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I have walked around with a Thick Foreign Accent for 36 years, so I do get it. Prior to that I spent my first 23 years in the circumstances of ethnic discrimination (which ultimately led to a civil war) of the intensity that you cannot imagine. That is why I fully get it when people are aproppriately concerned, and when they are just seeking special provileges (including getting away with murder and other major forms of selfish, antisocial behavior) for their special group.
Experience with an accent is not necessarily the same as skin color because one is more apparent than the other and one cannot hide the latter. It's almost the same with LGBT folks. If someone is not out, the biased ones will discriminate against them for being LGBT. It's only when someone gets caught - either by choice or not- dating the same sex, that this demographic of people may experience persecution or discrimination. So there is somewhat time to not go through this "broken windows" where people are automatically targeted regardless of background. This cannot happen to you with only an accent if you keep your mouth shut.
Experience with an accent is not necessarily the same as skin color because one is more apparent than the other and one cannot hide the latter. It's almost the same with LGBT folks. If someone is not out, the biased ones will discriminate against them for being LGBT. It's only when someone gets caught - either by choice or not- dating the same sex, that this demographic of people may experience persecution or discrimination. So there is somewhat time to not go through this "broken windows" where people are automatically targeted regardless of background. This cannot happen to you with only an accent if you keep your mouth shut.
Imagine the Albanians, Montenegrans, Serbians, Macedonians, Croatians, and Romanians all look identical. It's just their languages, Religions, and just what characters they use to write their language in that makes them mortal enemies. Imagine if they actually looked different from each other as our various groups do ? Imagine throwing that extra wrinkle into the Balkans. Crazy to think.
I agree with your premise for the most part, but they don't really look alike. It's subtle, but it's there.
BTW, since this is being discussed, I fully agree that racially profiling simply due to crime stats is pointless. It was also never the goal of "broken windows".
There are other methods of profiling which are efficacious to policing.
I agree with your premise for the most part, but they don't really look alike. It's subtle, but it's there.
It's subtle but come on. Albanians can look like Romanians and Serbs. Croatian like Albanians. At some point they all mixed. Nazi Germans said Slavs were racially inferior but they took blond Slavic babies and raised them as Germans. Racism is crazy. Btw, being in the Balkans I can see how you think religion is b.s..
From my perspective, including Eric Garner in any conversation about "unnecessary police brutality" does far more harm then it does good to the BLM movement's attempt to attract allies.
I consider myself a moderate. I'm a 40 year old straight white cis woman. I am sympathetic and empathetic to the struggles that minorities face in this country, even in 2019.
HOWEVER. Eric Garner was a career criminal, who had been arrested something like 30 times, and police were called to that location by the store owner. On top of that, he resisted arrest, and was a good 150 pounds overweight and in poor health. He is dead because of his own actions. Is it unfortunate that a human being died, and that Pantaleo used a restraint tactic that had been banned by the department. But when a criminal who you have been tasked with arresting is physically resisting you, and they outweigh you by that much, survival instincts are going to kick in.
Comparing Garner to say Philando Castile, makes me doubt your ability to actually asses the reality of a situation. And by doing so, they're alienating people who think like me. All people of color who die in police custody are not the same scenario, so let's not lump them in. Does America have a problem with this? Yes, we do. Is Eric Garner part of this problem? Not by my estimation.
This is an interesting topic, Cida. Thanks for posting.
I agree with a lot of that & have said that to other people. I do think historically black community has faced with unfair policies/profiling by police departments. But I think some people are so eager to bring black lives matter movement into the picture that they dilute the important cases.
Michael Brown, maybe Garner for the reason you listed, Baltimore man that died Gray?
Then you have a case where police probably did over do it & kill a person that shouldn't have been killed yet they are listed in the same sentence as the ones I mentioned. I wanna say Why??? Why would you include them with a totally innocent person (Brotham from Dallas?). For some people out there (all races) they completely shutdown from caring once they hear Michael Brown in that same sentence.
Another thing I find disturbing is how people will throw out statistics that X # of black people have been killed by police. But they do not separate the unarmed ones from the ones shooting back! It's misleading information & sends a message that instead of asking questions first people automatically form an opinion before knowing all the details.
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