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Walking While Black

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Re: Walking While Black

#41

Post by michaelgrafl »

superkuh wrote: post #31

This was a wonderfully written piece and a lot of it rings true to me even as a white as you can be person in a smallish state university town in the midwest. But maybe being 6'2" with a big unkempt hobo beard is almost as scary as being black. I too love walking the streets at night. And I too have to not be myself and behave in very conscious ways to avoid being hassled and detained by the police. Police just assum…

I used to take lots of walks at night before I had a full time job and children. I live in Austria and it seems bizarre to me that police officers would check you out just for walking around at night. I never had such an experience whether I was living in Vienna or my small hometown.

What I did see was black men having to show their ID at subway stations, which to me was a very unsettling thing, because it was pretty obvious that they were looking for drug dealers and focusing on a specific race.

I was held up in Croatia and had to show my ID twice. But I was with a group of people in a party area, so that kind of made sense.

Is taking walks maybe an uncommon thing in the USA?

Re: Walking While Black

#42

Post by acjohnson55 »

the_greyd wrote: post #32

I would identify as how the author describes, someone who's slightly nervous at the sight of a black male walking towards him at night. I try to suppress this feeling, and try to act normal, at which point I'm really overthinking. And I'm sorry. I am sorry that this has happened to you and to black people in general, how as a society we have fucked up so much. I am suddenly reminded of the book "The Lathe of Heaven",…

Thank you for saying this.

The fact is, as a black male, I sometimes feel prejudice against black males while walking at night. And I'm someone who is affected by that very same prejudice. I see all the same media as anyone else, which constantly portrays black men as a menace to society.

Is a random black man actually more dangerous than a non-black man, in real life? I have my doubts. But for argument's sake, let's say it's true to a slight extent. That still means a given black man bares very little actual risk. Yet, what sort of psychological damage is done to us by being repeatedly subject to this treatment? It's an invisible tax we pay. I've been fortunate my whole life for so many reasons, but I have my own stories, like most other black men I know.

I feel other types of prejudice too. I think step one is knowing this, step two is empathizing, and step three is advocating.

Re: Walking While Black

#43

Post by skissane »

michaelgrafl wrote: post #41
superkuh wrote: post #31

This was a wonderfully written piece and a lot of it rings true to me even as a white as you can be person in a smallish state university town in the midwest. But maybe being 6'2" with a big unkempt hobo beard is almost as scary as being black. I too love walking the streets at night. And I too have to not be myself and behave in very conscious ways to avoid being hassled and detained by the police. Police just assum…

I used to take lots of walks at night before I had a full time job and children. I live in Austria and it seems bizarre to me that police officers would check you out just for walking around at night. I never had such an experience whether I was living in Vienna or my small hometown. What I did see was black men having to show their ID at subway stations, which to me was a very unsettling thing, because it was pretty…

> Is taking walks maybe an uncommon thing in the USA?

I once got sent to Plano, Texas, for a week. It was a training course for work. After the course, I went for walks in the afternoon / early evening. And it surprised me at just how deserted the streets felt. There were plenty of cars around, but so very few pedestrians. I didn't really feel unsafe, just more out of place.

Re: Walking While Black

#44

Post by spraak »

the_greyd wrote: post #32

I would identify as how the author describes, someone who's slightly nervous at the sight of a black male walking towards him at night. I try to suppress this feeling, and try to act normal, at which point I'm really overthinking. And I'm sorry. I am sorry that this has happened to you and to black people in general, how as a society we have fucked up so much. I am suddenly reminded of the book "The Lathe of Heaven",…

Well, being aware of it is a great first step. Transformation from there arises from the awareness.

Re: Walking While Black

#45

Post by alex_young »

superkuh wrote: post #31

This was a wonderfully written piece and a lot of it rings true to me even as a white as you can be person in a smallish state university town in the midwest. But maybe being 6'2" with a big unkempt hobo beard is almost as scary as being black. I too love walking the streets at night. And I too have to not be myself and behave in very conscious ways to avoid being hassled and detained by the police. Police just assum…

Just another anecdote, but mine is a fully different experience.

As a 6'1 white male, I find that I can walk most anywhere without fear.

I often find that I need to reassess my privileged notion that this is normal when conversing with friends who are shorter, darker or female. They describe a world much like the author of this piece does.

That's not to say I've never had trouble on the street. Years ago I was assaulted randomly by someone bigger than me stumbling out of a bar I was passing by. The difference was made clear though when I reacted by getting up and following at a distance, eventually finding a helpful police officer who never questioned my version of events.

A vastly more common scenario is one where I am never in any fear of any kind, I can easily wave at police, and am never interrogated for simply walking.

Re: Walking While Black

#46

Post by kalleboo »

kazinator wrote: post #16
shard wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlike you, I found that the author discussed many instances of hacking in the article. He hacked social conventions in order to walk freely in places where otherwise it could be dangerous for him to walk. Social engineering is a very appropriate topic for Hacker News.

> Social engineering is a very appropriate topic for Hacker News. Certainly, if you take "hacker" to be the mainstream definition corresponding to "cracker".

The Y Combinator application form famously has this question on it: "Please tell us about the time you most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage." A case of social engineering would certainly be a valid response

Re: Walking While Black

#47

Post by Jaruzel »

North America's attitude towards people of colour, absolutely disgusts me. I simply do not understand why that a country that was founded on on the principles of freedom continues to act this way. The fourth amendment clearly states that all citizens should be treated equally if suspected of a crime, yet this simply does not happen.

Yeah, the UK (my homeland) has it's problems, but in the main, racial in-equality is not one of it's major ones. Every country does have 'ghetto' type areas, where things aren't as black and white as they should be (no pun intended) but, come on America, you need to do better than this.

On the article itself:- A well written piece, and an real joy to read despite it's content. Things I had to look up, though:

Clark's Desert Boots: https://www.clarksusa.com/desert-boots/c/o203

Half Pint's 'Greetings': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2UdEasSWP0

Re: Walking While Black

#48

Post by kazinator »

kalleboo wrote: post #46
kazinator wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Social engineering is a very appropriate topic for Hacker News. Certainly, if you take "hacker" to be the mainstream definition corresponding to "cracker".

The Y Combinator application form famously has this question on it: "Please tell us about the time you most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage." A case of social engineering would certainly be a valid response

Perhaps due to my imagination being feeble, I can't see how that could be about anything but some sort of con job.

Re: Walking While Black

#49

Post by dragonmum »

forapurpose wrote: post #40
dragonmum wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> North America is in fact nothing like the Third Reich. No one said that North America is like the Third Reich. The point is that Hitler aspired to lebensraum (breathing room) for Germanic people and was inspired by the fact that USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand became breathing room for Anglo Saxon people. It is not bizarre or in-credible to see that this analogy holds true and the context of the article "Walkin…

'The U.S. (and, today, Churchill) do it too.' I haven't heard that refrain on HN in at least 5 minutes. Apparently people believe they are magic words that can normalize anything, from Hitler to Russia to China. Am I missing anyone? Stalin? Mao?

I'm not sure what point you're communicating or who you're quoting. Initially, you were alleging that my statements were false and not based on facts, but now, you're trying to say that it is commonly stated every 5 minutes? Please try to be clear. I get that these facts are uncomfortable for those of us who have benefited from these things, but the sooner we face them and try to make the world a fairer playing field the better off we will all be.

Re: Walking While Black

#50

Post by crispinb »

I've spent time in remote Australian communities, where it's quite common to be peppered with 'white cunt' imprecations if out at night, especially anywhere near the canteen (bar). I found that quite confronting (occasionally frightening) in the moment, but it didn't have a big effect -- the people concerned were usually drunk and in a mess (you'll know what I mean if you've been in such places), I was a kind of foreigner (outback communities are not really 'Australia' in anything other than an bureaucratic sense), and clearly representative (whether fairly or not) of an oppressor. And, importantly, I could leave. A few hours drive, and I'm back in a nation where I'm 'the norm', and the indigenous Australian would be the outsider.

I'm trying to imagine the generalised life trauma that might ensue were I subject to this kind of suspicion and/or hatred all the time, in my own country (I do realise the author of the piece wasn't from the US). Many of course will rise above it more-or-less unscathed, but exceptional individuals are a poor indicator of most people's life chances.

Australia is similar to the US in this respect. Indigenous Australians stand little chance unless they happen to get lucky and land whatever weird combination of genes and upbringing that creates exceptions. In some ways it's worse here, as denial about causes is very close to universal -- there's no real equivalent to the US North/South divide. Our whole nation is locked into a kind of determined fluffy antebellum fantasy, where we didn't have a nation-founding war, but just a kind of sloppy de facto displacement of savages by imported middle-class suburbanites, regrettable certainly, but all too natural (so inevitable).

What a total stuff-up humans have made of everything.

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