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Leonard Pitts: Why, when we see black people, do we so often see what isn’t there?

But in a sense, we don't need to see what Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean saw to know what he saw, peering through that window. He saw something fearsome, a threat to life and limb. All this in the person of Atatiana Jefferson, a 28-year-old black woman, who was actually doing nothing more sinister than playing video games in her bedroom with her 8-year-old nephew.

It was 2:25 Saturday morning. Police had been called out by a neighbor who saw the front door open and became worried. Now Dean cried out in panic. "Put your hands up!