This White Mom and Black Son Never Talked About Race – Until This Horrific Traffic Stop

Text: StoryCorps: Recording and preserving America’s stories

Text: Alex Landau grew up in a middle-class suburb of Denver, Colorado. He is African American, and his adoptive parents are white. In 2009, when he was a 19-year-old college student, Alex was severely beaten by Denver Police officers after a traffic stop. At StoryCorps, Alex told his mom, Patsy Hathaway, about that night and how it changed his life.

Alex: We never talked about race growing up. I just don’t think that was ever a conversation.

Patsy: I thought that love would conquer all and skin color really didn’t matter. I had to learn really hard when they almost killed you.

Alex: Yeah. I was 19 years old. I picked up a friend and I noticed that we had red and blue lights behind us. We were being pulled over. The officer explained I had made an illegal left turn and to step out of the car. I get out of the car first. He pats me down and then he goes around to the passenger side and pulls my friend Addison out of the car.

Patsy: Addison is white.

Alex: Yeah, Addison is white. He had some weed in his coat pocket so he gets placed in handcuffs. I figured that everything’s okay. I’m not in handcuffs. I’ve already been patted down, plus there’s three officers on the scene. I had never had a negative interaction with police in my life.

I asked them, “Can I please see a warrant before you continue the search?” They grabbed me and began to hit me in the face. I could hear Addison in the background yelling, “Stop! Leave him alone!” I was hit several times and I remember gasping for air and spitting and blood flying across the grass.

I hear an officer shout out, “He’s reaching for a gun.” I immediately started yelling, “No, I’m not. I’m not reaching for anything.” I remember an officer say, “If he doesn’t calm down, we’re going to have to shoot him.” I could feel the gun pressed to my head and I expected to be shot.

At that point, I lost consciousness. I woke up to a multitude of officers just standing around me laughing. One officer was like, “Where is that warrant now you fucking nigger?” It took 45 stitches to close up the lacerations in my face alone. How did it feel when you finally saw me?

Patsy: All I remember was involuntarily screaming.

Alex: That was the first time I had cried the entire time I had been in there. And it wasn’t my injuries that hurt. It was just seeing how it devastated you.

Patsy: My whole worldview changed that night.

Alex: For me, it was the point of awakening to how the rest of the world is going to look at you. I was just another black face in the street. And I was almost another dead black male.