Club Mistakes Black Harvard Crowd For "Local Gangbangers"

Discussion in 'Ethics, Morality, & Justice' started by S.A.M., Nov 24, 2010.

  1. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    72,825
    This caught my eye because a similar thing happened at a family diner near my uni. And well anyone who's read my posts on the issue of racism in the US knows how common it is for coloured people to be escorted out of elitist establishments.

    Its surprising that this would happen post Obama, but then again, I guess its not.

    Comments?
     
  2. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  3. Read-Only Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    10,296
    Seems to me it should have been a simple matter to differentiate between those folks and "gangbangers." The most direct method would have been simply observing their manner of dress and demeanor. :shrug:
     
  4. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  5. quadraphonics Bloodthirsty Barbarian Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    9,391
    I can't decide: is this LOL material, or /facepalm material?
     
  6. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  7. JuNie Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    163
    The problem with the "manner of dress" statement is that it is difficult to tell if someone's a "gangster" by the way they dress since not all gangsters dress a certain way. Now, if these kids all came in and had actually caused problems, then I would say the establishment were justified for throwing them out. If that's not the case then its just racism.

    I would say that the issue is prejudice. They saw a group of black kids with "urban" wear and they concluded that they were "gangbangers".

    I find your "coloured" terminology offensive to say the least. If I'm "coloured" then what are you? Is white, pink or tan not a color? This type of terminology holds racist connotations. Just letting you know...

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    As for the actual article...nothing out of the ordinary here.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  8. JuNie Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    163
    Both.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  9. Read-Only Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    10,296
    Kids??!!?? You're not paying attention at all. These were "Harvard and Yale alums"!!
     
  10. JuNie Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    163
    LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL :shrug:

    Well that changes everything doesn't it.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

    Don't even know what to say about that.
     
  11. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    12,738
    Just got here.
    Has anyone said anything racist yet?

    My prediction
    THREAD CLOSED DUE TO BLAHDEBLAHDEBLAH
     
  12. JuNie Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    163
    Nah. It appears to me that most of the people on this forum are decent human beings. I enjoy the people on this forum.
     
  13. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

    Messages:
    24,690
    It's a big country, Sam. As usual, you don't understand America. With each passing year, events like this become less common. The fact that they haven't attenuated completely is unfortunate, but it's no reason to assume that they won't. I suppose if I had to pick a city where this might happen, I would choose Boston over, say, Washington or Los Angeles. They've got some "old money" snobbish Euro-Americans there who think their shit don't smell. They'll die soon enough, don't worry about it.

    What I am curious about is this. Afro-Americans comprise something like one-tenth of our population, so it's statistically unlikely to see a large group of people that includes no other ethnicity. I would be extremely curious if I saw one, although I would not react in this particular way. Harvard and Yale have been racially desegregated for decades, so the obvious question is: Why does a large group of their alumni include only Afro-Americans? It does't make sense. Are Afro-Americans segregating themselves, forming societies to which only they can belong? Since it would be illegal for us to do that, I assume it would be just as illegal for them.

    These days, even gangs are becoming desegregated. You don't have to be of any particular ancestry to join one, just a sociopathic asshole.
     
  14. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    12,738
    Mark Twain said that he would rather be damned to Bunyan's heaven than read "The Bostonians"

    At his best he could be as good at the epigram as Oscar Wilde.
     
  15. quadraphonics Bloodthirsty Barbarian Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    9,391
    12.4%, to be exact :]

    Only if you add the assumption that black people are uniformly distributed (in geographic, class, educational and other socially-relevant terms). But they pointedly are not - the sort of color-blind society that would produce such a distribution likely would not even sustain them as a separate race for long in the first place.

    Instead, the lingering effects (and continuance, if attenuated) of centuries of overt, powerful discrimination have put us in a situation where the black population is highly concentrated into certain locations, classes, social niches, etc. There aren't many places in the US with a 12.4% black population. Rather, there are a few places with a very high percentage of black people (supermajorities) amongst a sea of places with very very few black people. Most major cities (not just in the South) feature "black" neighborhoods outside of which black people are not much seen, and in which nobody else is much seen. Truly integrated neighborhoods are a rarity, even in "enlightened" places like coastal CA.

    Only if you weren't in one of the places where black people are clustered (which, indeed, would include hoity-toity Harvard-area clubs and the like). And even then, the curiosity would not be why they're hanging out in a group of black people, but why that group has ventured out of their de-facto segregated area.

    But the social class of rich, connected achievers that attend such schools has not been desegregated. Not by a long shot.

    Not societies to which only they can belong, but societies to which only they are interested in belonging. I.e., societies explicitly for advocating and advancing the interests of black students and alumni. There is no rule barring anyone from joining such (and I'm sure there are a few non-black people involved), just nobody other than black people has much interest in joining. Such is commonplace at every university in the USA with any minority populations to speak of - my own alma mater featured a dizzying area of "Asian interest organizations," as well as ones for other ethnic groups, and also race-based frats. None of them have any illegal rules barring any ethnicity from joining, and none of them need them since nobody else is interested to begin with.

    And such is openly accepted by society at large, exactly because the history and present of racism justifies minority-interest advocacy groups. The truly perverse cases are ones like La Raza, into which all manner of ugly chauvinist ideology (google "Califaztlan" or "reconquista") gets injected under the blanket of the various legitimate minority-interest activities they pursue.
     
  16. iceaura Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    30,994
    Well according to you of course it didn't - you have no evidence that all those people had decided to identify themselves as black, right? So everyone was looking at a racially diverse group of people, in your view.

    I sometimes wonder whether you actually live in America. Honestly - one is "statistically" far more likely to see racially uniform, or almost uniform, voluntary groups of young adults in my town than otherwise. The only place I see anything like a norm of desegregated voluntary social groups is on TV in the ads. I would not be in the least puzzled or surprised by a social group of Harvard or Yale alumni being racially uniform - white or black or brown or yellow. And Boston is deeply, openly, racially divided - a club owner in that city who picked up a reputation as catering to the black community would have that as his customer base for the foreseeable future.
     

Share This Page