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Comment by yarcob | Hacker News Reader

> Almost all of the oppression we see around us can be explained by wealth disparities

I recently talked to a mom who visited her adult foster daughter with a different skin tone. Her daughter reminded her to make sure she doesn't forget her ID in the hotel.

The mom was confused. They were just going to take a walk in Munich. Why would she need an ID? She never has an ID on her when she goes for a walk.

The daughter said, because the police, they stop you and ask to see your ID!

Mom couldn't believe it that the police was so different in Munich. Then it dawned on her. Foster daughter had brown skin, so she was randomly stopped by police and asked for ID because she looks like an immigrant.

Mom was white and has never ever been stopped by police before.

The police absolutely treat people different because of race.

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ok but the parent comment was discussing policing and blackness in America, I don't agree with their conclusions but at any rate comparing that situation to policing in Munich doesn't really make much sense.

I think the point is that white people are likely to lack this lived experience. If there's a massive difference in opinion about racism in the country between white and black Americans, that difference of opinion may be due to factors that white people can't easily see.

I certainly believe that American police and the American justice system treat black people worse than it treats white people, although the parent commenter was also correct that they hurt whomever they feel they have the power to hurt in my experience they still treat black people worse, all that clarified although I expected it should have been clear from my previous comment that still does not make anyone's experience of policing in Munich relevant (assuming it is Munich, Germany we're talking about)

Black Lives Matter protests were in several European cities as well. Not as big as in the US, of course. But racist police are a world wide problem, it's not something limited to the US.

in my experience while Europe and the U.S have similar problems things play out quite differently in each, and it is often useless to make a comparison for this reason.

I've also seen a free Leonard Peltier protest march in Copenhagen, but I'm not sure that the state of Native American rights in Denmark and the U.S is somehow comparable.

The point of my story was not that the police are racist. The point was that racism is sometimes invisible to people who are not personally affected.

This point is universal and it doesn't matter on which side of the Atlantic it happened.

Ok, sorry for my misunderstanding your point which is one that I would be in agreement with.

> Foster daughter had brown skin, so she was randomly stopped by police and asked for ID because she looks like an immigrant.

This conclusion isn't quite there.

In China, foreigners are notionally required to carry their passport with them. I have never actually obeyed that, because it is a very bad idea. And it's never mattered, because although I'm obligated to produce it on demand, that demand has never been made.

It's not because I blend in. Any idiot can see that I'm not Chinese. "Looking like an immigrant" is not sufficient to be stopped by the police.

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