A conservative Muslim born in the Middle-East, and NRA member with active CHL, looks like I do not belong "there" too. However, I am proud of being a member of both NRA and CHL and this board.Keith B wrote:Looking at the race of a person in a situation is not nessscarily profiling; it is a factor in the whole picture. A guy in a girls dorm in the middle of the night doesn't belong there. A Jewish person walking in the middle of a Neo-Nazi rally doesn't belong there. An middle-aged white guy like me in the middle of a mosh pit at a punk rock concert doesn't belong there.matriculated wrote:You know Keith, I've thought long and hard about this. There are those who would reflexively call you racist for the statement that you just made there. Not me. I get it. To begin with, we're all prejudiced to one degree or another, against one group or another. Secondly, life experiences shape our views and prejudices in a way that defies our most idealistic notions about harmony and equality. I understand why cops start profiling after they've been on the job awhile. They notice that black people commit crimes at a higher rate than white people, so they start paying black people more attention. I get that. But there's a sea of difference between paying black people more attention and, say, doing what our friendly neighborhood Batman and Robin did here. There's a sea of difference between paying black people more attention and just simply assuming outright that a black guy you see walking down a street is a criminal (something that George Zimmerman did, as evidenced by his claim that these "[anatomical expletives] always get away." Profiling is a fact of life, and we all do it in different contexts. But common sense has to enter into the equation at some point. That a guy "looks like he's up to no good" is not enough to run out and point a gun in his face. There are plenty of good kids out there who dress and act like gangsters because that's what's prevalent in their peer group and they would be ostracized and thought of as a "loser" if they didn't conform. There are plenty of good kids out there who know perfectly well how to speak proper English but choose to speak the broken, ugly English because that's "cool," and girls are more likely to hang out with you if you talk like that (and if you speak proper, you're said to be "talking white" in a pejorative way). It's a rotten culture to a degree, but none of that gives anyone a right to go out and hold somebody at gunpoint or put a bullet in somebody. I don't know what my exact point is. I guess I'm just spilling a little stream-of-consciousness ink here. I welcome all replies.Keith B wrote:I will say straight up I have made those assumptions. There are places that at times are just not right for another race to be.Purplehood wrote:I have confronted people in the past that I thought were not where they belonged. Sometimes I was right, sometimes I was wrong. It never became a hostile situation and I never based my assumption on race. After having been in the Military for 24 years you generally look past color when assessing a situation.
Bottom line, discrimination is wrong, period, but race, religion, sex, etc can all play into whether a situation is appropriate or out of bounds.
in fear. I hear:" we are the bank-sent contractors to change the keys of this foreclosed house". Never it came to my mind that my neighbor house is foreclosed by a bank. I immediately demanded to see bank papers or order of work issued by the bank. Luckily, those folks, they had 2 red-colored papers that list the ex-owner info and the order to change the locks. It looks said doc was issued by a bank entity.