Is this being racist?

Note to self: If you ever feel the need to do something special for Another Brother, don't fix him your favorite meal.

 

It would have been more racist had you told him

"If you're here who's running 7-11?"

 

Everyone seems to be missing one point, it wasn't just that he was from the ME, he also looked disheveled.

Does the bald white guy with scars wearing black leather cause me to walk on the other side of the street, of do I need to see a knife protruding from his belt to move?

Personally, a disheveled ME-looking person wouldn't have affected me at all. In fact, if I saw other people leave, I would stay on principle alone. But people will draw their own lines when stereotyping potential threats. When does this become racist? Hmmm..don't know.

 

I don't think it's a big deal. I mean, terrorists have blown up stores before, right? I would do the same if I was worried about nazi skinheads and they walked into a store.

 

I say go with your gut. If you feel threatened, that doesn't make you a racist, it means you sense danger that may or may not be there. We can only base our lives so much on being politically correct.

 

I think this is exactly right. Even if a man did make me nervous (because he was disheveled, or middle eastern or any other thing I might hold against him), I wouyld stay and risk being blown-up/shot/robbed/stabbed or whatever else on the principle of it. You might die for it, but I still think it's worth it.

I knew a girl who did a year of college in Paris. She was walking late at night and saw a group of young black men on the sidewalk ahead, which made her feel a bit threatened. Being a good, sensitive, lefty type, she refused to assume the worst about them and cross the street. When their paths met, they robbed her. Sometimes you get burned on these things.

 

YES, political correctness is something worth dying for!!!!

 

Excellent, I've been waiting for natural selection to kick in.

 

That's pretty much what I'm saying, yeah. What's more important to you, your principles or your life? I would likely choose life, seeing as I don't believe in an afterlife. But, choosing between my principles and a small chance that something unpleasant might happen to me (with that unpleasant thing very unlikely to be lethal anyway), I'll take my principles. If I were actually a Christian and felt assured of my eternal salvation, I would be outright brazen about it.

And, Mr. Clutch, I don't think it is political correctness we're talking about. Just simple courtesy.

 

I didn't know simple courtesy was a principle worth dying for.

 

I don't really take into account the physical appearance, language, ethnicity, etc of the other patrons of any store or public area that I happen to be in unless they're acting in a threatening manner.

It's pointless to live in fear of your common citizen. Everyone knows that every city has neighborhoods to avoid, but walking out a dunkin donuts because someone of Arabic ethnicity walked in is very strange behaviour.

 

So you now always avoid black people. I guess, no one has ever been robbed by a white person before. Your friend shouldn't have been walking at night alone period.

 

I hope that makes my posting worthwhile, at least. You're right that I can get myself in a significant amount of trouble with a cavalier attitude. I might regret it when staring down a barrel of a gun -- well, that's already happened once, but more because I was being stupid than because I was being bold so it wouldn't count anyway.

I should mention that -- and I know you can relate to this -- I have a very different attitude when my wife is around. I won't put her in jeopardy.

 

I am really glad you're here...now press on brother with all possible dispatch!

 

Is this leftovers from calling T-Mac a punk? No, as I said (or implied), I specifically don't avoid black people. Sometimes you'd be better off listening to the warnings in the back of your head, but most of the time, you're not. And, the damage you do to other people in 'just being on the safe side' is not an acceptable cost to force others to bear.

My friend shouldn't have been walking alone at night in the big city (though Paris is relatively safe for its size), but she was brazen that way. And I doubt she has stopped doing things like that and I doubt she avoids young black men even if she has been victimized in the past.

 

If risk to your life was the sole arbiter in how people react, I imagine we'd still be speaking English now.

Seriously though, I understand NJ's view. He considered it a threat. That's not crazy, but neither would it have been to not leave.

Personally, I would have balanced what the stranger may have felt with the low low risk of him being a terrorist. That's not nuts. What strangers may experience is very tangible to me. I won't hurt someone else in that fashion to enhance my security by .0001%.

 

Hell no.

Being a Racist would be walking up to some "Arab" guy and bashng his brains for no other reason than that he is "Arab."

That's Racist.

 

From your own statemensts, it sounds like you know what you did was kinda shady and are trying to justify your actions.

I'm sure as hell not passing judgement tho. You did what you thought was prudent, I guess.

FYI, I doubt I would have reacted the same. I'm very suspicious of people by nature, but what you described wouldn't have really set off any of my alarms.