Cruise Control

Ahh, the summer rituals of Charlotte: Memorial Day cookouts; trips to the beach with family or friends; July 4th fireworks and fights; unhealthy-air alerts; young African-Americans cruising and hanging out. And white folks freaking completely the hell out about all those young blacks in their uptown.

Yes, they’re at it again, so be careful, they can be dangerous. I’m speaking, of course, of those wacky, worried whites who seem to think all young black men are probably thugs, or at least brothers-in-arms with the idiots who caused problems uptown on the Fourth.

And so, as reliably as summer solstice signals the arrival of shorter days, summer weekends have brought the annual displays of police muscle uptown. For the past two weekends, officers have roamed the area, breaking up groups of young blacks, frisking some people, telling others to turn down their music, and arresting people and issuing citations, mostly for walking around with open containers of beer.

The police, see, are protecting those citizens who, as Capt. Earl Mathis told the Observer, “are coming to the uptown area for legitimate reasons.” ‘Cause we all know that riding around in your car and socializing isn’t a legitimate activity. I mean, Americans have only been cruising since the 1940s, certainly not long enough to set a precedent.

So far, the anti-cruising operation’s high point was two weekends ago when all the reporters were around and police announced they had found seven guns. It wasn’t revealed whether any of those weapons were being carried illegally, but nonetheless, Police Division Commander Chuck Adkins laid out a potentially tragic scenario to the daily paper: “We are talking about single city blocks with numbers in the thousands. Having a weapon under those circumstances is very dangerous.” Oh my God! Thousands of people, and a few of them are carrying guns! Where do these people think they are, a country music concert?

The head cheerleader for the Non-buppie Blacks Go Home crusade is, as you’d expect, Mayor McCrory, friend to business owners and all things pseudo-world-class; and who, disguised as an actual public official with serious responsibilities, fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice and uptown restaurant profits.

“Where there’s cruising, there’s usually trouble,” Mayor Boy Scout breathlessly declared. Golly, if cruising isn’t curbed, even more young blacks might gather uptown to socialize, wearing those tacky hip-hop clothes! Before you know it, people might even start to think they have a Constitutional right to assemble or something! Scary.

Lost in the excitement was the fact that the number of cruisers was “actually very light,” according to Capt. Teresa McNally. The powersuits-that-be were still happy. They got their names in the news and sent scared constituents a message: We won’t put up with another July 4-type melee. Never mind that the only thing cruising and the Fourth fracas have in common is that they both involve groups of young African Americans. But who cares, you can’t tell them apart anyway, right? The important thing is that our wise leaders’ vision of a tidy, vanilla uptown is safe, and decent people can get liquored up and enjoy the neat-o, pretend-sophisticated, Disneyized urban experience they’ve come to expect.

Here’s what I wonder about: What drives some people to be so unnerved by cruisers in the first place? Don’t any of them remember being young and riding around in cars, checking out other young people in their cars? Or hanging out with friends in public places?

Some say the anti-cruising crusade is fueled by racial fears. Others say it’s all about protecting the fabled uptown tourist dollars we keep hearing about. It’s obvious that both those things play a part, but I think a couple of other factors are also driving the city’s frenzied overkill.

The country’s current mood of dread and anxiety almost certainly plays a part. Americans are cranky and scared and Charlotte’s no exception. Gas prices are sky-high and rising. The airwaves are full of hateful rants. Money is tight for many people. TV news can make you think you live in the middle of a giant crime scene. Corrupt idiots are running the country. And nearly every week we’re fed “terrorist threat” stories that later turn out to be much ado about next-to-nothing. No wonder people are on edge.

But I think much of the impetus for the anti-cruising effort is simply this region’s leftover, old-line Calvinist mindset, which has been a powerful undercurrent in Charlotte life longer than anyone alive today can remember. It’s an anxious, tight-sphinctered attitude that worships order and mistrusts fun — the kind of outlook that led some time ago to the classic joke: “Why do Baptists (or Presbyterians) often seem so cranky? Because they know that somewhere, someone is having a good time.”

The cruisers are trying to have a good time. To arbitrarily shunt them from pillar to post on weekend nights is an injustice, plain and simple. Officials need to realize that young black cruisers aren’t public enemies. Usually, yearly traditions can be reassuring, but the annual Uptown White Folks Freakout is one we can do without.

To contact John Grooms, e-mail him at john.grooms@creativeloafing.com.

This article appears in Jul 19-25, 2006.