Did I over-react or under-react?

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I want to address the racism comments. I grew up in the South and in fact in the county where the initial Brown vs Board of Education lawsuit was filed and I remeber those times very well. Many years later I was talking to a black man that I had known pretty much all my life and had been involved in the case about it and the difference between the South and North. He told me that growing up in the South he knew all about segregation and racism because we both had experienced it first hand. He said that until he moved to the North he had never exprienced Bigotry. I asked him to explain. He siad that the difference was that racism is being treated differently because of your race. Racism is usually associated with treatment against some race but it also involves andy kind of differential treatment due to race. Racism can be found everywhere among all races.

He said that Bigotry was being hated becasue of your race. He said that although he had been treated differently in the South he had never felt hated. Up North he felt hated because of his race even if everything was fully integrated. But he said that he wasn't alone in that it seemed that everyone hated anyone who wasn't just like them, Race, religion anything. Finally he decided to move back down south.
 
Sounds reasonable. Maybe it would be useful to go back to Wal Mart and tell them the story. They probably have the guys on tape if you could give them the date and time. If have anything to add, they could report it to the FBI.
 
Sounds like shoplifters to me, but you never know, so I'd second sending the picture and a statement to the Department of Homeland Security. Sometimes nothing can turn into something in a real hurry.
 
BlackPaladin said:
You acknowledged it as less than ideal behavior...Flinching before pulling the trigger = bad. Seek to remove it. Bigotry = bad. Seek to remove it.

...with the proviso that 'changing' is something you want to do.

We are very polite on this forum, and that's one of the reasons I stay. But I'm a realist here. In a real life scenario, if we were all members of the Rotary Club, not many of you would like me.

I'm opinionated, sometimes loud, I usually pretend to be interested when you speak, and I will most likely do the same things after I hear your empassioned, yet empty headed joke of a rebuttal.

However, I've earned that right. Most young people I know couldn't find their own butts with both hands and a canoe paddle. It makes me wonder why and how I lived through that phase of my life.

But I did, and I took the stripes and pain and lost taught me what most folks call "life lessons."

Many times my slant on life is self-serving, bigoted and old fashioned. In my heart, the "new age" is simply superficial, untried and lame.

I see 'bangers wandering around a street corner at zero-dark-thirty, my guess is that they're selling crack, and more than one of them is armed with a cheap nickel-plated firearm.

Racism or reality?
 
Wildalaska, I'm starting to think you take advice from my ex-wife. That last response sounds like she coached you. Do you have a beard? That clinches it! :D
 
WAs Rule of Life 44 (U) 6

After training or extensive life experience, one recognizes a concept in people known as hinkiness, which concept is defined as a variety of factors that raise an awareness of potential danger. The factors that can render a person "hinky" include, but are not limited to, race, creed, colour, sex,ocupation, age, mode of dress, possessions, body language, time of day, geographic location and any other usual or unusual factor that alone, or in combination, make a reasonable observer concerned, suspicious, alarmed or alert.

Two black kids horseplaying on a basketball Court are not hinky. One black kid wearing a hoody, loitering outside a conveneince store at 3am and continually touching his waist is hinky.

WildihaveotherexamplesifyouwantAlaska TM
 
Wally - World has cameras everywhere. Just report them on the basis of their behavior and don't point out anything about them looking middle eastern. If questioned that way, say; "Hey, you're right, they do look middle eastern. I didn't notice until YOU pointed it out".
 
If a LEO had walked up to them and asked for ID they started spouting off about theer rights as a US Citizen this board would be all over the LEO for harassment.
I kinda doubt that. I for one would applaud them for being proactive rather than reactive.

Did they do one thing that was illegal, did they deserve to be reported to the FBI? Just because they didn't fit your ydea of a peaceful US citizen you jumped to conclusions the same way Sarah Brady would jump if she saw your gun.

A guy walks into a gun store with a ski mask on, holding a duffle bag. Is he doing anything illegal? Is the shop owner going to treat him like any other customer and just wait to find out if he had bad intentions?
Relate this to other threads; People following you in a parking lot; I don't care about race, creed, whether they're "goth" or for that matter, wearing a security uniform (you can buy those). I care about their actions WildAlaska points out "hinkiness". I've heard it called other things, but that's as good a term as any. I don't like to wait to see if my instincts were correct in a situation that could be threatening, and I think we've been peppered with the idea that we are supposed to be omnitolerant. If so, Condition yellow is relegated to "only when being aware of your surroundings doesn't offend anyone".
 
Right. Don't let them condition you into not trusting your instincts. Your unconscious mind knows more than your conscious mind. If your spidey sense tingles, take it seriously. We are in fact at war.

Racial profiling is code talk for 'we don't want you to trust your instincts'
 
So we're not in a "legal" war. We were attacked, we'll be attacked again, we have our countrymen over there dieing...I'd call that war wether proper channels were followed or not.
 
They were probably........

upset with all the red neck hill-billys that were staring at them and were scared for their lives. What would you do if some couch-commando was following you in wallmart taking your picture? Just remember I HATE everyone EQUALLY.:):eek::):eek:
 
This is how freedom dies. Not with a bang, but a whimper. Paranoia about individuals who "look" Arabic or Middle Eastern is still rampant six years after 9/11. They may or may not be Arabic: they could be Indian, Pakistani, Italian, Greek, from any number of South American countries. The same people who would be quick to post the quote from Thomas Jefferson (those who would give up freedom for a little safety deserve neither freedom nor safety) if this was a thread where the second amendment was being discussed, are willing to flush the rest of the Constitution down the toilet if they perceive they are not in the group to be affected.:barf:

This same type of thinking justified the creation of concentration camps in the U.S. during WWII. If you endorse the goverment's power to violate your rights ( or the rights of citizens who "look" Middle Eastern, you will possibly be safer. I bet you could walk down the streets of Nazi Germany without fear of being mugged.:mad:
 
willing to flush the rest of the Constitution down the toilet if they perceive they are not in the group to be affected.

Nobody is advocating "flushing" the constitution. Most posts advocate trusting one's instinct. I'm sure Jefferson would understand that. And the reference to Nazi Germany is absurd. :rolleyes:

The concentration camps in Germany were a little different, too.
 
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