You’re going about your day minding your business when you see flashing lights behind your car. The police. Unfortunately, your reaction might depend on the color of your skin. How the police treat you might depend on your race as well.

Racial profiling is real, and it is unfortunate, to put it mildly. If you don’t believe it’s real, that might depend on the color of your skin as well.

Many Black people know all too well that racial profiling exists, and their stories prove it. Twitter user William Kimeria requested, “Black people, answer this with the most ridiculous reason you have been stopped by police.”

Black people, answer this with the most ridiculous reason you have been stopped by police.Mine is “not waiting the requisite amount of time between indicating a lane change and changing lanes”

— William kimeria (@wkimeria) April 12, 2021

Scroll down for some truly ridiculous reasons why the police really stopped Black people. If you’re Black, unfortunately, you might be able to relate with your own ridiculous police stories. If you’re not Black, consider this an eye-opening experience.

1. I got a ticket for making a left turn at an intersection with a ‘no u-turn’ sign. The officer said that a u-turn is a series of left turns so he was justified in pulling and ticketing me.

   — heather mackey (@mama_mackey) April 13, 2021

2. Cops stopped my teen sons for a stolen vehicle although the car was in my name-same last name. A girl with them called me & I went to the scene. They still didn’t want to let them go because it was suspicious they were 18 & not in the LAPD system & must have fake ID.

   — dogonvillage (@dogonvillage) April 13, 2021

3. For a tail light being out… that wasn’t out. I was wearing a hoodie. He thought I was Black man. You could see his whole everything shifted when he realized I was a woman (we all know that is not always the case).

   — Dalila Ali Rajah 🧚🏿‍♀️🧙🏾‍♀️✊🏿🙅🏿‍♀️💃🏾🎬🎞 (@dalilaalirajah) April 14, 2021

4. They stopped my daughter who was on her way home from school. They asked for her ID….A 6TH GRADER!!!! What 6th grader you know got ID?!? Gettin’ heated again thinking about that bullsh*t! 🤬

   — Lipstick Tomboy (@Lip_stickTomboy) April 13, 2021

5. I was stopped while walking home with mom from the grocery store because I “resembled a known drug trafficker”. I was horrified and remember asking the officer if I can hand the groceries to mom to take home so the ice cream wouldn’t melt. This was during the NYC Bloomberg era.

   — normalize me🌹 (@downwritemental) April 13, 2021

6. Cop with gun drawn-“WHO’S CAR IS THIS!” Me handing him my registration-“It’s mine, see”Cop-“Ok Ok I was just checking you don’t need to give me attitude. So who gave you such a nice car?”

   — kristalisbougie (@kristal100) April 13, 2021

7. So he was basically giving tickets to mostly black folk in order to fill his class that he was getting paid to teach. It infuriated my mother and she took it before a judge and won.

   — Yrg (@MeconiumHappens) April 13, 2021

8. I was pulled over as an Air Force recruiter in uniform for driving too slow in a residential community. I was invited to talk about the Air Force by a family. Cop yelled at me for being in the area until he saw my uniform.

   — Brian Neube (@BrianNeube) April 13, 2021

9. One of my colleagues, a tenured professor, has been pulled over twice near campus for WWB, Walking While Black. (It’s an ultra-posh, ultra-white neighborhood.)

   — Dex Ruth (@dex_ruth) April 12, 2021

10. ……I never wore the jacket or played Magic again.The cop never identified himself, never told me what was going on. He literally just jumped me. I think about what if I was maybe a tougher kid and I had fought back someone I thought was robbing me? (2/2)

    — William Eyelash (@misanthropemime) April 14, 2021

11. In Vancouver, BC, my [Black] son was stopped for carrying a backpack. He was walking to school. There had been thefts in the area, and police were suspicious because he was “carrying a back pack”. Not of the 1000’s of other non-Black students heading to school though…

    — Dr. Erin Gilchrist (she/her) (@ErinJGilchrist) April 14, 2021

12. They pulled into MY DRIVEWAY and high beamed me as I struggled to unlock my front door…WITH BAGS OF GROCERIES ON THE FLOOR AROUND MY FEET AND IN MY ARMS.I held up the keys, jingled them and said “I live here you assholes.”They drove off.

    — The Foncé 👍🏿😷 (@ChocnessMonsta) April 13, 2021

13. My 2nd day on campus at the U of Tennessee.I’m riding my bike all on campus, to see my new home for the next 4 years.On my way back to my dorm, Campus police stop me and say “why are you riding that bike around like that?”Detained me for 20 min to verify if I were a student

    — B-Ball Guru (@northcyde) April 13, 2021

14. Trunency. I was literally walking towards my house steps away from my porch. School bus never came, so I walked the two blocks home. She stopped me right outside of my house. Moms was at work, so she put me in the car and gave me a citation and watched me walk inside my home.

    — Ty (@TyDClay) April 13, 2021

15. “I pulled you over because I didn’t see your back make contact with the seat at the stop sign”

    — Tyrone H. (@T_Hamler) April 14, 2021