I taught my black kids their elite upbringing would protect them | Hacker News Reader

I taught my black kids their elite upbringing would protect them

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103 pointsColinWright99 comments

There was a Fresh Prince episode about this!

After Carlton and Will are pulled over and detained...

> Carlton (to Will): What's your complaint here? We were detained for a few hours, Dad cleared things up, and we were released. The system works.

> Will: I hope you like that system because you'll be seeing a whole lot of it in your lifetime.

> Carlton: Not if I bring a map.

> Will: You just don't get it, do you? No map is going to save you and neither is your glee club, or your fancy Bel-Air address or who your daddy is. Because when you're driving in a nice car in a strange neighborhood, none of that matters. They only see one thing. (taps Carlton on his face)

> Carlton: Well, maybe growing up where you did has made you a little touchy, but I think you've blown this whole thing out of proportion. If you look at the facts... (Will walks away disgusted)

http://freshprince.wikia.com/wiki/Mistaken_Identity

I can imagine a very easy parallel to the tech community: "I taught my daughters their nerd cred would protect them."

It's irritating how the author has to buttress his statements on privilege with "of course, the existence of white privilege doesn't mean all white people are violently racist." White people, and white men in particular, are so reactionary when confronted by the mere existence of their institutionalized privilege that they demand such things. I'm sure this post won't be popular for exactly that reason. It's a lot like this Onion article: http://www.theonion.com/articles/i-dont-support-feminism-if-...

It seems we here on a HN are a bit more enlightened. The article is at four now (for me).

It was at four for me, earlier, before a brief HN outage.

Now its at 18 !?!

Sinking like a rock: http://hnrankings.info/8574299/

Oh how the mighty have fallen

For posterity's sake - in case someone goes digging sometime in the future wanting to investigate the prevailing sentiments of HN, circa 2014 - the post currently is at 62 after once reaching 4, two hours since its inception.

HN is majority American. Republicans just won both houses. Coming to Europe soon.

And then the comments went bad :(

I agree that it's a bit upsetting that he has to put out that fires, but I understand why he does it. He's speaking to a broad audience, and in order to not get his message muddied by a sea of "but most white people dont do that!" he takes a proactive measure.

Hopefully we'll eventually reach a point that this isn't necessary, but for now I think it's probably a net positive. By including that disclaimer of sorts the author might just manage to reach some people that would have otherwise dismissed him

  > I can imagine a very easy parallel to the
  > tech community: "I taught my daughters
  > their nerd cred would protect them."

That's why I posted it, and believe it's directly relevant to this community, rather than just generally relevant to the wider world. I try only to post things that I think have a specific attachment to the tech community, and you've nailed it exactly. I pleased someone sees the point - thank you.

Institutionalized privilege?

It was a different thing when we demanded equal treatment in front of law, and removal of laws which prevented free interaction among individuals.

The problem with this white privilege argument is that it has numerous parallels with Marxists polylogism idea. People are a lot less racists now, but somehow a culture has to be created which has to explain why in an era of low racism some groups are more backwards than the others, or why 'affirmative action is still required'.

All you end up doing is create a class of entitled progressives who think that somehow their lives were better because they are white/male/etc.

Do you know why people tend to be racists? They tend to be racists because at the end of the day believing that somehow the 'average' of their group being better than the other groups makes their own shitty existence better. So your life sucks, you don't have a job, you are fat as fuck, but thank god you are white.

People apologizing for White privilege tend to embrace it for the same reason(its not like they can experience it, it is always a second hand experience).

I'm not convinced the plight of women in tech compares even remotely to the plight of actual minorities in the US.

"Minorities" have always been a bad term for the real issue (was the plight of black South Africans somehow less real because they were the majority?); if you think that women aren't a group that has been, for an extended period of time in the US, subject to both informal and, (at a minimum) until fairly historically recently such that it still has a substantial impact on attitudes, overt and formal discrimination, then you haven't been paying much attention.

If you're a man (I'll bet $20 right now that you are) your opinion isn't relevant.

lol that's the way to win an argument.

Don't judge me by what's not between my legs, but what's between YOUR legs makes you irrelevant.

Just a thought: why do you then hang out on a web site with presumably mostly people whose opinions you consider irrelevant?

I think the point is that if the speaker is not one who may have experienced the discrimination then the speaker is not able to say that it does not exist.

Do you agree or disagree with this idea?

(Pithy comments may be fun, but a flame war is not productive.)

And this is why feminism is dead.

That's very insulting to women. Members of other groups that have suffered oppression or discrimination, such as blacks, gays, jews, Native Americans, and many others, have been able to use their reasoning abilities to analyze their experiences and then explain them in terms that members of groups that have not experienced those particular hardships can understand if they wish to. You are implying that such a level of reasoning and communication is beyond women.

I don't think we're talking about police beatings etc., the parallel regards how both women in tech and minority kids in top schools face in general a lot of stereotype specific harassment and threats even when they take large active efforts to excel or blend in.

White people, and white men in particular, are so reactionary when confronted by the mere existence of their institutionalized privilege

It's funny that we fight stereotypes with stereotypes.

Inferring properties about a member of a group from averages about the group is a difficult thing to do without falling into The Ecological Fallacy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_fallacy).

Privilege-checking is generally done at the individual level, in all my experiences it includes the ecological fallacy. It's almost always done in a hurtful, inappropriate manner, often in public where somebody is being embarrassed in front of their peers. These are all good reasons to react negatively to somebody so innocently pointing out my privilege.

As a white male who grew up in (American) poverty, from my point of view they've have been incredibly insulated by their wealth.

By 15 years old, I had been physically attacked a dozen times without cause, chased by gangs in cars for being in the wrong neighborhood, had a gun pointed at me at least twice, and threatened physically dozens of times over nothing.

The hard part for me, is that if you do manage to climb up from poverty, you'll be accused of "white privilege."

I don't think accused is the right term, but it's also true that it is easier to "climb up from poverty" as a poor white person in the US than as a poor black person. Have a look at [1], particularly figure 1 on page 7 to see the transition probabilities by income for whites and blacks in the US. You'll see that whites are far more likely to move up in wealth from their parents. As a single number from the chart (in case you don't want to look at the whole thing), whites are about twice as likely as blacks to move upward from the 1-50 percentile range of parent income.

[1] https://www.chicagofed.org/digital_assets/publications/econo...

What happens to the transition probabilities when you control for IQ?

The only place in that paper where you find those two letters next to each other is in the word "technique(s)".

Given what we know about the importance of IQ (and its distribution), I'd say it's a pretty bad paper. And citing it makes for a pretty bad argument.

You my friend have no idea what a bad argument is.

So control for IQ. Lets say we did. Sadly the statistics already say that a poor white person is more likely to "climb up from poverty" than a poor black person.

See the problem with your argument is that you somehow think that IQ is a factor here.

Lets say there are 10 job openings, and 3 of those jobs are run by people who are secretly prejudiced against black people and will come up with some excuse to not hire them.

That means for a white person there are 10 job openings and for a black person there are only 7, regardless of IQ.

So a white person and a black person with equal IQ do not have an equal situation in a country where the supremacy is white (even outside of racism and the like, there is always cultural bias which applies here).

The study controlled for cognitive abilities, it's graphed on figure 8c. "Consistent with previous studies linking AFQT scores to racial differences in adult outcomes (for example, Neal and Johnson, 1996; Cameron and Heckman, 2001), I do not interpret these scores as measuring innate endowments but rather as reflecting the accumulated differences in family background and other influences that are manifested in test scores." Please don't fall for naive evolutionary justifications for discrimination and don't criticize blindly.

'it is easier to "climb up from poverty" as a poor white person in the US than as a poor black person.'

In my specific case this may not have been true - race-based scholarships were not available to me because of the white color of my skin for example.

Rather than view everything through the lens of race, I'd be curious to see your numbers run with the split based on students of poor urban-schools vs students of better suburban schools.

The numbers were split not just by race, but also by parental income. Yes, if you're in the bottom 10 percentile of parental income as a white kid, it's harder to get scholarships than if you're black. Still, these kids are more likely to move up the income charts than their black counterparts, because even though race-based scholarships are more available, the other disadvantages outweigh them.

While I don't have the numbers at hand, I think it's unreasonable to expect that white children of parents in the bottom 10 percent of income are attending good suburban schools in significant numbers, because if you're in the bottom ten percent of income you probably can't afford to live in those regions, regardless of race.

I'm not saying that race is the most important factor, and I'd also like to see splits by schools and other factors. But I think parental income is extremely important, and even after controlling for that we see a very substantial racial component. If race-based scholarships were had such an overriding effect, we wouldn't be able to reproduce these statistics. If you have numbers that show that controlling for some other factor (like school quality) leaves no remaining racial component, definitely let me know, but given how large the disparity remains after controlling for parental income, I sincerely doubt it's the case.

I don't think you understand the concept. The fact that he doesn't mention being called a racial slur or any horrible interactions with the police is already "white privilege".

"White privilege" isn't an accusation, it's a cultural reality, along with all sorts of other types of privilege. The point of invoking the concept is not to make people feel bad about being white, but rather simply understand that society isn't actually meritocratic. Opportunities arise via combinations of what you've done, unearned privilege (who you are), and random circumstance.

If you're a white guy and you climb up for poverty, be proud of what you accomplished. Please just don't look back at everyone who hasn't made it and think that they all could have done the same.

The concept of "privilege" is not a reality, it's one subjective way of looking at reality; one that most people don't subscribe to. This is an important distinction that is all too often forgotten.

> As a white male who grew up in (American) poverty, from my point of view they've have been incredibly insulated by their wealth.

But do you agree that "Didn't get called 'nigger' until the age of 15" is lousy? Shouldn't we be aiming for "didn't get called 'nigger'"?

We should be aiming for "Who gives a shit? It's just a word. Fuck you and your racism. Now... lets grab a beer, hang out and learn about each other."

Race baiters (You disagree with Obama, that means your racist!), reverse racism (Can't hire you because you don't meet our minority quota), those who think minorities can't be racist (Shooting a "Gentle Giant" is evil. Knockout Game isn't?), etc, etc, etc

Retarded? Faggot? Redskins? Kike? Cracker? Words.

People need to stop letting their lives be SHATTERED! by some random ignorant prick.

By a white person.

People are people. Everybody is going to get insulted at least once in their life. If you're fat you're going to get called a whale, if you're short you're going to get called a dwarf, if you're disabled you're going to get called a monster, if you're a woman you're going to get called a whore, if you're black you're going to get called a nigger. And if you're a tall handsome white male don't worry they'll find something about you that you can't change and that they think will hurt you. While what the author described happening to himself and his parents is genuinely terrible, his children have it easy, if you can't deal with people don't live with people.

> Shouldn't we be aiming for "didn't get called 'nigger'"?

No. Getting insulted once in a while is the price we pay for living in an environment that allows freedom of expression. The alternative is very similar to what people in totalitarian countries do: use the newspeak in public, calling surveillance "the S-word", and speak their mind at home, after checking for listening devices.

How about "can say it but don't"? Their getting insulted is a price they pay, but not one I pay. They might reasonably object if I say "we pay".

And if you have never been in a situation where you are the white stranger in a group of persons wondering whether they can break out the n-word in front of you, you have missed an (obnoxiously0 amusing but uncomfortable situation.

It's possible for both of your realities to be true. The reality is that oppression isn't a binary: people get shit on for being black, for being a woman, for being poor, etc. Intersectionality is the study of the oppression and privilege at the meeting of various groups - the oppression faced by a poor white woman is different than the oppression faced by a trans-black woman, etc.

You don't need to become rich, just move to another country than the USA. A good one is France, here "colored" foreigners are socially protected. Just make sure to move into a neighborhood with the same general level of education as yourself and your family (as that's the aspect on which most of the discrimination occurs) and you will be fine. Don't make the mistake of being white and educated and moving into a poor neighborhood though, you'll fare worse than having your children being called "whities" or similar heart-wrenching insults (think broken windows and physical aggressions).

Wow that sounds like heaven. Glad the French really figured this one out.

>Just make sure to move into a neighborhood with the same general level of education as yourself and your family (as that's the aspect on which most of the discrimination occurs) and you will be fine.

And never leave that neighborhood?

If you don't want to feel discriminated against yes, make sure to keep your culture/lifestyle level in check so it doesn't clash with your (new) neighborhood.

I'm not black though I am a minority and I don't live in a particularly racist area but it was always my experience that education and especially wealth trump race any time, meaning that people discriminate first by wealth, then by education and only afterwards by race, if they do at all. Does it not work like that in other places?

Go and read anonymous message boards. Race dominates. At least in the US.

There's a good bit by Chris Rock where he talks about how no white guy would want to trade places with him, and he's rich.

The show Blackish had a counterpoint though, where the black dad is trying to get his black son to be friends with other black kids -- so they can share in the struggle together. Until he realizes that his son's struggle is more about being a nerd than being black.

Actually in the US it seems to me at least that wealth is a far bigger means of discrimination than race. It does not seem likely to me that a multimillionaire would prefer socializing with a poor person of the same skin colour over socializing with another multimillionaire who happens to be black.

And anonymous boards do not break my rule. They do not discriminate by wealth and education because they are poor and uneducated so they resort to discriminate by race. But wealthy and educated people do seem to me quite likely to consider uneducated and poor people as far less worthy human beings.

>It does not seem likely to me that a multimillionaire would prefer socializing with a poor person of the same skin colour over socializing with another multimillionaire who happens to be black.

You might want to test or research that, rather than taking your intuition as fact.

It does not seem likely to me that a multimillionaire would prefer socializing with a poor person of the same skin colour over socializing with another multimillionaire who happens to be black.

Ah, but it's the other side of the socioeconomic coin that's key; southern plutocrats blunted the sharp tip of progressive unionization by convincing poor white sharecroppers and field hands that they had more in common with the wealthy white landowners than their fellow black workers. Similar political strategies dominate today -- some race-based (and sharper than ever!), some on other social issues.

Its hard to test conclusively.

But I suspect you'll find a lot more wealthy people marry poorer people in the same race more than they marry wealthy people of a different race. That data can probably be dug up somehow.

I know that blacks I know of who are well off get pulled over a lot more than well off whites. In fact a black guy in a Benz is almost a target in itself.

On message boards, you're all of bit-race.

And you are discussing other races that present in "real life".

I think you should not take that too seriously.

Here is a data point from the EEOC: 30% of Asian Americans report having been discriminated against in the workplace.

Here is anecdotal evidence: I have been discriminated against in the workplace multiple times.

It only takes one person to be racist. And there's nothing stopping a white person with far less education and wealth from calling a black person with far more education and wealth a nigger.

In many areas of the USA, a black person with money or a nice car is automatically assumed to be a professional athlete, rapper, or drug dealer. Whereas a Chinese person with money or a nice car, people will assume they are a doctor, or own a business such as a restaurant, nail salon, or laundromat.

Your viewpoint is a bit simplistic. There's not a hierarchy of discrimination, but rather an intersection. Under various circumstances, certain aspects of your identity might subject you to discrimination or give you privilege. You can't really rank facets of identity, because their impact, regarding privilege or lack thereof, is completely situational.

The author's story speaks to a similarly reductive (or overly hopeful) viewpoint, of which he was disabused. The good news for him is that his son will probably retain enough advantages to overcome the disadvantage being black in America often bestows.

Yes, speaking from personal experience, I'd say that it does depend on the area and the way people are in that area. I agree with you, there are places/circumstances where classism is more prevalent/destructive than racism. In the US on the whole, however, classism still hurts black people more than it hurts anyone else.

"But I am no better able to explain the lackadaisical response of the two white men to whom I reported the incident than"

A very sad story, but I must admit, I have no idea what response he would expect? Those two white men he reported to can not make racism go away. What could they do to make the guy feel better?

I suppose they could have recognized it as something that has the potential to have a profound negative effect on a young black child's psyche. Racism, even subltle racism, can challenge your sense of self-worth and belonging, and ultimately make you feel like "less" of a person. It sounds like his son was struggling with some of those feelings and school officials could have attempted to help him through it.

So offer counseling? OK, fair enough, that would be an idea.

Edit: not sure about the US, but in Germany universities have counselor offices that are always open to students. But perhaps sometimes it is a good idea to actively encourage somebody to seek counseling.

This is crazy and makes me sad and angry.

Sad because of the unfairness bestowed on this parent and his kids and sad and angry with myself because I never realized how deeply racism is ingrained in our society.

I guess the HN hive-mind is deciding that this is inappropriate:

http://hnrankings.info/8574299/

It's strange how quickly it was kicked off of the front page. 78 points in one hour should be more than enough I think. But it's currently at #49...

It's being flagged - people think it doesn't belong.

Now at #62 and falling fast.

Although it is quite interesting, it's getting flagged I think because it is bringing out a bunch of idiots in the comments.

Many have concluded that this kind of thing cannot be discussed here in a civilized manner, and have taken to flagging such stories.

As a white man, i'm saddened and shocked (but I shouldn't be shocked) to read that these things are happening.

The article is a difficult reminder to be self-aware of privilege and resulting behaviors.

I'm embarrassed to admit that sometimes its hard to know what to do to make things right after poor ( hopefully not awful ) behavior. A recognition, apology and attempt to understand the impact is a starting point.

I've been lucky to have a wife and mother who have never been afraid to call out anything that approaches racist/sexist/homophobic behavior.

Similarly, that's why article is important - its needs to be called out when it happens -- and folks like me need to respond and do better in the future.

When I first read this story in Princeton Alumni Weekly [1], it reminded me so much of my own upbringing. My parents grew up in inner city Detroit and Gary, but fortunately came of age in the 70s, at a time when higher ed was becoming much more inclusive. This gave them the means to get out, just as those cities were beginning to crumble. They raised my siblings and me in a nice upper middle class suburb of Chicago. Like the author and his wife, my parents raised us from a very young age to know a behaviors to exhibit around authorities and non-black people, so that we would appear as non-threatening as possible.

Reading the story brought back a memory I'd almost forgotten. My father, a lifelong golf fan, sent my brother and me to golf camp in Wisconsin. I was probably about 14 and this was right around the time Tiger Woods first went pro. So golf suddenly seemed like a viable sport to young black kids like us -- it had been less than a decade since Augusta National had admitted it very first black member. At camp, I remember hearing the word "nigger" yelled at us from a truck speeding by a road adjacent to the course. My brother and I had never experienced such racism up until that point and were basically frozen. One of our teammates thought quickly and yelled "rednecks" back at the truck, and to our teenage minds, the score had been more or less evened. No one ever talked about what happened, and we sure as hell didn't tell my father, who likely would have been as upset as the author of this piece.

I can't say that this particular event stands out as a watershed moment of racism in my life, however. Far more frustrating were the countless microracisms I endured growing up. A feeling (and reality) of not belonging socially, exclusions from group outings, always standing out like a sore thumb, off-color remarks, overt distrust from friends' and girlfriends' parents, and so forth.

It wasn't until my late teens that developed the confidence to turn my difference into a strength in many cases. Developing that ability allowed me to be much more successful within the dominant culture, although it's never too long an interval between overtly racial situations. In my twenties, I've been questioned by police specifically on account of my race and I once had to date a girl secretly because her father had told her he would disown her for dating a non-white guy. At a middle class suburban bar,a totally random guy I'd never seen before tried to fight me after telling me a "a nigger fucked my wife".

But I'm on the very lucky end of the spectrum. I've benefited from all sorts of privileges in my life. So many minorities face an intersection of circumstance that can deprive them of privilege. We can never fully banish discrimination, but I share this in hopes that people will read one person's experience, understand that these issues are very real, and want to learn more.

[1] http://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2014/10/08/pages/7596/index....

Very interesting. As a white male, the closest experience I have is living for a couple years in Venezuela and Chile. Chile not so much, but in Venezuela I was frequently harassed with anti-American phrases. But I wasn't a child so it didn't affect me the same, I knew that back in my own country I would be respected and fit in perfectly and that I would head back soon enough, and I was never accused of a crime (other than being accused of being in the CIA by passers-by).

Is this experience even close?

I might point out that I also felt discriminated against when trying to get scholarships, since such a huge percent of the help goes to non-whites or those in lower income classes. As a middle class white boy wanting to go into Computer Science I got almost nothing. In theory this counter-discrimination is supposed to make up for the racial discrimination to try to level out the economic privileges. I'd really like to get rid of both.

I note that since I wish discrimination did not exist I tend to pretend that it does not. Perhaps this is part of the problem. But I have never called anyone a racial slur and I try to counter any racial biases I find in my own thinking. So I don't feel like I'm part of the problem.

Having such a huge attack surface is the problem. If there is a word that can freeze you and ruin your day, someone is going to jump over that eventually.

Words should make you laugh, especially when uttered by someone clearly inferior.

You sound like one of my co workers. "This doesn't offend me. I don't understand why it should bother you."

If something may offend you, it will. There are a lot of people around who would like to hurt you for cheap - and they're not going away.

>Words should make you laugh, especially when uttered by someone clearly inferior.

If all women adopt this mentality then catcalling will no longer be an issue!

There's offense and then there's denying one's humanity. That word represents the later which elicits a far more harsh response than mere offense. I'm sorry you can't see the difference.

That's for you. For the offenders these words are as cheap as any other. They just got a good weapon on you.

I go two ways on this.

Yes, it's offensive. Stronger: It's morally wrong. It should bother not just you; it should bother everyone. It's not OK, it's not acceptable, and it should not be accepted by anyone.

But I don't think that was guard-of-terra's point. His/her point, as I understand it, was that it's unfortunately all over the place, and you're going to run into it. How are you, personally, going to respond to it? If you're going to try to fight every battle that comes your way, you're going to be miserable, exhausted, and probably depressed. That's no way to live. For your own sake, for your own ability to function, you need to be able to just shrug it off sometimes - or, even better, laugh at it, as guard-of-terra said.

For a child being called nigger in the street in broad daylight, laughing at the word is only a good strategy if you soon want to be laughing at a fist or a boot.

It's not the word, it's that the word is a challenge, and a threat. "Do something about it" is what a stranger calling you a nigger is saying. You're falling into an easy trap of thinking that the word "nigger" means something, and that this something is damaging the pride of the recipient.

Whoa, if you expect instant violence on the street, name-calling is the least of your problems.

You're right, black people shouldn't be so sensitive. Also, women shouldn't wear skimpy clothing because it attracts rape. That's the real problem.

In your child post: > There are a lot of people around who would like to hurt you for cheap - and they're not going away.

The idea here is that said people should go away. I'd imagine that analogous things were said in the years just before abolition of slavery: "it's just the way things are." You're bound to be on the wrong side of history with this attitude.

Okay. How are you going to make said people go away? They don't read HN and they don't read such articles either.

My take: stop catching their bait; ridicule them back; level the playing field to stop nurturing stereotypes.

It's embarrassing to realize that racial discrimination was happening in the USA even 20 years after WW2/Holocaust. Didn't the world learn that being racist = bad??

This is an absolute outrage. Reading this made me realize maybe moving to France or Germany might be better. I'd move to Brazil but too much robbery. The reason I say France and Germany is because they scored less on the racism. I live in Canada but racism is still around, just not direct and in your face most of the times. It's like an invisible wall you run into as a visible minority in certain situations, the cohesive side of normal human interaction is present but without the acknowledgement of another human. You take a step back and look at the invisible wall that surrounds the people inside it and you walk away thinking and you begin to doubt yourself. Then you find open minded people and it hits you in the head, the wall was real. it's still around.

Europe often has a different manifestations of racial issues, in my experience. Some feel that racism there isn't so cloaked and ingrained in the culture, see [1] for example.

It was in Austria that I, a black guy, along with 2 white American guys, were stopped and interrogated by police in one of the large public parks. They peppered us with a whole bunch of questions of who we were, where were our papers, where were we coming from, where were we going, etc., before letting us leave. As a black dude, my instinct when released from the cops is to non-threateningly disengage as quickly as possible. But one of my white buddies asked the cops why they had stopped us. One cop told us point blank that there were a lot of black guys dealing heroin in the parks, and they wanted to make sure I wasn't up to no good.

It's kind of darkly comical, but I'm pretty sure if you had snapped a photo of us at the moment, you'd have seen two white dudes with their jaws agape and who knows what my face looked like. I remember clearly feeling a mix of feelings. Sure, I felt some anger and annoyance at being hassled simply because I was black. I felt embarrassed for being the reason my buddies were also hassled. Mostly, I was just like, "wow, I can't believe they admitted that". In a small way, it was a vindication of all the times I had felt marginalized because of my race, but couldn't say for sure. And as racism is so hard to explain to non-minorities, I was kind of thankful my two friends were there to witness it. Quite frankly, their minds were blown.

[1] http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/black-body-re-rea...

A lot of European countries (UK and France being exceptions) have almost zero black population who are in the middle or upper class. Most of the small black population they have are recent, and sometimes illegal, immigrants from Africa.

I don't know what to say. You absolutely did not deserve that kind of treatment. It's very disappointing to hear even a big economy like Austria is this backwards in terms of races.

I think even though this article highlights that racism transcends wealth and status I also feel like there's a strong voice,view from Americans in general of being aware and against racial prejudice where as in other countries there's not even such awareness, rather racial profiling is the norm. It's appalling.

Yeah, but it's weird. That awareness leads to a more humane society on the surface, which I think is a great thing. But the racism itself doesn't evaporate; it condenses into more subtle and coded forms. Racial issues continue to perpetuate a stark opportunity divide between minority groups and white folks, and as minorities, it's a constant struggle to convince society as a whole that there are real systemic problems unbalancing the playing field, requiring real systemic solutions to address them.

you said it. it's hard out here for minorities. unless we are absolute best and stand out, we won't get treated as equals. sad, but i think this is why so many minorities are so driven to succeed, especially immigrants.

Go to Russia, there you will be in the middle of the pecking chain for a change :)

Russia freaks me out with all its neo-nazi who don't know their own history, the sacrifice made in fighting Nazis, it's almost bizarre.

Then again the neo-nazis in Mongolia is also shocking as well.

I was learning Russian a while back, I would love to visit Eastern Europe but not sure what the general attitude is like. I do see Asian looking Russian speakers so this leaves me confused. They are not quite East Asian but Asian nonetheless.

It's complicated, but the amount of neo-nazis is greatly exaggerated and they're not after you anyway.

Either way this was more like a joke, in its current condition Russia is a sad place.

Odd how two legally justified shootings are considered the epitome of racism. I feel bad for the author and his kid, but referencing the Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown shootings took me out of it.

You realize that neither shooting has been even close to "legally justified"?

The case about Trayvon Martin's shooting was a disaster by the prosecution, attempting to charge for the wrong crime (1st degree).

The shooting of Michael Brown has had no legal process yet.

I'm not sure how you come to that conclusion. The grand jury and FBI have yet to issue a finding about indictment or civil rights violations in the Michael Brown shooting, so wondering how you determined that it was "legally justified".

Whilst George Zimmerman was acquitted, he was only charged with second-degree murder, and multiple legal experts question whether he would have been found guilty had the charge been lesser, or manslaughter.

The Martin family have also begun civil proceedings (and already settled one) for wrongful death. There were significant (and valid) questions of race in and around the investigation and trial.

Disregarding the fact that neither event is provably and reliably legal, calling someone racist names is indeed usually legal. Still: all of the above are immoral, reprehensible, and egregiously disgusting. I'm not sure what vice you're hanging on to here, but you're representing yourself as a stubborn fool.

> We never encountered drawn or discharged guns like those faced by unarmed black teenagers Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla., or Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.

Seriously?

In the context of the rest of the article, the author is implying that Martin and Brown were killed because of their race alone, thus perpetuating a false narrative. And to what end?

>thus perpetuating a false narrative.

Seriously?

You are aware that your opinion is controversial, so treating it as fact is dishonest and nothing but a dog-whistle.

The alternative is that you actually want to have a discussion about why anyone would want to say something that is false, but fits with the narrative that they are delivering. Is that what you really wanted to have a discussion about? Do you really want to know why people lie when they want to convince someone of something?

The author implies that the reason those teens were shot was because of their race.

The first case already went through trial and found no guilty verdict, especially no hate crime.

The second case involves a guy who reached for a police officer's gun. It doesn't matter your race, if you try that, you're not leaving the scene alive.

> nothing but a dog-whistle

If you want to call me a racist, then do it. Politically-correct buzzwords get us nowhere.

Martin was not shot because of race--but the confrontation was started by Zimmerman because of Martin's race.

> You are aware that your opinion is controversial, so treating it as fact is dishonest and nothing but a dog-whistle.

Isn't the opposite opinion similarly controversial?

Realistically, I blame the father for being so hopeful in people. Living in the 60s should have been a blatant sign that racism isn't only prevalent in the US, it's what it was built on. It's not going away and instead of making them more submissive and obedient to the laws of the land, they should have been more proud what it mean to be Black. It reads like he wanted them to be more submissive. No wonder the kid ran away in fear.

So the kid should have done what? Confronted the two adult men and possibly get assaulted? Or get himself arrested? No, he did the right thing. He walked away.

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