2016's a real fucked up year

I know you guys are not generally "churchy" folk, but our church had an awesome service this weekend based on the current events with all of this. They had a panel of both black and white members of the congregation talking about the different views and opinions on the subject. They didnt hold opinion back and did not try to make it a comfortable conversation, and I think that was great.

One of the best points was the white pastor saying "Problems always look minimized when you look at them from a distance. I as a white person say to myself, ""Whats the big deal? Just do what police say and you are ok. Just act different or adjust to the situation and you wont have a problem."" and that is where the real problem lies. We as white people, often do not take the time to learn the facts. We do not take the time to get involved in the affected communities and to learn and feel how it is along with them. We are disconnected from the situation. It's like you telling your best friend that you and your wife are having marriage problems, and your friend replies ""Just go on more dates, get some counseling, talk more"" as if the solution to a complex issue is just that simple."

From the black members participating in the talk, one told a story about how his white friends didn't understand profiling. He said to them "Ok, lets do this. When we leave school today, the four of us (black) will get into one car, and the four of you (white) get in your car. Drive in front of us and lets see what happens. Sure enough, they pulled us over. Our white friends stopped along with us and even questioned the officer as to why he pulled us over. He gave a response that we black people hear all too often, ""Your car matched the description of a stolen car.""

They spoke about the stark differences in how we are trained to react when a police officer pulls us over. How as a black person, you have to keep both hands on the wheel,have your wallet already out so you are not reaching for anything, tell the officer your every move, and pretty much act like the situation could elevate at any given moment, so be cautious not to elevate it.

The white pastor said "I tell my kids to say yes sir or yes ma'am to the officer and be polite...that's it. It never once crossed my mind that the situation could elevate just from them reaching for their wallet."

The black members noted that yes, a high amount of crime is committed by black people, but to please remember that even though a high percentage of criminals are black, it is a low percentage of the total black population.

Just a lot of good points and open conversation. I was really glad they tried to keep it real and address this in a way to help people understand the differences.

speed808 wrote:

Does the Dallas Police Department have an intra-community area of assignment? That'd be pretty progressive, but I'm not sure if Brown is being insolent or sincere.

LordZed wrote:

They spoke about the stark differences in how we are trained to react when a police officer pulls us over. How as a black person, you have to keep both hands on the wheel,have your wallet already out so you are not reaching for anything, tell the officer your every move, and pretty much act like the situation could elevate at any given moment, so be cautious not to elevate it.

I have done this every time I have been pulled over. I go one step further and have my interior light turned on before I stop, at night time. One time I told an officer that I was reaching for my wallet, which was in my glove box. He said, "That's fine you're not going to pull out a gun and shoot me are you?" I said, "Nope, but I just wanted you to to be aware of what my actions are so you didn't get the wrong impression."

^ 

But seriously, it is really sad anyone would have to act different.

It is hard in general to not judge people. I try my best, but fail often. Plenty of times I see someone wearing a burka or a black dude dressed ghetto as hell walking toward me at night and have a snap judgement in my head. But at least I then tell myself to knock it off and don't be a dick.

I will admit I am flawed as a human and not as open minded and perfect as I should be sometimes. I will try to teach my daughter better than I was taught growing up.

hammyt wrote:

but there are reasons we jump to those judgments.  Those reasons are also partly why we have been so successful as a species.

Isn't that the cop out, though? 

Why would anyone in the US actually give two shits about a burqa?  There is virtually *no* personal experience with females that should provoke any fear response- it's entirely learned via media and from other people.

Why aren't we equally afraid of Amish?

About your topic of it being human instinct

npr.org/2014/11/14/362373052/why-do-we- … tereotypes

Not really the same level but definitely same topic.

I was down at the beach last night just hanging out and someone supposedly called me in for doing a burnout. Yes, in my wrx. ANYWAY the cops come up start giving me shit and I'm as cooperative as possible tell them everything they need to know not harass them about giving them my license or reg. Mind you, my cars legally too low, my inspection sticker is expired, I have a massive crack in my windshield, and my tints to dark. Walked away with no ticket and a handshake.

My opinions always been it comes down the that first interaction with a cop what the out comes gonna be. I obviously do not agree with what happened in Texas, obviously there is bad cops out there. But a majority are out there trying to do their job and there is a lot of people out there who just give them so much grief for stopping them between barely cracking their window, talking to them like they're nothing. I mean really their job is to do there best to protect us from the world, shouldn't we at least give them the same amount of respect that we want?

There is a video that's going around now that has some relevance to this, its called "White Boy Privilege". People are dismissing it because its coming from an 8th grader, his voice is annoying, and they assume he has no life experience to talk about these kinds of things. I listened to the entire thing and he has some good points. Black, brown, yellow are at a disadvantage in this country from birth, just because of their skin color. Most of the time when I meet new people I feel that my first job is to disarm their stereotype of a black guy with dreads. I can't just be me.

Here is the thing re: your opinion that it comes down to that first interaction with a cop what the outcome is going to be. You are a white guy. So your personal experience with these scenarios has virtually no relevance whatsoever to what actually IS under contention. Your (and my) job as (a) white guy(s) is not to tell everybody how our own interactions with cops have generally been reasonable and good. Our job is to listen and appreciate that our own experiences are not the same as those of many people of color. That's the entire point. There is a difference, and you as a white guy can only experience it as a white guy. The key difference here is racism. It absolutely happens in many places, not just with police.

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