@louisvuittonmastodon Moreover, on simply a practical level, if we never engage the public in what we do, how we do it, and exactly what we're doing, then they will not find history valuable or important to their own lives and we will become irrelevant and die as a profession. And let's face it, that's happening right now. Universities are cutting their history departments and courses, academic jobs are disappearing, museums pay so little that their staff can't afford to live, and academic publishers are closing down or cutting back. We're facing a crisis. Not every historian needs to engage the public the same way, but the public is integral to our work

@rudiev Oh! Sorry. Honestly that was not my intent. I was just trying to offer yet another example of police abuse and while your experience and my experience aren't necessarily on the same level, they both represent facets of the larger constellation of police abuse, brutality, and exploitation of the communities (particularly marginalized communities) they are supposed to serve and protect. You had a shitty experience, and I'd argue that most drivers have had shitty experiences during traffic stops even for minor infractions. Sure you may have broken the law, but sheer lack of respect that cops often show to civilians of all types bleeds into every aspect of their duties.

@rudiev Hanover is where I had my first direct encounter with police racism. I was in the back seat of a two door sedan that my friend owned at the time. She and our other friend in the passenger seat are both Black women, I'm a White man. We got pulled over for a "broken taillight" one night by these two good ole boy pigs and they were hostile and dismissive (drunk on their power and intent on harassing two college sophomores) until they saw me in the back seat. Then their attitude utterly changed, still jerks but no longer hostile. All that's to say, Hanover cops are a special kind of special, but also, yeah, had a similar experience as you with a Culpeper cop once.