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Racism and the enforcement of institutional racist policies by the police in Oakland was an accepted part of life to the blacks who lived there. While blacks no longer were legally excluded from living in any area of the city, they were often looked at with suspicion by the police when they entered predominately white middle or upper class communities. At night in particular, a black driving in such an area was often stopped by a white policeman. Usually the pretext would be that the man's car fit the description of a reported stolen vehicle, or the car had some defect such as no light over the rear license plate. The actual purpose however, was to allow the officer to determine why a black person was in that particular neighborhood at that time of night." 150-151 "The white officer, who was suspicious in such circumstances, often viewed himself as "unprejudiced. In fact, he may have been merely reflecting institutional subordination