Americans Support Racial Profiling

[desert_fox 32]

I support profiling anyone who is a member of any class of people who are known to commit certain types of crimes. If little ole grandmas with canes are robbing banks, then you check out any little ole grandma with a cane who is entering your bank.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

probably true, as "all men are created equal" you do remember that, don't you?

Sure, all people are created equal. All home environments aren't, however.

My parents have advanced degrees. I grew up in a home that valued education, reading, vocabulary, and what do you know, I got a stellar SAT score.

Which they say is more an indicator of your economic background than your intelligence...

Ok, I lied. I have to reply.

I was almost removed from my home because of abuse. I carry many of the physical scars of it to this day. I was constantly told that I was worthless, scum, trash, and a rotten little #######. I wasn't allowed to do homework. I wasn't allowed to wear clean clothes to school. I didn't have running water until I moved out. It wasn't often that I had any kind of decent food, or food at all for that matter.

I had the 3rd highest SAT score in my school.

Next mindless generalization?

Cian, I'm sorry you had to go through that.

We NEED to look at generalizations. Sometimes we view generalizations positively; at those times, we call it the big picture.

There are MANY white people who live in poverty and MANY minority group members who live opulent lifestyles. Saying that white people make more on average than black people (true) says NOTHING about individuals and their capacity to succeed. Generalizations like "X race talks louder" or something like that are useless. Generalizations like "hey, why is it that a white guy with the same qualifications as a black guy is more likely to make more money doing the same job?" are very useful.

Sure, Heina's coworker makes more than her. But that does not mean that because we can find examples of how the rule is not true, the rule is therefore meaningless.

But there are reasons for trends, and institutionalized racism has a lot to do with it.

So my "generalization" is anything but mindless, and I wish more people would consider them.

edit: verb-subject agreement

Excellent point.

I support profiling anyone who is a member of any class of people who are known to commit certain types of crimes. If little ole grandmas with canes are robbing banks, then you check out any little ole grandma with a cane who is entering your bank.

Not if you want to be 2 steps ahead of the criminal and in this scenario...potential terrorists. Once you start 'expecting' visual cues vs. looking for real clues, they already have your number.

Edited September 1, 2006 by Steven_and_Jinky

[ual777 0]

lol, typical argument.. simple, whites will never be a minority because white people are in the top of power.. you'll never see a cop pulling a white guy and asking 'hey, where u get the car from'.... yes, i've been to many cities, and in most of them still white people is the majority, so don't try to use the 'white people are the minority now'.. if that were true.. black females would be CEO's, and thats not true, high positions are still held by whites..

Thanks for posting that, Pedroh.

Just citing specific examples where the trend isn't true (i.e. some of my best friends are black female CEOs!) does not change the general situation.

That's why there's no such thing as "'reverse' racism."

Oh yes there is, you just haven't seen it. I have gone to black clubs with my friends (black) and they have had to step in more than once because I was about to get jumped because I was white.

Further, in my line of work, a black guy/gal with the same or LESS qualifications as me is MORE likely to get hired. That seems pretty racist to me, but it doesn't really matter.

The thing is you guys can talk about this ####### all you want, but unless you have been in the hood, and i mean the HOOD, and not just to drop off your drycleaning, you don't know $hit.

I have a friend doing time for attempted murder, I have seen a guy stabbed, I have seen guys with Ak-47s in their trunks, and I have seen a guy that operates a tattoo parlor in his living room in the ghetto.

The problem with education in 'da hood' is lack of a stable family. Too many of these guys have no father figure, and their siblings are all from different fathers. Is this ALWAYS true? No. Often? Yes. When you combine this with chronic poverty, lack of supervision, and crime, it is a recipe for disaster.

My best friend came from this, the only difference being he lived with both of his parents and had some guidance. I met him in the Marine Corps and since then we have been like brothers. When he first introduced me to "da hood". I asked him,

"Cuz (like Bro or something similar), why don't these guys join the USMC like you and rise up?" to which he responded,

"well man, they just dont know any better, and the hood is all they know."

This perplexed me for a minute, but then it made sense as I spent more time on that side of town. You can throw all the money in the world into the schools and foundations in these areas and it will make a negligable difference at best. In order for these communities to change, it has to come from within.

My best friend's sister is 23, has 3 children, and they are all from different fathers. She lives in section 8 housing and I have rarely seen her with a job. She's like family though, and I often used to drive her to an interview or look for a job for her. One day she called me and asked if I could spare some money, because she needed to pay somethingoranother. I called my best friend and told him this out of concern.

His response? "Don't give her a goddamnedpenny #######'. She aint gonna work if you give her any loot."

Welfare, section 8, etc. etc. have helped to DESTROY the black community and make them helpless.

[onwa 6]

You want to be where whites are the minority, profiled, and get less jobs. Come to Hawaii. We have a somewhat derrogtory name for ourselves, haole. You have to know somebody here to get a job. At my office building, I am routinely snubbed by the locals. Which cracks me up because I am part Hawaiian, so what if I have blue eyes and freckles. Whites are not in the majority here. You have to network yourself here and prove you have the right 'island' attitiude to get a good job. Of course, I am speaking in generalizations. There are always exceptions.

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

Psychocat:

Affirmative Action and anti-discrimination employment laws are not perfect (or even close) but they are better than nothing, if you are interested in eventually evening the playing field that many people feel is already even.

In the little-picture, though, lots of unfair incidents like this do happen. I don't think we can call it "reverse racism" though.

edit: double post

then what would you call it?

An unfortunate little-picture event. A necessary big-picture event, until they figure out something better than affirmative action.

They didn't lay her off because she was white. It was because they didn't want their azzes sued off by the black woman. Typical.

yes, they laid her off because it came down to race. reverse racism.

[Alex+R 0]

Oh yes there is, you just haven't seen it.

Obviously you ignored what I meant by that. Seriously, I did not mean that nobody will ever face discrimination because they're white. Obviously there are situations.

Also, does your best friend's sister have job skills? Because if she doesn't have a specialized skill, the daycare costs for three young children are going to make going to work more expensive than profitable.

The Welfare system needs more reform, but not to be done away with completely.

yes, they laid her off because it came down to race. reverse racism.

Ok Charles, if that's what you want to call it... but "reverse racism" sounds like the language of those people on AM radio who feel they are objects of discrimination for being Christian white males. Oh, boo hoo. Poor white males.

It is not a term for when a white person is in the minority somewhere.

[PsychoKat 0]

Psychocat:

Affirmative Action and anti-discrimination employment laws are not perfect (or even close) but they are better than nothing, if you are interested in eventually evening the playing field that many people feel is already even.

In the little-picture, though, lots of unfair incidents like this do happen. I don't think we can call it "reverse racism" though.

edit: double post

then what would you call it?

An unfortunate little-picture event. A necessary big-picture event, until they figure out something better than affirmative action.

They didn't lay her off because she was white. It was because they didn't want their azzes sued off by the black woman. Typical.

I still consider this reverse racism. And although you might view this as a "little-picture" event in the bigger picture, I think in terms of the bigger picture what I went through is very serious and destructive to that bigger picture.

How many times in conversations dealing with racism have you noticed that evenually the subject of reverse racism will be raised, (although seldom with such detail as I did), backed with a sentiment that the subject [racism] is being used as an excuse, and tool for some to obtain something rather than earn it? Although I myself was able to separate the issue from the person, not everyone is able to do so as easily, and experiences such as mine are what lead people to discount racism as an issue.

Personally I don't consider myself to be racist, I believe that each and every person on this earth is an individual and deserves to be judged solely on their own individual merets as a person, not race, religion, country or anything else. I hold to this even when it comes to a work environment, if someone more qualified than myself is chosen over me I'm happy for them, because it's important to me to know that what I have I've earned.

Yes I would like the playing field to be even for all, but it can't be done by focusing only on one aspect and ignoring others. If you do this you end up with one side constantly on guard and tensely examining every situation for possible inequalities so they can actively sqaush them and battle against those inequalities, you have another side walking on eggshells so worried that their actions could be taken as discriminatory that they go to the other extreme, and then in the middle you have a few ruthless people out there like this girl was, who know how sensitive this issue is, and how powerful it can be as a tool for their own personal gain, and have no qualms about using it. Although technically speaking those motives are not based around the issue of racism, it perpetuates the problem by using their race to force discrimination against another based on race, and th e backlash from this by people seeing this as the whole reason for people to raise the issue of racism.

Edited September 1, 2006 by PsychoKat

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

Psychocat:

Affirmative Action and anti-discrimination employment laws are not perfect (or even close) but they are better than nothing, if you are interested in eventually evening the playing field that many people feel is already even.

In the little-picture, though, lots of unfair incidents like this do happen. I don't think we can call it "reverse racism" though.

edit: double post

then what would you call it?

An unfortunate little-picture event. A necessary big-picture event, until they figure out something better than affirmative action.

They didn't lay her off because she was white. It was because they didn't want their azzes sued off by the black woman. Typical.

I still consider this reverse racism. And although you might view this as a "little-picture" event in the bigger picture, I think in terms of the bigger picture what I went through is very serious and destructive to that bigger picture.

How many times in conversations dealing with racism have you noticed that evenually the subject of reverse racism will be raised, (although seldom with such detail as I did), backed with a sentiment that the subject [racism] is being used as an excuse, and tool for some to obtain something rather than earn it? Although I myself was able to separate the issue from the person, not everyone is able to do so as easily, and experiences such as mine are what lead people to discount racism as an issue.

Personally I don't consider myself to be racist, I believe that each and every person on this earth is an individual and deserves to be judged solely on their own individual merets as a person, not race, religion, country or anything else. I hold to this even when it comes to a work environment, if someone more qualified than myself is chosen over me I'm happy for them, because it's important to me to know that what I have I've earned.

Yes I would like the playing field to be even for all, but it can't be done by focusing only on one aspect and ignoring others. If you do this you end up with one side constantly on guard and tensely examining every situation for possible inequalities so they can actively sqaush them and battle against those inequalities, you have another side walking on eggshells so worried that their actions could be taken as discriminatory that they go to the other extreme, and then in the middle you have a few ruthless people out there like this girl was, who know how sensitive this issue is, and how powerful it can be as a tool for their own personal gain, and have no qualms about using it. Although technically speaking those motives are not based around the issue of racism, it perpetuates the problem by using their race to force discrimination against another based on race, and th e backlash from this by people seeing this as the whole reason for people to raise the issue of racism.

she's young and idealistic. let her cling to her ideas and when it happens to her, she'll remembr this conversation.

Ok Charles, if that's what you want to call it... but "reverse racism" sounds like the language of those people on AM radio who feel they are objects of discrimination for being Christian white males. Oh, boo hoo. Poor white males.

It is not a term for when a white person is in the minority somewhere.

yes, more about those horrible white males. they should all be shot! so what term would you apply to this then? justifiable retribution?

[garya505 2]

It's interesting to see how a discussion about racial profiling becomes a debate about racism in general.

This discussion should be about profiling that uses race as a factor, not "racial profiling".

It's interesting to see how many "non-white" people still assume profiling that uses race as one factor think the reason race is a factor in the profile is just because of racism by "white" people.

It's also amazing to see how many "white" people still don't understand why "non-white" people are offended by profiling that uses race as a factor, and how such profiling can cause problems when some of the people using it have racist attitudes.

Just my $.02

[PsychoKat 0]

I obviously spend way too much time thinking about how to fix all the problems in the world hehe

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Reverse racism is a misnomer. Racism is racism.

[garya505 2]

Reverse racism is a misnomer. Racism is racism.

Racism is racism

Discrimination is discrimination

No such thing as "reverse racism" or "reverse discrimination". Like it's somehow justified or not as bad if the target is white? Maybe we should ask Reginald Denny about that?

[PlatyPius 5]

Reverse racism is a misnomer. Racism is racism.

THANK YOU!

That is what I was thinking as I read through all of this.

There is no such thing as "reverse racism". Why? Because, by its very existence, it assumes that Whites - specifically white males - "own" racism. We are the only ones who are racist, so if someone who ISN'T white is racist, it must be reverse racism. Bullsh!t. As erekose said: Racism is Racism. NO ONE owns the patent to it.

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

Reverse racism is a misnomer. Racism is racism.

THANK YOU!

That is what I was thinking as I read through all of this.

There is no such thing as "reverse racism". Why? Because, by its very existence, it assumes that Whites - specifically white males - "own" racism. We are the only ones who are racist, so if someone who ISN'T white is racist, it must be reverse racism. Bullsh!t. As erekose said: Racism is Racism. NO ONE owns the patent to it.

That is why a minority group member bothering a white person is not the same as the opposite; the insult is not loaded with potential for oppression.

which, given that you and erekose agree, kinda destroys alex's remarks.

[Scott & Lai 12]

That is why a minority group member bothering a white person is not the same as the opposite; the insult is not loaded with potential for oppression.

Try being a white guy walking alone through South Central L.A. In areas like that, decent people frequently have bars on their windows, for fear of gang thugs, the vast majority of whom are "minorities". It doesn't take power to be a racist. The question is what you would do with power if you had it. Witness the L.A. riots...the ones who had the power were those who were rampaging, assaulting/murdering, and burning buildings.