: Hello Dr. Jimenez, aim here to interview you about your interactions with police,
and I want to ask you some questions about racism and police brutality, so lets get
started. Where were you born?
DJ: I grew up and was born in the south side of Chicago, so in the neighborhood
called Back of the Yards. I would describe it as lower income most people work in
the area, it was known as the Stockyards back in the day, so a lot of immigrant
groups have been in and out of there.
MP: so what was the ethnic dynamic?
DJ: when I was growing up there it was a mix of polish and Mexican and African
American then it sorta become black and Mexican. Other Latino groups, some Porto
Ricans, some Central Americans, but mostly Mexicans.
MP: From your experience as a member of a neighborhood that low income and it
was ethnically diverse then it became not diverse. Would you agree with the quote:
Life in America is different for white people and racial minorities?
DJ: Speaking from experience, I have been luck to grow up in mostly a community of
color then going to school in Indiana and meeting white people just from those
experiences and talking to them about their experiences, I learned quickly that I
experienced things that they had not, so I say people being targeted because of
their race, and because, in my neighborhood, there were still some white folks
around, so there was a lot of tension. So I remember as a kid being called things like
spick and my black friends being called the N- word, coming from a person that was
white. So early on I saw that in our society that we have this racial tension then
when I went to Indiana and California and I met white people that did not grow up in
a city, they seemed to never have those experiences they never faced any
aggression towards their race.
MP:So then you think that one of the differences between white people and
minorities is that they do not feel aggression towards their race?
DJ: ya just because of their race
MP: so you obviously experienced racism in your childhood and the way you grew
up, living in that diverse neighborhood, do you think that racism in the USA can sept
into other institutions? Like education or business.
DJ: yes, I think that happens. I think that every space that we are in, the way that
we sort of see each other in society makes its way into every other kind of space.
Like the way we relate to each other makes its way into to other places. As a

teacher I see different kinds of tension either its racial or associated with gender
and anything that happens manifests in the classroom because we come with those
prejudices and we come with a tradition of seeing people a certain way.
MP: so its like we bring our prejudices in the place we work and those prejudices can
affect the people.
DJ: I have seen it happen, I have seen comments, I think one interesting think about
being Latino, its one of those things were easier to use a term in the 50s, 60s that
still applies today, Latinos can pass a little bit, so I have been privileged enough in
college to be in a white fraternity, and I used to hear things they said about black
people and other Latinos, and they would think that oh its ok to hear because
Miguel is one of us. It manages to manifest itself in other places.
MP: so because it can manifest itself in other places: do you thing that it is present
in our police force?
DJ: Yes, In the neighborhood I grew up in it was not, I mean we talk about stop and
frisk today and that happened to me growing up if we were just paying in the street.
There were so many gangs in the neighborhood and they would just stop and pull us
over, and the police would talk to us in ways that targeted who we were. So I think it
does I think it, and I talked to a friend about this recently, I think its one of the
hardest jobs. You have to to look out for your own life while you try to protect other
people and one of the most natural things to do is to immediately refer to our fears
and some of those fears are rooted in how we see other people. If we live in a
society where there is certain people who are criminals and there are certain people
who are more dangerous than others thats when issues like racism come into play
when police officers are not doing their jobs.
MP: you used the word natural. What do you mean by natural? Like its in our basic
instincts?
DJ: Ya not so much natural, but the way that we have been conditioned. TO see
other people as more violent or more aggressive. So if we see black people and
Latinos, now a days, we see them as a threat I think that is what we immediately
assume what those people to be, and I think that when you are a police officer you
are looking for someone that is dangerous those things that have been cemented
into us as people of this society and country. I think it would kick in.
MP: personally how would you describe your interactions with the police?
DJ: When I was a kid they would pull us over and they were overly aggressive and
pressed against cars and handcuffed and they used to check us and frisk us. That
probably happened to me as a kid maybe a handful of times. We had that kind of
relationship with police and we saw that they ruled our neighborhood in that sense.
That was normal to us. I always thought that I have been a good person. I never

done any crimes, so it was a shock that after graduate school, I just graduated from
a school in California and I came back to Chicago. I was walking home from a late
night teaching and a late night grading. There was a group of girls that asked for a
favor, by calling me Mexican guy and they made a comment about the
neighborhood which was Pilsen and they said oh take a picture of us in this
neighborhood we want to show our friends. They said that they want to show their
friends that they made it out of a Mexican neighborhood.
MP: like that was some accomplishment
DJ: I said thats racist and the things your saying are hurtful and they make a lot of
assumptions. So they immediately got defensive and they said that I was singling
them out. Then they called me racist, the reverse racist card. We kept talking while
walking to the train. It was not a healthy conversation because they were drunk,
and I was walking home and I was heated up. There wasnt any yelling it was just a
street conversation. So then they pulled over a police officer and I dont know what
they said to him, and at that point the police officer waved me down and he asked
what I said to them. There was a white officer in the passenger seat and a Latino
officer was driving. The white officer asked me what I said to them and I replayed
that I just got out of work and I did not say anything offensive. I explained what
happened. I was really honest, we were debating and it was nothing more then that.
Then the officer said you probably told them to leave this neighborhood. I said no I
did not say that, we were talking about the neighborhood, but we were talking
about the things that they said that were racist. The officer said ya right you
probably told them to get out of here, you know you should get out of here and go
back to Mexico where you came from. At that point, my told me he had experienced
those things here, and my dad experienced them when he came to this country
from other people while he was living here, and honestly I did not think it would
happen to me, so I was in shock. It never happened to me like that, it felt old school,
and my dad experienced it in the 80s. I have always considered myself a American,
even though some people may disagree because we have always had this image of
an American as white and English speaking. It shocked me that a police officer
would say that to me. I always played by the rules, so I thought that it could happen
to me, but I never thought that it would. I was angry, but my instinct was that I am
going to report this. I asked the cop for his badge number, I wrote down the squad
number, and then I asked for his name. I told him that he said a racial slur, and he
got upset and turned red, and opened his door and said get the fuck over here, and
then I said that I got all the information I need. That is when his partner said that he
has everything he needs lets get out of here. This happened outside of a fast food
restaurant, so people were out their watching this and I talked to a security guard
and asked him to be my witness, and he said Hell no this guy is a hothead, iam not
going to get into this. He was going to beat your ass. I do not want to get involved.
He did not want to get involved. Next thing I did I called my sister, and went to the
police department, and I walk in and there were 2 black cops and I thought that

they would understand me. I told them the story and they laughed at me. They
asked if the women were white, and I told them they were and they laughed more
and they said that I should get used used to it because that is part of this country. I
looked at my sister and asked if she just heard that and she said ya and we were
both shocked. They later said that, not seriously, that if I wanted to report it I could
report it to the internal investigation unit. So I did that and I went to the office of
internal investigation. They are basically ex-police officers with a desk job, and they
interviewed me, and I told him what happened and he just said thats it. I told him
that it is a real issue, that guy was racist and he was working is Mexican
neighborhood, its a big problem. He said that ill contact you. This happened in 2011
and 3 years later I got a single sheet of paper that said there was inconclusive
evidence. Even though I had a car number, witness, location, so they had to know
who was working at that time. So, for me I still think about that moment and I felt
pretty dehumanized because I had not done anything. I was reminded again that
things have not changed, I never have seen our country progressively change when
it comes to issues of race. So it was more of a wakeup call that these things happen
even to someone like me who is not in a positon for things like that to happen. Race
is an issue despite what you grow up to be. I play by the rules, even as a kid, my
mom told me that you have to dress differently so people do not stereotype you. I
always thought that I played by the rules but something like that could still happen.
MP: it makes me think that it is an institutional problem as well as a individual
problem. The fact that you had no justice shows that it is a institutional problem. I
mean you cannot stop the cop from being racist but you can have consequences for
that racism. I was going to ask if the interaction had elements of police brutality? To
me it sounded threatening and you used the word dehumanizing.
DJ: your right, I think of it now because I have been talking about it with my classes.
Hell ya I felt threatened. He had his door opened with his leg out, basically
insinuating that all I needed to do was walk towards him and he would use that
opportunity to hurt me. He could say that he was defending himself, so ya I think
that it could have gotten to that point and the security guard that witnessed this
said He was going to bash your head and beat you up. So I always wonder that
what would have happened if I defended myself,or shouted back at him. It would
have probably esccaleted quickly. Sometimes we dont think of language as being
violent, but for me its still something that has scarred me a little. In terms of my
identity and my sort of
MP: How has it affected your perception of police officers?
DJ: it makes me question how much political amnesty police departments have? It
makes me question how much we can ask for justice from them when we see back
to back how they are protected so well. But with experiences with other police
officers it seems to me its a very institutional thing. Like, that police officer did not
know me and I think he was looking for a quick way to make me feel inferior.

MP: speaking from experience and the event you just described. Do you think there
is a correlation between police brutality and race?
DJ: yes, there is a correlation there and I think an example is the thing you said that
he wanted to devalue me. I think that we dont value certain lives. We have less of a
value of certain lives, we devalue them through constant stereotyping,
marginalization. I feel that when we do that in our society it translates into when
we talk about police action and how people of color are treated by police. It makes
us look like our lives are not valuable and whose value can easily be questioned
because of race. I think thats why we are treated with aggression from police.
MP: thank you very much for the interview