-Hi, everybody. I'm Seth Meyers.
As we did last night, I'm going to turn over the top of our show
to "Late Night" writer Amber Ruffin.
The crisis we're going through is at its heart about anger
and frustration in the Black community
over years of mistreatment by law enforcement.
So here is Amber with another story.
-Last night, I told you a story
about an encounter I had with police.
Now let me tell you another story.
One time, a few years ago, I was living in Amsterdam.
And I flew to Chicago for the weekend
to visit some friends who live there.
When I got there, my friend Jeff and I hopped in his car
and headed out to pick up our friend Krasney,
who just so happened to live
next to the alley behind the police station.
So, Jeff parks his car
at the gas station at the end of the alley
so that I can run out, go pick up Krasney,
and take her back to the car.
I'm freaking thrilled. I hadn't seen her in years.
So, we were all going to go have dinner and catch up.
Now, I get out of the car and go down the alley.
And because Jeff is watching me, I skip down the alley
to her house to make him laugh, you know?
But little did I know
skipping down a police-station alley is a big no-no.
Because I end up skipping towards a cop car
that's driving at me down the alley.
The sirens go off.
A cop gets out, and his gun is drawn.
And he goes, "Put your hands on the hood of the car!
Put your hands on the hood!"
This man is furious.
I comply, and his partner pats me down.
Now, this man is livid.
It makes no sense.
His anger level towards me is insane.
I am a young, adorable, delight
literally skipping down the street,
and I've infuriated him.
So, this man asked me, "Where are you coming from?"
And I go, "Amsterdam."
Now, this answer enrages him.
And he goes, "No, where are you coming from right now?
Where are you coming from?"
And I go, "From the airport. From a flight. From Amsterdam."
And he goes, "Why in the world
are you running down this alley?!"
I go, "I'm not running. I'm skipping.
I'm happy to be back in town.
I'm going to pick up my friend Krasney
and take her back to Jeff's car,
and we're all going to go catch up over dinner."
And I remember, "Oh, thank God. Jeff is here."
I gesture back to Jeff.
Jeff is standing outside of his car just watching all of this.
And he goes -- So, the cop and I see Jeff.
And thank God Jeff didn't come running up to us,
because he could have gotten us both shot.
But the cop sees that Jeff, a white man, has seen all this,
and he changes his attitude with the quickness.
He's suddenly professional instead of antagonistic.
And he tells me that I was wrong for running.
And it takes everything in me not to tell him
that if I wanted to run down the alley,
that would be perfectly legal.
So, instead, I also gently remind him
that I was not running, I was skipping.
So, the cop gets in his car, and he leaves.
And I walk to Krasney's house.
I get her. We take her back to the car.
Jeff is really bothered by what happened, but I'm not.
[Bleep] That man could have shot me in a second.
People who know me would be running around talking about,
"Attacking an officer doesn't seem like
something Amber would do, but the officer said she did,
so that has to be what happened."
So...
The second I see Krasney, I feel a lot better.
And we go, and we have a lot of fun that night.
And if you think about it, it's kind of my duty to have fun
because at any time, I could get murdered by the police.
Now, every Black person I know has stories like that.
[ Sighs ]
It's crazy that people don't run around telling everyone
these stories all the time.
But there's this unspoken rule
that Black people are supposed to take it in stride.
Can you imagine having someone pull a gun on you
and being expected to take it in stride?
Now imagine a bunch of incidents like that over one lifetime,
multiply that by 43 million African-Americans,
and that is why things are like this right now.
That is why people are angry.
And if you're not angry... why not?
-Thank you, Amber.