S/O of Lululemon: Are white women's live's more valuable?

[Anonymous]

pp, I think that if E. Smart had been an upper middle class black girl taken from her bedroom, the attention would NOT have been the same. Perhaps a little national coverage, and that is all.

The problem is that as you say when whites sympathize with victims who are more like them (most whites are not Mormon, so it does not always fit), the public is taught to value white lives more. That can encourage the crimminals to think of ceratin lives as less valuable, hence they might prey on minorities and men. Jeffery Dahmer admitted that he got away with his crimes for so long because he made sure that most of his victims (perhaps all), were either men or minorities. An exception might be in cases involving white prostitutes, where the police just don't seem to try very hard to find a perpetrator. Even in those cases, the media might try to spin the woman's reputation and clean it up a bit.
BTW, I think of people in my cohort (regardless of race), as being like me.

[Anonymous]

I consider it a tragedy when a hot woman of any race goes missing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:pp, I think that if E. Smart had been an upper middle class black girl taken from her bedroom, the attention would NOT have been the same. Perhaps a little national coverage, and that is all.

The problem is that as you say when whites sympathize with victims who are more like them (most whites are not Mormon, so it does not always fit), the public is taught to value white lives more. That can encourage the crimminals to think of ceratin lives as less valuable, hence they might prey on minorities and men. Jeffery Dahmer admitted that he got away with his crimes for so long because he made sure that most of his victims (perhaps all), were either men or minorities. An exception might be in cases involving white prostitutes, where the police just don't seem to try very hard to find a perpetrator. Even in those cases, the media might try to spin the woman's reputation and clean it up a bit.
BTW, I think of people in my cohort (regardless of race), as being like me.

Her parents hired a PR firm just like Chandra Levy's parents did

[Anonymous]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_white_woman_syndrome

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think the bias is race. But people are fixated about this because this crime occurred close to home - either physically close or because people shop there.

We are far more callous with crimes that are safely away from us.

The reason we have so many Nancy Drews on the thread is that posters need to make sense of the crime so they feel safe that it won't happen to them. The scariest feeling is that it might be random and unforeseeable, that people like that might attack you on the street or in your home.

OMG its you again! You had to post this BS on another thread. I think you are the one that has to make sense of it to feel safe stop blaing your ignorance and stupidity on other posters. You are annoying just go away!

I'm not the PP you're responding to. I wrote something similar on the thread asking if any Bethesda residents were doing anything different for security. I'm sorry it annoys you. But, you should do a little reading before rambling about it being BS. It's a legitimate theory and applicable to the conversation.

I still don't know what either of you is talking about. I was not proposing a theory about the crime.

I am just looking at it from a social psychology perspective. When crime occurs, people want to know what their risk is, and how forseeable a crime would be. A crime that happens on the other side of town does not concern you in that regard, even if you have some general sense of sympathy for the victim.

If it is close to home (Lululemon), you want to know how likely it is that something would happen to you. So posters at first focused on whether the killing was random or whether the victim was known to the killer. It would have been more scary if it was a random robbery, but this is workplace violence. OK, so it does not mean that you need to fear walking around Bethesda. But it reminds you that workplace violence is real. So then naturally conversation turns to the killer's background, in an effort to see whether these things are predictable. Does she have a mental illness that makes this kind of thing very rare? Did she have a criminal past that could have kept her out of the job with proper screening? Is there something about her behavior that would tip you off if she was your co-worker?

I think these reactions are understandable, even if I wish we as a society also took the time to recognize victims who are not like us or who do not live by us. I remember when I lived in Foggy Bottom and a homeless man was stabbed to death. I was very sad because I remember him and still think about him and why it may have happened. I know there was a short blurb in the paper and the neighborhood had some initial interest, but then they found out that it was a homeless person, decided that it was not indicative of a real risk to them, and suddenly there was no more discussion.

[Anonymous]

More valuable? Absolutely not. Do crimes against white women seem to get much more attention in the press? Yes. And this is something that many of us think is pretty appalling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:pp, I think that if E. Smart had been an upper middle class black girl taken from her bedroom, the attention would NOT have been the same. Perhaps a little national coverage, and that is all.

OK, you THINK that. But can you find an example of a case where a young black girl was taken from her bedroom, through the window, while her parents slept in the next room, and her little sister watched, terrified, in the next bed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:pp, I think that if E. Smart had been an upper middle class black girl taken from her bedroom, the attention would NOT have been the same. Perhaps a little national coverage, and that is all.

OK, you THINK that. But can you find an example of a case where a young black girl was taken from her bedroom, through the window, while her parents slept in the next room, and her little sister watched, terrified, in the next bed?

How would I know if the media does not report it. I would not have known about E. Smart other than her relatives telling me. You would not have known about her either.

[Anonymous]

No. It's just that black people have a huge boulder on their shoulder. This is now just a way to deflect from the gravity and sheer horrific nature of the crime committed by a black person. If the murderer had been white and all the other details the same this would still be a huge topic of conversation. Whenever that criminal is black, the PR machine goes in to hyper-gear trying to talk about other issues namely race rather than the facts at hand. And no one cares about a drugged out crack prostitute that got shot whether it be in the streets of SE DC or Boone County WVa.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. It's just that black people have a huge boulder on their shoulder. This is now just a way to deflect from the gravity and sheer horrific nature of the crime committed by a black person. If the murderer had been white and all the other details the same this would still be a huge topic of conversation. Whenever that criminal is black, the PR machine goes in to hyper-gear trying to talk about other issues namely race rather than the facts at hand. And no one cares about a drugged out crack prostitute that got shot whether it be in the streets of SE DC or Boone County WVa.

Really? I'm Black and carry no such weight. I wonder why there is this need to label ALL of us, by the action of SOME. Quite often it's done without even knowing a handful of us by which to even state your claim.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: I still don't know what either of you is talking about. I was not proposing a theory about the crime.

(assuming you are the first quoted PP) The other poster was accusing you of writing something that I think I wrote. It was a theory on why everyone gets obsessed with murder cases with a victim they can relate to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think the bias is race. But people are fixated about this because this crime occurred close to home - either physically close or because people shop there.

We are far more callous with crimes that are safely away from us.

The reason we have so many Nancy Drews on the thread is that posters need to make sense of the crime so they feel safe that it won't happen to them. The scariest feeling is that it might be random and unforeseeable, that people like that might attack you on the street or in your home.

OMG its you again! You had to post this BS on another thread. I think you are the one that has to make sense of it to feel safe stop blaing your ignorance and stupidity on other posters. You are annoying just go away!

Yes! OMG PP! Stop posting trenchant observations about social phenomena! You're making the rest of us feel bad!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think the bias is race. But people are fixated about this because this crime occurred close to home - either physically close or because people shop there.

We are far more callous with crimes that are safely away from us.

The reason we have so many Nancy Drews on the thread is that posters need to make sense of the crime so they feel safe that it won't happen to them. The scariest feeling is that it might be random and unforeseeable, that people like that might attack you on the street or in your home.

OMG its you again! You had to post this BS on another thread. I think you are the one that has to make sense of it to feel safe stop blaing your ignorance and stupidity on other posters. You are annoying just go away!

I'm not the PP you're responding to. I wrote something similar on the thread asking if any Bethesda residents were doing anything different for security. I'm sorry it annoys you. But, you should do a little reading before rambling about it being BS. It's a legitimate theory and applicable to the conversation.

I still don't know what either of you is talking about. I was not proposing a theory about the crime.

I am just looking at it from a social psychology perspective. When crime occurs, people want to know what their risk is, and how forseeable a crime would be. A crime that happens on the other side of town does not concern you in that regard, even if you have some general sense of sympathy for the victim.

If it is close to home (Lululemon), you want to know how likely it is that something would happen to you. So posters at first focused on whether the killing was random or whether the victim was known to the killer. It would have been more scary if it was a random robbery, but this is workplace violence. OK, so it does not mean that you need to fear walking around Bethesda. But it reminds you that workplace violence is real. So then naturally conversation turns to the killer's background, in an effort to see whether these things are predictable. Does she have a mental illness that makes this kind of thing very rare? Did she have a criminal past that could have kept her out of the job with proper screening? Is there something about her behavior that would tip you off if she was your co-worker?

I think these reactions are understandable, even if I wish we as a society also took the time to recognize victims who are not like us or who do not live by us. I remember when I lived in Foggy Bottom and a homeless man was stabbed to death. I was very sad because I remember him and still think about him and why it may have happened. I know there was a short blurb in the paper and the neighborhood had some initial interest, but then they found out that it was a homeless person, decided that it was not indicative of a real risk to them, and suddenly there was no more discussion.

AAAAAHHHHHHHH! Stop being so damned reasonable!!!!