"Neither is it racist or offensive to suspect someone of a crime simply because they happen to be a minority."

Er you mean, it is not racist or offensive to suspect someone who happens to be a minority, of a crime?

"In my area of the college I attend there is a lot of expensive computer equipment.  Yesterday I saw a gentleman I had not seen before, and we're a fairly secluded area where there isn't a lot of coming and going so red flags came up, walking through the halls and I thought he looked suspicious; they way he carried himself and constantly glanced around spoke to me of ill intent.  So I go back to my class and say, "Keep an eye out there's someone wandering around and they look like they might steal something."  I was then asked to describe the individual and I began, "He's about my height, dark brown hair, skinny, brown skin..."  And immediately I'm accused of being racist and stereotyping the guy.  I then had to endure an hour of being lectured on political correctness and anti-racism by the WHITE people in my class. "

OK so you have two phenomena: a suspicious person who has no business being in an area where he wouldn't just wander in, and you have coworkers who are overly defensive of him.  I suspect they're helping him do something shady.  Better tell campus police about it and have an inventory check.

lol I'm african american as well and I see this as being a lil over the top as well. The problem with a lot of white ppl I notice is that some are just so defensive and don't know when they are going over the top with the racial barrier thing.

Sometimes we just need to understand that we're all people. Too many stereotypes cause problems like this. Unfortunately there's no solution to it and I advise you to not feel any guilt for saying what you said. Not because the minorities didn't say anything. They could've been offended maybe, but just because if he were any other race, the same circumstances would've applied:p

> TheYell wrote:

> OK so you have two phenomena: a suspicious person who has no business being in an area where he wouldn't just wander in, and you have coworkers who are overly defensive of him.  I suspect they're helping him do something shady.  Better tell campus police about it and have an inventory check.

lolololol

""A black man walked by the door." is neither racist nore offensive."

I'd tend to disagree. After all, most people would not say: "A white man walked by the door" if a white man walked by, so why should the say "A black man walked by the door" for the black man. Why is the fact that he's black so important?

It's fascinating how in Canadian and American (and likely Western European) history books, they'll usually point out that someone is Black, Chinese etc. but they won't preface Whites with the term White. It's as if being white is normal and being of some other colour is an aberration.

i.e. How many times in books have you seen George Washington, Pierre Trudeau, or John F. Kennedy being described as white, compared with say Jackie Robinson, Maya Angelou, Rosa Parks, Colin Powell  etc. being described as black?

We can even reverse this. In sports dominated by blacks (i.e. basketball), people tend to describe white players with the term white, but not black players with the term black. In hockey...which is dominated by whites, you see the opposite.

"In my area of the college I attend there is a lot of expensive computer equipment.  Yesterday I saw a gentleman I had not seen before, and we're a fairly secluded area where there isn't a lot of coming and going so red flags came up, walking through the halls and I thought he looked suspicious; they way he carried himself and constantly glanced around spoke to me of ill intent. 

There are a number of reasonable explanations for his behaviour. If someone were watching me, I'd be glancing around too. Also, he may have been lost, or looking for someone or something.

But you didn't assume this. You judged him, primarily by the colour of his skin since you knew little else about him and you assumed he was up to no good...that he might "steal something". Now that...is problematic.

hehe....

Its called white guilt. 

Im sure if the person were a student looking individual, no worries.  When you have a person out of place, out of the norm, they are noticed.

The person is black.  So what.  If it were a skin-Head, in a Crack haze, he would have been noticed as well.

The best is the assemble bunch of students, attacking DPS w/white guilt, politically correct platitudes.
What a scene that must have been.

On the flip side.  If DPS said a white man.....the class would have shrugged it off.

@ Theo.

As long as the Blacks in America for sure, wish to form a black holiday call Quanza, celebrate "Black History Month,"  and embrace "Affirmative Action" and separate themselves by race from America.......The problem will continue.

Solution ?

Embrace Conservatism, and personal responsibility.
Stop identifying people by as many categories as is possible.

Why must there be on every govt. form, or application an area to define ones' ethnicity or income range ??

The great society was implemented 2 generations ago.

What has it accomplished ?

DPS sees a strange black man, thinks ill intent, informs a group of white people, and gets a lesson in white guilt and political correctness.

Why do I not mention a persons skin colour if they are white? Because it is normal:

It is not unusual for me to see a white person, I live in a country where minorities make up less than 2% of the population making them less populous than the unemployed, so it is natural for me to pick up on skin colour first.
I imagine the same applies to the USA and Canada too.

In a situation with "Politically Correct" people, especially in DPS' mentioned situation, I accuse the PC people of being racist because they are being racist, just in a different way than normal.

"You are a bad monkey!"
"Hey! What about Louis?"
"What about Louis?"
"He's black!"
"And?"
"You can't say that it's racist."
"So you think black people are monkeys?"
"No!"
"Then why are you accusing me of racism when all I did was call Dr Zeus a bad monkey? If you don't mind me saying I find this very psycologically revealing of you."
"What? Wait! Umm... Err... I'm not racist!"
"Yes you are" Louis

>"Neither is it racist or offensive to suspect someone of a crime simply because they happen to be a minority."

Er you mean, it is not racist or offensive to suspect someone who happens to be a minority, of a crime?<

Yes poor wording on my part.

"OK so you have two phenomena: a suspicious person who has no business being in an area where he wouldn't just wander in, and you have coworkers who are overly defensive of him.  I suspect they're helping him do something shady."

Doubt it, these people are straight as the rods they have shoved up their !@@.

"There are a number of reasonable explanations for his behaviour. If someone were watching me, I'd be glancing around too. Also, he may have been lost, or looking for someone or something."

As I said there is little coming and going, there is NO reason for a student not in my program or someone not visiting a student in my program to be there.  There was minimal reason for him to be their, admittedly he could have been lost but half way through the semester most people no where they are supposed to be.  I assumed someone who was somewhere they weren't supposed to be acting oddly may have been up to no good and inform my class of my suspicion.

"It's as if being white is normal and being of some other colour is an aberration."

Accurate, not overly nice but an accurate assessment of human behaviour.

Well, for our section of the world, being white IS normal and anything else the aberation. In Asia or Africa being white would be the aberation. In Canada and the US most people are of caucasian decent, so the minorities are minorities. Simply stating so isn't racist. That's why when speaking about anything where one race is prevelant (basketball for black, hockey or western history for whites) it's assumed that everyone who is of the majority does not need to be labeled. It's a simple mater of practicality.

I hate PC people, love driving them nuts. Assuming this college is in the states (I don't know where DPS is from) the fact that he's of African decent, which even assuming accurate representation of the populace at the college, would be a feature prevelant as it is not common to the majority.

PC and Affirmative Action are rasict and sexist. It just burns me how it's ok to be discrimatory to whites because our ancestors were discriminatory to others. I have no guilt about it, niether should anyone else.

http://i25.tinypic.com/4sy4o2.jpg

enjoy ur racism

> avogadro wrote:

> Affirmative action and the bullshit the OP mentions are results of socialist societies.<

And yet the UK picked it up from the USA.

because collectively white ppl are all guilty for the crimes of white ppl of the past, and we need to be hounded and reminded of it lest we err again. which is complete nonsense. hard to reason against that.

kind of like how germans are treated viz-a-viz WWII

i think it's great a film like

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7324877.stm

THE RED BARON

is being made.

"You see the USA as socialist?"

yeah!

"Perhaps a better wording is "Paranoid societies"?"

you say tomato i say tomato (saying doesnt really work typed out )