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Walking While Black

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Re: Walking While Black

#91

Post by mikeash »

hueving wrote: post #70
noobermin wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you might underestimate how much of American education inflates the idea of America as a land of opportunity for all. Even when it isn't stated explicitly, society and culture communicates that message.

>Even when it isn't stated explicitly, society and culture communicates that message. You wouldn't guess that from looking at young-people dominated forums (e.g. reddit). The overt message constantly pounded in is that you can't get ahead by trying because everything is rigged (votes are bought, etc). So if that's what's stated in the school system, it's definitely not sinking in.

Online forums tend to be dominated by the craziest people.

Re: Walking While Black

#92

Post by youpassbutter »

Jaruzel wrote: post #47

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…

> 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.

North america isn't a country. And the US wasn't founded on principles of freedom. Slavery existed back then ( slavery brought to the colonies by the british ).

> Yeah, the UK (my homeland) has it's problems, but in the main, racial in-equality is not one of it's major ones

Where minority soccer players get bananas thrown at them. Where masses of white children are raped and police do nothing because of fears of racism. Where a half black woman is paraded around by the british press as some lapdog of your "prince".

No country is perfect so lets stop with the finger wagging. Has the UK ever elected a black leader? Go read about or watch black people's/minorities' recent experiences in europe. They've been spat at, had racial epithets thrown their way, been discriminated against, etc.

Re: Walking While Black

#93

Post by scotty79 »

Jaruzel wrote: post #47

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…

> country that was founded on on the principles of freedom

> The fourth amendment clearly states that all citizens should be treated equally

If something was added later can it be considered part of original foundation?

Wasn't one of those original principles of freedom, an (unspoken?) freedom to own black slaves?

Re: Walking While Black

#94

Post by mcherm »

So the societal patterns this article describes are true, and they are not acceptable. As a white male who lives in this society, I have one question: What can I do to help change this?

Re: Walking While Black

#95

Post by krona »

neor wrote: post #83
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…

Sometimes it really is a thin line. In my country (The Netherlands) police sometimes check all cars passing a temporary checkpoint. They check if you have open fines, paid your taxes etc. When really expensive cars pass those checkpoints they verify that the owner actually has a job to afford cars like these and if the owner doesn't they can impound the car on suspicion of being paid with criminal money. Statistics h…

What statistics, specifically?

As a general rule, the variance within a group is almost always larger than the difference between groups. So, if there is statistical evidence of the effectiveness of racial profiling then I'd like to see it.

Re: Walking While Black

#96

Post by zuminator »

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",…

I think it's inevitable that people will form snap judgments about others based on appearance. It's human nature. Where we rise above our nature is in making sure we don't act in those judgments to bring harm to others. Suspicion of mysterious (black) man at night, OK. Crossing the street to avoid unpredictable confrontation? Maybe unwarranted, but OK. Preemptively calling the cops on him, not OK. Shooting him first "just in case," not OK.

Re: Walking While Black

#97

Post by fyi1183 »

sureaboutthis wrote: post #73
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…

>Police just assume that if you're out at night you are a criminal. No they don't. What they are doing is noticing things that are out of the ordinary. You do the same thing. If everyone is wearing a suit, and one person is wearing shorts, watch all the heads turn. A black man walking through an all white neighborhood late at night will draw attention from any person in that neighborhood. The same is true if a white…

I believe you make a lot of good points, except for one: Walking as a white man through a black neighborhood, the police won't stop you. And even if they did, their attitude would be very different than if it was the other way around.

Re: Walking While Black

#98

Post by toasterlovin »

youpassbutter wrote: post #92
Jaruzel wrote: post #47

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…

> 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. North america isn't a country. And the US wasn't founded on principles of freedom. Slavery existed back then ( slavery brought to the colonies by the british ). > Yeah, the UK (my homeland) has it's problems, but in the m…

So much this. There is a certain kind of European that loves to sneer down their nose at Americans, but show me the European country that has elected a black leader.

Re: Walking While Black

#99

Post by cannam »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #25

I can't find it, but I first read a piece about Walking While Black when I was still homeless. It was a different piece, written by a successful American man, a lawyer iirc, whose car broke down not too far from home. So he walked home into his upper middle class neighborhood to his own home and was harassed by the police about it. I got some very small taste of such treatment while homeless. Walking while homeless i…

http://jay.law.ou.edu/faculty/Jmaute/Lawyering_21st_Century/...

Re: Walking While Black

#100

Post by locusm »

ImaCake wrote: post #67
toomanybeersies wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to walk home from my friends' house to mine when I was at university in New Zealand, often drunk or high. The police would usually stop and talk to me if they drove past. I always thought of it as a good thing. I lived in a high burglary area (being a student area), so there were a lot of shady characters walking around at night, especially in the back streets. They never actually detained me or even got out o…

The police in New Zealand and Australia seem to be a lot less agressive than their American counterparts. I don't ever hear of stories like the original post come from either country.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkenba_Six
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