Ex-Lions Linebacker Almost Pepper-Sprayed by Food Delivery Driver
Former Detroit Lions linebacker Christian Jones was almost peppered-sprayed, as he went to the door to retrieve his food order, according to his wife.
In a detailed Instagram post, the delivery driver was reportedly "startled" by Jones' appearance and almost took action.
© Kirthmon F. Dozier via Imagn Content Services, LLC
"We ordered some dinner on uber eats, and when Christian went to the door to meet the delivery man, he was visibly startled by Christian’s appearance and was holding pepper spray in his other hand, prepared to spray it. Christian kind of shrugged it off (as he usually does) but I lost it and burst into tears," Liz Howell described on social media.
"We ended up having a deep conversation about why Christian’s demeanor is the way it is -- if you know him, you would say he’s inadvertently non-threatening; when he approaches any white person, he’s OVERLY nice, accommodating and reassuring to them. Goes out of his way to ask people how they’re doing, as we’re walking down the street, or let’s out a big, nice grin when he passes by white people. It’s always kind of bothered me how he goes out of his way to make white people so comfortable all of the time, because for me, it’s unnecessary. But, this time, it really clicked for me that my husband has HAD to adapt over his lifetime in order to appear 'non-threatening.'
Howell details that she prefers to just be by his side as much as possible to avoid negative or aggressive events from occurring to him based on his race and appearance.
"I don’t want sympathy from this post & I actually hate garnering this kind of attention via social media ... but I just needed to get this out because a lot of y’all don’t seem to give a f*ck about what’s happening to black people in this country that we all call our home. I think it would do all of us good to envision a day in someone else’s non-white shoes. It isn’t, and never has been safe in America for Black men."
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