02-05-2016, 05:00 PM
(02-05-2016, 04:15 PM)Benton Wrote: Her examples a bad one, but I get the idea behind it. In truth, she didn't get pulled over because middle age moms in minivans are the lowest criminal demographic, behind elderly women (except for shoplifting, those wenches will steal you blind).
I'm a middle age white guy. I drive a newer model Nissan. I rarely get pulled over (although I got my first ticket last year for speeding). Is it because I'm white? No, it's because I've got a decent car and I'm usually dressed for work. When I was a teenage/20 something white guy, I got pulled over constantly driving my beat up Camaro(s). Because I was white? No, because I was out at midnight in a cheap car, wearing a t-shirt with some band name on it.
It's not a race issue there, it's poverty and how it relates to the likelihood of crime.
Racism exists, but I don't think it's daily effect is as bad as some people think. I also don't think it has nearly the impact on social problems as poverty. As I mentioned in another thread, if you grow up in a culture where you can make $30 an hour selling drugs or $7 an hour working fast food, you're going to give some serious thought to breaking the law.
She acknowledges the other variables at play, there. I definitely don't think it is a far stretch to see being pulled over 4 times in 36 hours for a busted taillight as being contributed to by race. Especially given that the socioeconomic statuses are not really different between them (just based on what little knowledge I have of these two from their respective blogs).
I think part of the problem is that we perceive being impoverished as being more likely to be a criminal, and we perceive a member of the black community as being more likely to be impoverished. This is where racism really comes into play with this.
