From what I've read, for a young and black American it's effectively a daily issue.
I tried to find statistics on this (ahem -- since we have departed from discussing the topic of this thread -- I said I wouldn't initiate any more departures from it myself, but not that I wouldn't respond to others' departures) -- didn't find what I was looking for. I didn't find support for the statement that being stopped by the police is a daily issue for young black Americans, unless you meant it is a daily issue in the sense that people in this classification might think every day about the possibility that they will be stopped. I don't know whether that is how they feel or not. My guess is that it's more of a source of anxiety at some times than at others.
I do understand feeling anxious about being stopped and questioned although I'm unarmed, behaving appropriately, etc. If I were in that position, I might try to deal with it by cooperating with the police and realizing that there's a reasonable chance, at least, that the stop is not intended as gratuitous hassling, but is part of an effort to make the neighborhood safer. I hope I'd accept the fact that there does seem to be a correlation between the frequency of such stops and the commission of violent crimes -- the Ferguson effect (see recent piece below). I hope I'd take into account that the cop is probably tense, too. I hope I would realize that yelling at the cop, behaving in an erratic manner, etc. isn't going to be helpful, upset as I might be.
I understand that when a police officer shoots an unarmed person (black or not), it's newsworthy. On the other hand I fear that the rapid circulation of reports of such events may make them seem to be more of a threat than they are. I hope it is fair for me to say, as someone who is uncomfortable with air travel, that reports of long delays, sitting in hot airplanes on the tarmac as water and food run out and toilets get stopped up, reports of behavior of mentally disturbed passengers, news of crowds being stuck over night in airports, reports of SARS circulating in aircraft air systems, etc. can intensify my uneasiness about flying. But in fact the odds are good that I will get to my destination in reasonable time if I fly and that I won't get sick or otherwise suffer great discomfort. In a similar way, the possibility that an officer committed a crime shouldn't make me generalize that I must likewise be a victim if I am a young black man. I know, easy for me to say since I don't have reason to fear this. But maybe those who do fear it, in most cases do not need to be
so afraid or angry. It just seems that so many of us have some issue or other about which we are very ready to believe the worst.
And, to bring it back to the thread topic -- such overreaction does not seem to me a good reason to drastically revise an English curriculum....
Perhaps pertinent:
Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) - Traffic Stops
You really can get pulled over for driving while black, federal statistics show
Opinion piece:
'Ferguson Effect' real — and dangerous to African Americans