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Comment by mahouse | Hacker News Reader

Say what you will but I would be slightly concerned if Ahmed Mohamed brought this to school

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/northwest-dall...

A circuit board? There is nothing dangerous about a circuit board. In case you didn't notice, every bit of electronics has one.

So in your ideal world brown/Muslim children should not be encouraged to tinker with electronics. Or maybe they should just stay away from any form of engineering whatsoever. Does that sound about right cowboy?

Every student, teacher, and staff is bringing or already has one of those in the school every day in computers, laptops/macbooks, smartphones, security cameras/alarms, etc.

Would you be as concerned if it was little Timothy McVeigh?

If you find circuit boards terrifying, you are on the wrong website.

I'm concerned that typical electronics scare you.

BTW: I'm concerned that typical people scare you.

Downvoted for xenophobia and ignorance. It looks like every other circuit board. There is no reason to be afraid of an unsheathed circuit board.

you are on a forum of engineers. Most folks would not even know to call it a circuit board..

but they accurately identify it as the same category of contraption that operates a clock/timer portion of a time bomb.

Ermmm... why? Would you be "slightly concerned" if Matt Jones brought that to school? Or Alice Jackson?

Because he's profiling, it's a survival instinct. He sees on the news daily about Muslims using bombs and blowing things up and he's associating it with this kid. He believes statistically that Ahmed is more likely to be carrying a bomb than Alice.

Is this true? I don't know, maybe it is? It's the same reason I am cautious when I walk alone downtown at night and a stranger approaches me. I act differently because I know statistically that they're more likely to be dangerous compared to at 2:00 PM... well, again... I assume so.

The hard part is trying to ignore statistics and the media on things like skin color and religion. It doesn't matter if x color or y religion is more dangerous, you need to ignore it. Thinking differently or acting differently because of these statistics is frowned upon.

In this case, it's silly. Of course it's not a bomb, of course the kid isn't dangerous.

> The hard part is trying to ignore statistics and the media on things like skin color and religion.

If people paid attention to statistics, this wouldn't be an issue: Terror is so exceedingly unlikely to kill you that it's a rounding errro. In the US you're more likely to get killed by lightning.

Part of the problem is that the risk has been blown out of all proportion.

> He sees on the news daily about Muslims using bombs and blowing things up

Did this happen with the Irish in the US during the Troubles?

Same reasons Italians and Germans weren't interned to the same extent the Japanese were during the 2nd World War: They can't be told apart from "proper" folk as easily. You can pick out most Arabs, but it's much harder to pick out most Irish.

Still a travesty. We need to move beyond hatred, especially of people we've never met.

Would you be concerned if Bob McWhiteypants did?

edit: The now-flagged parent comment stated that concern was warranted due to the child's name.

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