Wakanda News Details

I’m a Black American Vet and a Former Police Officer. I Decided to Speak Up With My Camera

Doug Barrett, 37, is a photographer, Army Veteran and former police officer from Atlanta who moved to Kansas in 2011.

Doug Barrett

I made a Facebook post last Thursday about my experiences to share with people in Manhattan, Kans., because so many people have been reaching out to me that I know in the community.

As a black man, I walk around with a camera making photographs but I’m not a threat.

Not stand my ground with a gun of right or wrong rather I knew if I left without pleading my case, that this moment could have been my last moment on this earth based on a black man’s history with police.

I’m a former police officer so I speak from experience, I’m a US military veteran, I have a master’s degree, I’m a Master Mason, Thirty Second Degree Scottish Rite, Knights Templar, I’m a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Inc, I volunteer at my church protecting the flock, and serve as an active member in my community yet because of the color of my skin and those who look like me will always be a threat.
Source: TIME

You may also like

More from TIME
50 Years After the Jackson State Killings, America’s Crisis of Racial Injustice Continues—and Shows the Danger of Forgetting
How the U.S. Navy’s First Black Officers Helped Reshape the American Military
As Washington D.C. Weighs Reopening, African Americans in the Nation's Capital Brace for the Worst
We Don’t Fully Understand How Deadly the Coronavirus Has Been For Black Americans
The 1898 Wilmington Massacre Is an Essential Lesson in How State Violence Has Targeted Black Americans
The 1898 Wilmington Massacre Is an Essential Lesson in How State Violence Has Targeted Black Americans
John Lewis’ Fight for Equality Was Never Limited to Just the United States
‘‘Racism’ Did Not Seem Sufficient.' Author Isabel Wilkerson on the American Caste System
Reconsidering Gordon Parks Photographs Of Crime In the 1950's
Confederate Monuments and Other Disputed Memorials Have Come Down in Cities Across America. What Should Take Their Place?
9 Things Corporations Should Do to Address Racial Inequality
'It's a Struggle They Will Wage Alone.' How Black Women Earned the Right to Vote
Mississippi Didn't Ratify the 19th Amendment Until 1984. Here's Why Some States Waited Decades
I'm Ida B. Wells's Great-Granddaughter, and I'm Still Fighting Her Fight For the Vote
Myths About the 19th Amendment and Women's Suffrage Debunked
How a Historic Heart Transplant Exposed a Troubling Truth About Race and Health in America
We Can't Tell Kamala Harris' Story Without the British Empire. We Can't Tell America's Without It Either
How Kamala Harris Became a Favorite of Climate Activists
Dr. Otis Brawley In Conversation With Douglas Brooks: ‘We Don’t Need to Reform Health Care—We Need to Transform Health Care’
Barbara Lee In Conversation With Jamaal Bowman: 'You Can't Start in the Middle When You're Trying to Pass a Policy'
21 Savage: For Black Americans to Undo Centuries of Racist Policies, We Need Financial Literacy
Chancellor Harold L. Martin, on His Plan to Safely Open the Nation's Largest HCBU During COVID-19
U.S. Crime Victims Often Don't Get the Government Money Meant to Help Them Heal—and Say They Feel 'Excluded'
How Donald Trump's Misinformation Campaign Against Mail-in Voting Is Undermining Faith in Democracy
America's Athletes Are Finally in a Position to Demand Real Change. And They Know It
Chargers Coach Anthony Lynn on Systemic Racism in the NFL and Why He’s 1 of Only 3 Black Head Coaches
Muslims Are Unpacking Their Complicated Relationship with Policing and Anti-Blackness
Afro-Latino Actors Roundtable on Experiences in Hollywood
If We Are Serious About Racial Equality, We Need to Start in Our Own Neighborhoods
Sherrilyn Ifill On RGB's Seat And Fighting Voter Suppression
The Biggest Moments From the First Presidential Debate
Fact-Checking COVID-19 Falsehoods From the Presidential Debate
Breonna Taylor Memorial Moving to an African American Museum
The Historic Barriers Kamala Harris Overcame to Reach the Vice-Presidency
Stacey Abrams and Other Georgia Organizers Are Part of a Long—But Often Overlooked—Tradition of Black Women Working for the Vote
The Nightmare Pandemic Economy Joe Biden Is Inheriting, in 5 Charts
The 10 Best Movies Based on a True Story
On World Aids Day, Differences and Parallels Seen in COVID-19
How History Classes on the Women’s Suffrage Movement Leave Out the Work of Black Voting Rights Activists
The 39 Most Anticipated Movies of 2021
History Behind Rev. Raphael Warnock's Georgia Senate Win
Too Many People Still Mistrust the COVID-19 Vaccines. Here's Why
Fueled by a History of Mistreatment, Black Americans Distrust the New COVID-19 Vaccines
America’s Reckoning on Race Has Come to High School Speech and Debate
How Historians Think 2020 Will Go Down in the History Books
After Georgia Flips Blue, Republican Lawmakers Push for New Voting Restrictions
The U.S. Capitol Riot Was Years in the Making. Here's Why America Is So Divided
Black Art Is in Demand. But Telling Our Stories Comes at a Cost
Here Are the 14 New Books You Should Read in February

Democratic Party Facts

Science Facts

Sports Facts

Facts About Women

Cuisine Facts