I've seen similar happen in London - black people stopped and seeming to be harassed by police for no obvious reason.
But the main anecdote for me is when I was crossing the Swiss-French border near Geneva in a car with my girlfriend.
She is black; I am white.
She was told to get out of the car and required to present various paperwork, then they checked up on the paperwork, holding her for maybe 10-20 minutes, making phone calls.
A man with an impressively large gun stood nearby.
She had a decent job at the UN in Geneva nearby, a perfectly good identity card, and it's not at all unusual for black people to cross that border in a car.
I thought they might check my paperwork too, but they were not interested and didn't ask me for anything, not even to get out of the car. It seems I was free to pass, except of course I waited for my temporarily detained girlfriend.
But the main anecdote for me is when I was crossing the Swiss-French border near Geneva in a car with my girlfriend.
She is black; I am white.
She was told to get out of the car and required to present various paperwork, then they checked up on the paperwork, holding her for maybe 10-20 minutes, making phone calls.
A man with an impressively large gun stood nearby.
She had a decent job at the UN in Geneva nearby, a perfectly good identity card, and it's not at all unusual for black people to cross that border in a car.
I thought they might check my paperwork too, but they were not interested and didn't ask me for anything, not even to get out of the car. It seems I was free to pass, except of course I waited for my temporarily detained girlfriend.