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Store clerks are like the most overly helpful people I know, tripping over themselves just to come to my assistance. It's like I'm famous or something.
And don't forget the random police escorts to and from wherever you're going. It's like I'm the president...can't go anywhere without the police. I mean what if I get mugged? No, no...it's better that they tail me for 15 minutes...
But I always feel bad when I walk into a McDonalds or wherever and the guy serving me is white. It's like I get too excited about it....talking about "can I get extra ketchup and not one, but two, forks?".....even though all I ordered was a soda.
Meh you take the good with the bad. When it comes right down to it, I try not to be a bad person and that's all I can do, or be asked of.
Excellent post! That is all you can do. Have a positive attitude and a smile on the face, and nine times out of ten people will respond favorably. Just think, 50 years ago a black person couldn't even sit at the front of a bus or a lunch counter in the south, and now we have a black president. It's a pretty amazing progression if you ask me. No one said it would be better overnight, but even older generations feel differently than they used to about race.
It's telling that you didn't address one word I wrote. All you had to give back to the discourse was inane right-wing hysterical boilerplate. Not an original thought in the bunch.
LOL, it's not what you wanted to hear. I guess you expect me to jump on your "hate" bandwagon. Nope, life is too short and I don't want to waste it being as angry as you and other race baiting chip carrying "people".
When looking at the reason Zimmerman was found not guilty, I came to the conclusion that I shouldn't be angry at Zimmerman for being found not guilty. I'm angry at the judicial system for allowing him to kill an unarmed innocent male (who happened to be black) over a basic fist fight that he was losing. In addition, I am angry at the fact that black males who are committing crimes have caused people to fear and be biased toward all black men.
Law abiding black males are, in a sense, victims too. Law abiding black males are victims of black males who commit crimes at an disproportionally higher rate than white males if that stat is accurate (even though there are reasons for their behavior which would need to be addressed in another forum) and this has resulted in BIAS and FEAR among white Americans as well as black Americans living in communities where they are reading about and seeing on the news crimes committed by black males.
Unfortunately, this is a problem for black males like me, who have never committed a crime, and basically can't walk down many streets in America without someone profiling us and asking what is this black guy up to or doing? This is my reality as a black man in 2013, and probably will continue to be as long as black males continue to commit crimes at high rates. I have already warned and told my two black sons that if they are confronted by anyone, try to be reasonable, courteous, and respectful or you may end up like Trayvon Martin.
What are your thoughts about this topic?
I worked with a young black man and when we heard on the radio of a robbery he said----"I sure hope it wasn't a black guy who did that." I know what you are saying OP. Black guys who have never broken the law are still looked sideways when so many black men are out breaking the law each day.
White guys do it as well but not as many in proportion. Not fair at all. I wish Eric Holder would work on a solution for that instead of race baiting like he is dong now. So many young black men are out of work---fix that problem, why don't they?
In the first place this was not a fight, it was an unprovoked attack. There was no evidence that TM ever felt physically threatened by Zimmerman. Anytime violence begins it can escalate quickly. This entire incident is not about race it is about violence.
I feel sorry for the majority of responsible black people who suffer from a stereotype because minorities of black people act in violent and criminal ways.
The protests and attacks on innocent people perpetrated by criminals are simply adding to the perception that black people are violent, prejudice, and act in an uncivilized manor.
Can you imagine the reaction of black people if they saw large gangs of whites rioting and attacking inocent people just because they were black after the OJ trial?
So long as black people feel they have any excuse whatsoever to riot and engage in the kind of acts we see after any so called racially charged incidents, then prejudice and profiling will continue. It is a cycle that feeds on itself.
You and I weren't there so you are just speculating as to whether Trayvon attacked Zimmerman first. That's the assumption made, and unfortunately this has been my point about how people have this bias against black males. So I won't debate with you on that. But I will say that you are absolutely right in that as long as black people feel that they have an excuse to PROTEST (I don't know why you would think riot, when there weren't any riots reported by the media at the protest and marches held across the country). But, it is a cycle that feeds on itself. And since it's a cycle that feeds on itself, then I guess we will never get anywhere with race relations.
Black men have been dealing with these issues of being stereotyped all over the world way before the first rap lyrics were ever put to a record! When see posts like this I see why we get treated the way we do, too many of us love being treated as second class citizens. Hard to feel sorry for people with your mentality.
If you are not black, then you won't ever understand what black men experience especially when we are profiled. Why would you think that I want you to feel sorry for people with my mentality? What is my mentality?
Guess what? You don't have to feel sorry for me. I am one of the minority of black men accordingly to statistics who have never been arrested. Should I get praised or kudos for that? No, because I was taught by my parents to trust God, and live by biblical principles which has relatively worked for me.
Also, I am relatively successful; I hold two degrees; I only have one baby mama (my wife); and my income is higher than the national average. Yet with all of my success, I am still profiled BY SOME as if I am a thug (UNLAWFUL ANIMAL) because of the disproportionately crimes that black men are committing. AND THAT'S WHAT I AM ANGRY ABOUT!!!
There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery. Then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.... After all we have been through. Just to think we can't walk down our own streets, how humiliating.
Remarks at a meeting of Operation PUSH in Chicago (27 November 1993). Quoted in "Crime: New Frontier - Jesse Jackson Calls It Top Civil-Rights Issue" by Mary A. Johnson, 29 November 1993, Chicago Sun-Times (ellipsis in original). Partially quoted in US News & World Report (10 March 1996)
Thanks for sharing. I remember when this was reported.
You are right. But tell the people who played by the rules to make money, who went to college or trade school, had a good paying job, lost it due to the economic down fall, and now making minimum wage because that's all they can find. Or how about the person who was only making minimum wage and lost his or her job and can't find any work too? These people all played by the rules, and the rules seem to change when banks and corporations needed to be bailed out by these same laid off people who were working for them. Was that right?
But again I am going off topic, so back on topic now. By being a black man, I play by the rules daily. I m not robbing or stealing from anyone. I am not trying to rape or kill anyone. I am not trying to cheat or hustle someone out of their hard earned money to make a quick buck. Like most Americans, I want to earn a livable wage, worship my God as I choose, and raise my kids to be productive American citizens.
By being a black man, some times playing by the rules can still put me in a dangerous situation where if I am walking down any street in America in 2013 and confronted by someone who thinks I am up to no good, then if I come at them in a way that they think their lives are in danger, I might end up like Trayvon Martin.
While you're right with your assessment, as a woman, I can't walk down the streets, either.
I can be harmed, and have been harmed, by white men.
I have been a victim of crimes perpetrated by white and black (theft from my porch, house break-in).
Is that fair?
No.
Life is not fair, for anyone.
I do believe black males have a tough row to hoe due to profiling and the media.
There were studies done since the 1960s illustrating the media's presentation of black crime as opposed to white crime.
With black violent crime, they show the criminal; the incidence of white violent crime, the criminal is not shown.
Here are some studies: http://www.uk.sagepub.com/stout/gree..._crime_soc.pdf The everyday experiences of black people as victims of crime and racial prejudice seldom make the
headlines.
For decades, black youth have been demonized in media discourses as the ‘criminal other’. Whether as pimps, rioters, muggers, Rastafarian drug dealers, gang members, or Yardies (Hall et al., 1978; Gilroy, 1987; Solomos, 1988; Alexander, 1996; Muncie, 2004), the association between race and crime has been forcefully established and remains resonant today.
Much more at link.
http://www.internetjournalofcriminol...0Reporting.pdf The intent of this study is to present an argument for or against the perception that black youths are portrayed negatively in the media and the moral panic surrounding black youth crime is exaggerated. Literature and qualitative research by way of four unstructured interviews regarding six sub factors which are, the media portrayal of black youths, negative role models amongst the black community, the underachievement of black youths in school, single parent families, social class and black culture, were analysed and discussed in order to reach a valid conclusion.
These are Brit studies, but apply in the US.
Will be able to present US studies later.
black men aren't just in a sense the victims of black male criminals. they are literally the biggest victims of black male criminals. no one cares until they want to say, "Zimmerman? what about all the blacks killing blacks?"
Newsflash. Blacks who kill blacks go to jail. Zimmerman wasn't even going to be investigated until there was a national outcry. I don't care if he was found not guilty by the same state that allowed Casey Anthony to walk free, the fact that he got to go home hours after he took a life tells you all you need to know about this case.
as far as non criminal black men, the only thing to be mad about is that you are in a country that sees you as guilty until you prove your innocence. you cannot control the actions of other men even if they are the same color as you. that goes for any group that gets profiled in this country. the vast majority of Muslim Americans aren't blowing isht up and the vast majority of black people aren't committing crimes. keep your head up.
You are absolutely right, and I appreciate your post. I am keeping my head high. But there are so many other factors out there trying to make us hold our heads down.
let me ask you, are you mad at latino, Asian, and White males that committ crimes and those that cause fear and bias? If not, why not? Is your fear and bias really based on crime or color?
Since the attention is mainly on what black males do, and I happen to be black, that is why I am angry. As far as crimes all men commit, you are right, all rapists regardless of color make it hard for all men who are alone with women in an elevator, store, or approaching a woman walking alone down the street. But it just gets me when people either misread my posts or misunderstand my intent. My sole intent in starting this thread was to stress my anger, AS A BLACK MAN, who has been profiled because of crimes that SOME black males commit as reported by the media and newspapers to, in my opinion, instill fear in others.
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