Cheryl - I do believe policemen and border guards do public safety a disservice if they don’t treat certain groups more carefully than others. This is their job as an officer of public safety. However, anyone who qualifies as a member of a suspicious group should not have to overcompensate for their membership.
As for your delimna, in all honesty I would answer the door for both of them but be more cautious with the second. However, if it was an 80 year old black women or a 18 year old white boy, I still would be more cautious with the 18 year old boy. Its not the colour for me — its the age, gender and possibly greater strength which would worry me.

A man of character and integrity shouldn’t have to be extra careful because of others of his gender/race, but it isn’t the policeman’s fault that the policeman has to be extra careful! It’s reality. And it would be utterly foolish for the police officer to pretend that an old white woman is as much of a threat to his life as the 18-year-old black male with angry music played so loudly it shakes the windows on the whole street. It would be like airport security pretending that middle-Eastern men pose no more threat than other people groups do.

Charging “racism” isn’t true and doesn’t even come close to fixing the problem being addressed here–that young black males commit far more than their “share” of crime and thus even innocent parties in this people group are treated with a little more hesitation in situations where safety is an issue (a pedestrian in a dark alley, a police officer pulling over a car). Honestly now, if your doorbell rings at midnight and there’s a stranger on your doorstep, are you more likely to answer the door if that stranger is an 80-year-old white woman with a cane or an 18-year-old black man? (Note: If you answered that you’d be more likely to answer the door to the second person because a cane is a potential weapon, you flunk the quiz.)

HA HA HA HA HEE HEE HEE HA HA. GOOD ONE!!!! HA HA HA AH HA HA HA HO HO HEE HEE TEE TEE. I NEEDED THAT. THANKS!!!!

YOU WRITE:……. “But you are asking a black man to be more careful than a white man and in that way you are giving the black man responsibility for what is essentially society racism.

Victoria - I simplified what you said but when you claim peace will happen when verbal attacks cease you are asking for blacks to be quiet. Its the idea of being “uppity”.

You didn’t simplify anything HRW, what you did was RE-ARRANGE what I said to suit your purpose.

You can’t win this, you stuck your foot in it, and now you can’t help yourself.

_____________________

My original post 209

The bitterness which black’s hold against the white race isn’t going to bring any peace in their lives. It’s being handed down from their parents and grandparents.

The racism which I see today is against we who are white. Sometimes it’s almost a ‘dare’ to see how we will react to comments made in public.

If peace is what the black’s want, (I have to believe MOST want peace) then it would be wise to stop the constant verbal attacks both in print, and public.

All the arguments all the name calling, won’t solve any of the problems.

Victoria - I simplified what you said but when you claim peace will happen when verbal attacks cease you are asking for blacks to be quiet. Its the idea of being “uppity”.

You don’t believe there is racism today, that I have to give actual examples before you believe me? Hmm, let’s see, in the black-on-white example, when I was a kid I had a black crossing guard who would call white kids “whitey” under her breath, apparently thrilled with the power she had over children. In my all-black neighborhood in Chicago, my white roommate would come home from a walk shaken because black teens (two or three at a time) would close in on her muttering “white bitch.” It happened more than once. Either of these incidents should be “racist” even by the definition of racism requiring power.

White on black, I know an old man (didn’t know him well) who according to reliable witnesses casually referred to black people by the n-word, and couldn’t understand why it was considered a problem. (Not to their faces as far as I know, but I’m not sure.) I encountered, regularly, white fear of black people when I lived in a black neighborhood. One relative of a relative, not knowing where I lived, asked me if I had to go through any “colored” neighborhoods to get home.

These are all tame, I’ll admit it. I’ve never seen anyone lynched or even spat on. But they are all some level of racism.

Another example of racism, or race-pandering, or whatever you want: When Bush was running for president, I received a vile anti-Bush mailer (again, remember where I lived): on the front it showed a pickup with chains dragging from its bumper, and inside it made reference to the horrible recent lynching-by-dragging in Texas…and used it to scare black people from voting for Bush. I’m sorry, that is downright evil, and I’d have been sickened by it if the man who was killed had been my father.

No, HRW, I didn’t say at all what you’re interpreting me as saying. But I did say that all of us show respect to cops, or should (both because of their authority AND because it’s in our best interest to do so). And doesn’t it make sense to you that a man being pulled over might have to show more caution than a woman does (because his actions are more likely to be seen as aggressive, and he’s more likely to be carrying a gun than a woman is)…and that a black man might reasonably be even more careful, for the same reasons? No, I’m not “blaming” innocent black people or assuming all black men are hoodlums–I have known some black men whom I’d trust enough to have them interview a potential husband to see if he’d measure up. But it’s a foolish person who refuses, for instance, to let the police see his hands when ordered to do so. And sometimes nervous cops shoot people who seem to pose a threat–policemen are human beings, and in that situation they are very vulnerable human beings. A man who acts aggressively and refuses to show his hands, and is holding a cell phone or something that could be a gun, may not be “asking” to be shot, but he certainly is acting stupid.

REGARDING my post 209

You don’t need to translate anything HRW, just to suit your purpose. It’s become your modus operandi to scramble what someone says, its a very IMMATURE technique.

I said it, and I stand behind what I posted.

Tranlation: If blacks want the white man’s respect then they need to be quiet, meek and humble. No talking out of turn.

Translation: Its the black man’s fault that he doesn’t respect the Man and hasn’t proven to the cop that he is innocent.