One message on the web forum asked neighbors to be on the lookout for “two young African Americans, slim, baggy pants, early 20s.” Another warned of a “light skinned black female” walking her dog and talking on her cellphone.America seems to be full of people who spend all their time peering out their windows in a fog of suspicion, fearful of anyone they don't know and especially anyone of the wrong color.
“I don’t recognize her,” the post read. “Has anyone described any suspect of crime like her?”
These postings appeared on the Oakland forums of Nextdoor.com, a website intended to be a virtual neighborhood hangout for the tens of thousands of neighborhoods and hundreds of local police departments that use it to communicate with residents. The site’s chief executive and co-founder, Nirav Tolia, describes it as a place to find a babysitter, a plumber or a missing cat, and to have a “kind of ‘Leave It to Beaver’ chatter.”
But people also use it to report suspected crimes. And as Nextdoor has grown, users have complained that it has become a magnet for racial profiling, leading African-American and Latino residents to be seen as suspects in their own neighborhood.
A few years ago in my safe, boring suburban neighborhood we had a great example of this. The county had built a new school, and there was no sidewalk down the other side of the street it was on. At that time the federal government had a program to fund the construction of sidewalks near schools, so the county could have gotten the sidewalk built for free. They also had an easement already in place, written into the deeds of this subdivision. But when they held a public meeting dozens of people showed up to protest. According to a friend of mine who was there, most were worried that the sidewalk would entice dangerous strangers to walk down the street. "We've already got enough criminals around here," said one, "we don't need any more." So the county gave up.
7 comments:
"America seems to be full of people who spend all their time peering out their windows in a fog of suspicion, fearful of anyone they don't know and especially anyone of the wrong color."
-That's a very good thing, and very helpful to the community as a whole. Look up any news stories about auto or catalytic converter thefts in your area or any other in the United States. They will invariably be dominated by NAMs. Crime exists. Whether you like it or not.
And so does racism, racial profiling, paranoia, and witch-hunting.
A person of color being in someone's neighborhood is indicative of absolutely nothing. Meanwhile, somone freaking out about said person of color's presence is indicative of their being irrational at best and dangerously unhinged at worst.
Treating people like criminals based solely on the color of their skin is utterly despicable - doubly so when one routinely enjoys the benefits of being presumed to NOT be a criminal based solely on one's own skin color.
Your commentary routinely exhibits hatefulness, intolerance, suspicion, and general unpleasantness. You seem deeply angry and unhappy, and appear to always be looking for someone else to blame for your own dissatisfactions. As per the topic at hand, if you were my neighbor, I wouldn't want to know you in the least, and would be abjectly ashamed to be placed into the same category as you based on the parameter of skin color. Please reflect upon that, and for your own good reconsider your toxic, self destructive assumptions and worldview.
"A person of color being in someone's neighborhood is indicative of absolutely nothing. Meanwhile, somone freaking out about said person of color's presence is indicative of their being irrational at best and dangerously unhinged at worst."
-[citation needed].
Something like a third of Black males have been in prison as compared with ~8% of White ones.
http://www.ronunz.org/2013/07/20/race-and-crime-in-america/
"Your commentary routinely exhibits hatefulness, intolerance, suspicion, and general unpleasantness."
-I call it "realism".
"You seem deeply angry and unhappy,"
-I'm not. I'm generally a happy person.
"and appear to always be looking for someone else to blame for your own dissatisfactions."
-Well, it's not I who stole my car's catalytic converter (and license plate) last year, thus forcing me to go without a catalytic converter for my car even unto this day for fear of further theft.
"As per the topic at hand, if you were my neighbor, I wouldn't want to know you in the least, and would be abjectly ashamed to be placed into the same category as you based on the parameter of skin color."
-That says more about you than about me.
1) Self evident truths need not be proven - they prove themselves. A person's skin color indicates absolutely nothing about their criminality or lack thereof, anymore than their height indicates their political affiliation, or the color of their hair indicates their sexual preferences.
2) Incarceration rates cannot be simplified to a single variable - countless different factors influence them, and many are demonstrably the product of racism. For example, when comparing people who carry out the exact same crimes, blacks overall receive harsher sentences and are more frequently convicted than whites - a factor which cannot possibly be accounted for except by systematic bias and prejudice. Similarly, the quality of clothing worn by a defendent in court is shown to impact judgement rendered - wearing a well tailored suit and tie improves one's situation, while those who appear in less formal or in racially stereotyped garb are judged more harshly, which results in a bias against the nation's poor and disadvanted, of whom blacks make up a disproportionate amount.
3) Calling bigotry and intolerance "realism" has been the foundation of untold attrocities throughout history. You can make excuses for your hatred and call them justifications, but no one is fooled.
4) Psychology informs us that happy people don't exhibit the hostile and destructive behaviors which you display. Intolerance is the product of negativity and insecurity, not of positivity and wellbeing. Hatred is antithetical to joy.
5) Invoking the theft of your automotive property is an informal falacy - confirmation bias. You overvalue particular incidents which you feel validate your preconceived notions, while undervaluing or outright dismissing events or examples which run counter to them. Being attacked by a single dog in no way suggests that all or even a significant number of dogs are vicious, and being victimized by a non-white criminal in no way suggests that all or even a significant number of criminals are non-white.
...and that even assumes you actually were victimized by a non-white criminal, which has not remotely been established - and given the nature of the crime I doubt it ever will be. The fact that you automatically attribute blame for the crime to a non-white is the exact problem at hand.
6) Your fear of theft is irrational, and does not justify your behaviors or beliefs. Furthermore, it is illegal to operate a motor vehicle originally manufactured with a catalytic converter without one - you yourself are in fact breaking the law thanks to paranoid delusion.
7) How telling my desire not to associate with bigots and racists is or is not, is utterly irrelevant. I'm not taking the time to have this discussion for the sake of competition or entertainment - I'm trying to logically reason with you in the hopes of leading you to the self-realization that your behaviors are destructive, and to inspire introspection, reflection, and change. By confronting your beliefs with rational evidence that contradicts them, I hope to convince you to reconsider your preconceptions and prejudices. I may fail, you may reject my arguments without considering their logic, yet I can but try.
"A person's skin color indicates absolutely nothing about their criminality or lack thereof, anymore than their height indicates their political affiliation, or the color of their hair indicates their sexual preferences."
-Just like a person's voting for Bernie Sanders indicates absolutely nothing about whether they identify as a Democrat. Sure, true enough, but there is a pretty big correlation.
"For example, when comparing people who carry out the exact same crimes, blacks overall receive harsher sentences and are more frequently convicted than whites - a factor which cannot possibly be accounted for except by systematic bias and prejudice."
-Mostly untrue:
http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/11/25/race-and-justice-much-more-than-you-wanted-to-know/
"Furthermore, it is illegal to operate a motor vehicle originally manufactured with a catalytic converter without one - you yourself are in fact breaking the law thanks to paranoid delusion."
-That's what you get when you might be punished by some thief for following the law.
"while those who appear in less formal or in racially stereotyped garb are judged more harshly, which results in a bias against the nation's poor and disadvanted"
-For good reason: if you don't even care enough about social consequences that incentivize one to look presentable, why would you care at all about social consequences that incentivize one to not commit low-class crimes?
"Being attacked by a single dog in no way suggests that all or even a significant number of dogs are vicious, and being victimized by a non-white criminal in no way suggests that all or even a significant number of criminals are non-white."
-Most crimes of this sort are committed by non-whites.
"I'm trying to logically reason with you in the hopes of leading you to the self-realization that your behaviors are destructive"
-No, you're not. Otherwise, you'd cite sources. You're merely trying to console yourself that your horror at disparate treatment of ethnic minorities makes you a better person. Protip: it doesn't.
"Your fear of theft is irrational"
-This is like telling a rape victim her fear rape is irrational. Fuck off.
Your anecdote does not constitute data. Period.
And thank *you*, Mr/Ms Verloren, for your cogent and restrained commentary.
I notice that of the two sources pithom provide, one is merely a blogger and the other (also a blogger but citing a study) cites a study that for every category says, yes, there is a higher proportion of blacks than whites, but if you consider "prior records" then the discrepancy goes away.
D'oh! Given the greater frequency of people of color being A. accused and B. convicted of whatever they're accused of no *wonder* said people have more "prior records" than whites!
"Your anecdote does not constitute data. Period."
-Sure. But data constitutes data. And it's perfectly consistent with the logic of neighbors being wary of strange NAMs and my belief that whoever stole my car's catalytic converter was probably Black. After all, I don't live in Montana or Eastern Kentucky.
"I notice that of the two sources pithom provide, one is merely a blogger"
-[writes this in the comments section of a blog].
[does not appreciate the irony].
"And thank *you*, Mr/Ms Verloren, for your cogent and restrained commentary."
-The dude cited no sources and wrongly accused me of nonexistent emotional flaws from my factual reasoning. How is that either cogent or restrained?
"Given the greater frequency of people of color being A. accused and B. convicted of whatever they're accused of no *wonder* said people have more "prior records" than whites!"
-Elaborate the argument.
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