On October 5, 18 North Carolina HBCU students and two staff members traveling by bus were stopped by sheriff’s deputies in South Carolina, according to the school’s president, who said the bus was stopped over a minor traffic violation. Now, if you’ve ever been young and Black in America and have been pulled over by police for a minor infraction, you likely know what happened next. Cops stopped Black people for something mundane, then decided it was a reasonable opportunity to fish for drugs—you know, just in case.

“Traveling by contract bus, South Carolina Law Enforcement stopped the team in Spartanburg County under the pretext of a minor traffic violation. A couple of officers boarded the bus and asked the driver where he was headed,” Shaw University President Paulette Dillard said in a written statement regarding the incident. “Multiple sheriff deputies and drug-sniffing dogs searched the suitcases of the students and staff located in the luggage racks beneath the bus.

“In a word, I am ‘outraged,’” she continued. “This behavior of targeting Black students is unacceptable and will not be ignored nor tolerated. Had the students been White, I doubt this detention and search would have occurred.” Continue Reading