BellaRisa
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- Joined
- Aug 9, 2001
- Messages
- 5,974
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- 38
Maybe the cops have a reason to 'profile' you according to your race.
According to July 1st 200 Census report, the United States is populated by 211,460,626 'white' people and 34,658,190 'black' people, which makes up 75.1% and 12.3% of the population respectively. And I am sure that 12.3 percent of the population was a little lower ten years ago in 1997, when 37.8% of the people in jails nation wide were black.
Ya think there might be some kind of correlation here or what? You can't argue with the numbers.
Viper,
I've read your statements in this thread and I'm truly disappointed. I thought you had far more intelligence, true knowledge of the world around you, and compassion than you've displayed here. You've insulted every person of color who reads this thread, and some of us thought you considered us friends. As a person of color I do hope you weren't worried about your wallet or safety when near me at NEST, since we brown folks are so statistically criminally inclined.
I know, you didn't mean me.
Of course you didn't.
Perhaps your stats are correct. Let's say they are. They don't justify people being mistreated and needlessly made to feel like criminals by police and other authority figures simply for their resemblance to others who've commited crimes. That behavior is hurtful and hateful and wrong, period.
I've been brown since 1972. I grew up in one of the roughest parts of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, surrounded by other brown people and precious few who weren't brown. And I've seen horrible, horrible things done to innocent brown people by non-brown people. And yet I'm happily married to a non-brown man. I consider many non-brown people to be family, people for whom I would do damn near anything. Because people are INDIVIDUALS, and we each deserve to be treated as such. Anyone who lacks the sense and maturity to understand that has no place in my life until they grow up. I will NOT pay for the crimes of others, just as I don't expect whites in my life to pay for crimes whites have commited against blacks over the last several centuries. To ask my husband to suffer for that long, long boatride to slavery that my ancestors were forced to make is ridiculous. As is 'profiling' innocent people based purely on acts that others of their race have commited.
Do I understand how racial profiling happens? Of course. If you get scratched by enough cats eventually you'll twitch when a strange cat walks by. But you don't have the right to kick or scream at every cat you see. Nor do police have the right to give certain races a humiliating and damaging level of scrutiny simply because others of that race have done wrong. It's unacceptable and only serves to further seperate our society, which is the last thing we need.
As to the original question: I have no issue with police, despite some truly horrific behavior I've seen from some of them. Judgng all of a group by the behavior of some, or even many, is childish and wrong and should not be tolerated simply because "that's the way it is today". I certainly have issue with bad police, just as I do with bad teachers, bad doctors or any other professional who's performance is discriminatory or poor in some way. Based on their particular performance, not that of their profession, race or anything else as a generality.
Bella




