A Black friend from New York City just called me this afternoon as he was driving through southern Illinois on his way to Oklahoma. He was nervous because a white police officer followed him for three miles on the highway, racially profiled him and pulled him over...

After he was stopped, two other white police officers were called to the scene. My friend was told he was speeding. He said he wasn’t. He was told he had a suspended driver’s license, which, if true, the officer would have had no way of knowing while he was driving his car.

The police asked if he had a place for his dog, traveling with him, to go. My friend told the police “the dog goes wherever I go.” Then the police escorted him to a rural truck stop and told him to wait for someone to pick him up.

After the 45-minute ordeal was over, all he got was a ticket for using a turn signal too late on the highway. He waited for 2 hours at the truck stop. Nobody came. Finally, he took off and drove to the Indiana border for safety.

The experience lasted a little more than 3 hours. I was on the phone with him during various times of the incident. It seems to me his real offense was being a Black man driving a Mercedes in front of a white police officer.

This happened today. This is America.