[quote]Professor X wrote:
[quote]TDub301 wrote:
And you still haven’t answered my original question to you. If a black guy thought a white kid looked suspicious and ended up shooting him in the same story, just with the race roles reversed, would you still think it was about race?[/quote]
No, because white people are not stereotypically associated with crime like black people are.
The response I get while walking behind a woman at night is likely to not exactly be the same as if a white guy was walking just like me, the same size and build, in the same position.
These same stereotypes are why I would NOT believe a white kid walking is somehow seen by someone as a “suspicious activity” in and of itself.[/quote]
FWIW I don’t think this is true at all.
When I find myself alone randomly with a strange woman, of any race, they close off. You can see them tense up, act busy, look for an exit, kinda twitch in general. That’s just women, dude. Scared rabbits when out of their comfort zone and skin doesn’t mean much. I’m white, clean cut, no tattoos, usually in either khakis and a button down or Dockers shorts and a polo, maybe jeans and a t-shirt on the weekends, brushed hair and fucking handsome, doesn’t matter.
I’ve been robbed at gunpoint. In high school I worked at a Redwing Boot store for a few months, before trapping at the American Shooting Centers in George Bush Park, off Gessner and I-10. There used to be a Luthers BBQ in the parking lot, until the highway expansion bumped all that stuff.
Two white dudes, they had knocked over a few gas stations in the area evidently too. As soon as they came in to the store, which I was tending alone that afternoon, I knew they were up to no good. Pegged them for criminals and potentially dangerous, white skin and all as they “browsed boots”. (They got caught, one was a first time offender, the other on parole and went back for 25 no parole)
Personally, if I see someone in slouchy pants, oversized clothes, tattoos and a general “I’m so hard” presence, black, brown, white or yellow, I do think they look a little suspicious. I’m not saying this kid was that way, just addressing your suspicion. It’s the overall image, not necessarily race.
If I see people in business casual, smiling, relaxed faces and a friendly demeanor, I’m not suspicious at all, regardless of color.
If a white kid comes in to my neighborhood, now or when my house (in a gated community) is done (fucking rain) wearing ratty clothes, looking around skeevily, and copping an attitude, I probably will be suspicious.
And yeah, I like the exclusivity of a gated, gaurded, camera monitered community. Last time I drove down to check construction, I noticed not one, but two neighbors on my new street at least will be black. One is in an even bigger house than mine. Doesn’t bother me. Neither will their friends I’m sure.
If they can afford what I can afford they are pretty stable people and birds of a feather fly together.
As a matter of fact, I hope they bar b cue. I like how black people cook ribs.