Walking while black

[Anonymous]

I can't imagine this happening to my child (I am white); this one hit closest to home about how we do treat different races differently:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/26/opinion/charles-blow-at-yale-the-police-detained-my-son.html?_r=0

[Anonymous]

This happened to my son (white) this weekend. 3 cop cars, don't think guns were drawn though. Asked to get on the ground. He was playing hide and seek with his friends on the West side of Montgomery County. Somebody called the police. A parent was close by and intervened on his behalf.

This happened to his 2 friend last year, white and Hispanic (white). They had airsoft guns, so the cops drew their guns, they were put on the ground and the face on the pavement, with a knee in their back and handcuffed, parents were called. Also on the West side of MoCo.

[Anonymous]

The story about the black Yale student is a simple case of mistaken identity. This is not "walking while black". Please don't even try to say that it is, because the "walking while black" is a real problem for other non-Yale students. Trying to equate this lame story with "walking while black" trivializes the entire issue, and creates a strawman that deniers can easily knock over.

To the PP who said his white son was stopped similarly for playing "hide and seek", I have a question. Was your son on someone else's property?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The story about the black Yale student is a simple case of mistaken identity. This is not "walking while black". Please don't even try to say that it is, because the "walking while black" is a real problem for other non-Yale students. Trying to equate this lame story with "walking while black" trivializes the entire issue, and creates a strawman that deniers can easily knock over.

To the PP who said his white son was stopped similarly for playing "hide and seek", I have a question. Was your son on someone else's property?

It is a case of mistaken identity, but if the person they are looking for had been white, would they have pulled a gun and asked them to lie face down on the ground, knowing the odds were good it was a Yale student who just looked like the potential assailant? That is the issue here, not that the student was stopped by the campus police, which the author of the piece agrees with.

[Anonymous]

To the PP who said his white son was stopped similarly for playing "hide and seek", I have a question. Was your son on someone else's property?

and, here is another question: How old is he?

[Anonymous]

My white kid has been stopped numerous times because he drives a hooptie, has the seat pulled all the way back reclined, playing rap music loud.

Yes, he's profiled. Driving While White.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

To the PP who said his white son was stopped similarly for playing "hide and seek", I have a question. Was your son on someone else's property?

and, here is another question: How old is he?

He is 15 (but looks 13), his 4 other friends are 15 but could look as old as 17. They were running around the neighborhood, so on the sidewalk, in a small park, walking path, through the trees, etc and 2 of the kids live in the neighborhood so they were in their backyards, one had a flashlight.

I am not mad about them being stopped, btw. I told my son, you are a teen now and you are always a suspect.

They have been doing the same thing for 7 years, but now they are teens, so it is different.

The airsoft gun situation, the boys were 14 and looked 14. They were on public property (not in their yards) , not on other people's private property, it was light out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My white kid has been stopped numerous times because he drives a hooptie, has the seat pulled all the way back reclined, playing rap music loud.

Yes, he's profiled. Driving While White.

That's not driving while white. It's a case of driving while mistakenly identified as black.

[Anonymous]

Quoted from article:

"The dean of Yale College and the campus police chief have apologized and promised an internal investigation, and I appreciate that. But the scars cannot be unmade. My son will always carry the memory of the day he left his college library and an officer trained a gun on him."

His son will always remember because he will make sure he doesn't forget. The scars won't be unmade because he will not let them heal. His son will grow up with a victim mentality, like the rest of the AA community.

That's truly sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The story about the black Yale student is a simple case of mistaken identity. This is not "walking while black". Please don't even try to say that it is, because the "walking while black" is a real problem for other non-Yale students. Trying to equate this lame story with "walking while black" trivializes the entire issue, and creates a strawman that deniers can easily knock over.

To the PP who said his white son was stopped similarly for playing "hide and seek", I have a question. Was your son on someone else's property?

It is a case of mistaken identity, but if the person they are looking for had been white, would they have pulled a gun and asked them to lie face down on the ground, knowing the odds were good it was a Yale student who just looked like the potential assailant? That is the issue here, not that the student was stopped by the campus police, which the author of the piece agrees with.

Yes, almost certainly. You seem to suggest otherwise. Based on what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My white kid has been stopped numerous times because he drives a hooptie, has the seat pulled all the way back reclined, playing rap music loud.

Yes, he's profiled. Driving While White.

You don't get it at all. He could change any of these factors and no longer have to worry about being stopped for no good reason. Being racially profiled means it doesn't matter if you are sitting up straight, quietly playing classical music in a new BMW. Do you see the difference?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Quoted from article:

"The dean of Yale College and the campus police chief have apologized and promised an internal investigation, and I appreciate that. But the scars cannot be unmade. My son will always carry the memory of the day he left his college library and an officer trained a gun on him."

His son will always remember because he will make sure he doesn't forget. The scars won't be unmade because he will not let them heal. His son will grow up with a victim mentality, like the rest of the AA community.

That's truly sad.

Have you forgotten the days when a gun was pulled on you?
I'm not sure that's human.

[Anonymous]

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n.y.-times-charles-blow-said-nothing-about-cop-who-arrested-his-son-being-black/article/2559374

The policeman who stopped him was black? And, Blow never mentioned that? Really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n.y.-times-charles-blow-said-nothing-about-cop-who-arrested-his-son-being-black/article/2559374

The policeman who stopped him was black? And, Blow never mentioned that? Really?

And women discriminate against other women at work, which is well documented. Your point?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Quoted from article:

"The dean of Yale College and the campus police chief have apologized and promised an internal investigation, and I appreciate that. But the scars cannot be unmade. My son will always carry the memory of the day he left his college library and an officer trained a gun on him."

His son will always remember because he will make sure he doesn't forget. The scars won't be unmade because he will not let them heal. His son will grow up with a victim mentality, like the rest of the AA community.

That's truly sad.

Have you forgotten the days when a gun was pulled on you?
I'm not sure that's human.

That's not the same point being argued. The title of the article is "Walking While Black". On top of the gun being pulled he is adding the element of being black, branding his son a victim of racial/hate crime. Having a gun pulled on you is no small matter, I agree. But the memory will fade with time, and eventually it will be something you remember but file away with your other miscellaneous memories. It certainly won't define you as a person or change your path in life. But the author will not let this happen with his son. He has and will continue to parade this around publicly, remind his son that it happened, narrating it within the context of racial inequality. He will not let him forget, he will not let him heal, and he will place this burden in his son's life, shackling his mind permanently until it becomes a part of who he is.