Would it be fair to say that everyone jumps to conclusions about someone based on their race?

[Helm]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRzZ4...eature=related


This video demonstrates the effect race can have. The white guy went virtually unchallenged while the black guy was instantly attacked by an angry mob.

[Lord Rahl]

Race is part of it but so are a lot of other factors. We all have suspicions of people who aren't like us and race is the most obvious difference. I'm surprised no one tried to call the police with either actor.

[Gordon Freynman]

Quite frankly the experiment in the video was highly inconclusive at best. I noticed that for both of them it was an elderly person each time that first took action to stop them. A few people stopped to question both of them but it was always a senior citizen who really did anything.

[Helm]

I'm surprised no one tried to call the police with either actor.

With the black actor they all had their cell phones out so I suspect that's what they were doing, they were even taking pictures of him for the evidence. And the crowd didn't only consist of old folks there were people of all ages doing their bit to put a stop to him.

[cfmonkey45]

That and they didn't have mexicans. Or Asians for that matter. Right now, it's between a guy who looks like he belongs in an Upper Middle Class neighborhood, and one who doesn't.


Though, I do think the Yale Professor hit the nail on the head, racism may not be ingrained, but our cultural perceptions of race as being indicators of socio-economic class, and therefore poverty and crime, is spot on. That right there is the kernel of modern racism. There is no ethnocentric superiority complex, it's purely an association complex.

[Copperknickers II]

Such behaviour is a feature of America more than anywhere else, because of the fact that a disproportionate number of African-Americans are involved in crime, and they have a social history of poverty. Take somewhere like Scotland, where our lower class poor criminals are homegrown whites, and you'd be more likely to find the opposite. In fact I've seen people call the police when a white actor stole a car radio for a Police careers day, and then nobody bat an eyelid when an Asian guy stole a rowing boat the next day.

[Claudius Gothicus]

No... in countries like Argentina for example exercises of exclusion are made based on cultural expressions of the socioeconomic differences.

We are prejudiced against the people who dress and talk in a certain way, but on the other hand we ain't that much prejudiced against people of different races.

[cfmonkey45]

Such behaviour is a feature of America more than anywhere else, because of the fact that a disproportionate number of African-Americans are involved in crime, and they have a social history of poverty. Take somewhere like Scotland, where our lower class poor criminals are homegrown whites, and you'd be more likely to find the opposite. In fact I've seen people call the police when a white actor stole a car radio for a Police careers day, and then nobody bat an eyelid when an Asian guy stole a rowing boat the next day.

Yes, hence why I said that in America, race is a determinant of socio-economic class. The situation in Scotland, however, is also the same as in the American Northeast, and amongst rural communities in the South and West. Whites, usually what we term to be rednecks or white-trash are of Scots-Irish, Welsh, and Italian descent, among others, which similarly echoes American racism and anti-Catholicism, since Irish and Italians were discriminated against for job hiring due to their religious preferences.

The problem with race and the United States is the fact that the United States has a larger and more diverse population of immigrants than most western countries, though that is going to change relatively soon. There is a difficulty in assimilating, as well as the fact that a large portion of non-european immigrants have had to suffer under very racist laws, hiring practices, and living situations, such as being confined to ethnic neighborhoods that lowered the ability to be absorbed into the mainstream populace.

[basics]

" This video demonstrates the effect race can have. The white guy went virtually unchallenged while the black guy was instantly attacked by an angry mob. "

Helm,

You have this habit of using slight of hand or words to make mountains out of molehills. Firstly the people as I saw them were not a mob although one or two were showing anger. And secondly the white guy did not go virtually unchallenged. So to make the whole proportionate was there set up the same incident in a mainly black area to see what the responses would be? Now that would be interesting and balanced, don't you think?

[Helm]

People did ask the white guy if it was his bike, then they moved on looking puzzled when he said it wasn't, save for one occassion. With the black guy an instant angry mob surrounded him. Though it may just be an American thing possibly. In the UK we have a stereotypical white underclass element called chavs who would probably get the mob treatment if they tried to steal someones bike, and we don't really have a substantial non-white population to characterise. There will have to try this in different countries using whatever is seen as the "respectable" and the less respectable ethnic and social classes. But certainly we judge on appearances and race is can be a big factor.

[basics]

" In the UK we have a stereotypical white underclass element called chavs........"

Helm,

That wouldn't happen to be your average low educated university student who takes delight in destroying other people's property, would it?

[Helm]

As a rule I don't think chavs go to university, they probably bunked of from school not that their school would have been much good anyway. The better schools tend to be in the well-to-do middle class areas. You have more fixed layers of society here there isn't a great of social mobility as you would have in the US, probably because we still have a Queen.

[Sher Khan]

A lot of this has to do with the perception of 'outsider.'

In another video concerning white vs. black vandals, we hear a bit about 'how dare they come here...' and so on. Confrontation is something scary for many people raised in the last generation, and it takes some other factors like the perceived otherness and outsider status of the perpetrator to propel a lot more people into action.

[Copperknickers II]

A lot of this has to do with the perception of 'outsider.'

In another video concerning white vs. black vandals, we hear a bit about 'how dare they come here...' and so on. Confrontation is something scary for many people raised in the last generation, and it takes some other factors like the perceived otherness and outsider status of the perpetrator to propel a lot more people into action.

Well, if that is true its extremely misguided, considering the African Americans have been there for longer than most other Americans, and were brought over there deliberately.

As a rule I don't think chavs go to university, they probably bunked of from school not that their school would have been much good anyway. The better schools tend to be in the well-to-do middle class areas. You have more fixed layers of society here there isn't a great of social mobility as you would have in the US, probably because we still have a Queen.

I think you'll find the situation is exactly the same in the U.S., and that having a Queen has nothing to do with it considering Norway, Sweden, New Zealand, Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark, Japan etc all have monarchs and are considerably ahead of most republics in terms of equality.

[Sher Khan]

Well, if that is true its extremely misguided, considering the African Americans have been there for longer than most other Americans, and were brought over there deliberately.

It has nothing to do with the grand narrative of America, though. 'Outsider' here means someone not from one's specific community or suburb or even housing subdivision.

I enjoy this series since I love candid looks at how people react to situations. It's not very scientific since the scenarios are so over-the-top and obviously contrived, but the various reactions are nice to watch and contemplate.

[Big War Bird]

It doesn't take a racist to know that young black men commit a hugely disproportionate share of the crime. That a young white man can get the benefit of the doubt and the black man not, it is unfair to call that white privilege. It is more like black earned distrust.

Put a young asian man there and you will probably see people bending over backwards to help him.

[Sher Khan]

It doesn't take a racist to know that young black men commit a hugely disproportionate share of the crime. That a young white man can get the benefit of the doubt and the black man not, it is unfair to call that white privilege. It is more like black earned distrust.

Put a young asian man there and you will probably see people bending over backwards to help him.

I don't think it's a matter of giving someone the benefit of the doubt especially when both were openly stating they were stealing the bike. The responses and immediacy of confrontation were something else though.

I don't know about young Asian men but...


Hilarity ensues.

[Big War Bird]

snip

Men are pigs.

[motiv-8]

Ah yes the one with the blond. OH PLEASE MISS LET ME HELP YOU.. ahh it's beautiful.

The thread title actually made me think about work. Working in a restaurant definitely makes me feel racial prejudice based upon results, but it also has the slippery slope of becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy. The general unspoken acceptance in a restaurant is that blacks and Indians don't know how to tip, so therefore the natural inclination is to pay them less attention because more work would be unrewarded anyway. However, this change in quality of service could potentially affect tipping negatively despite any other predospition on the part of the patron. There's also no empirical information that I've seen to suggest they tip on average worse than whites or other demographics, yet the common response to a white person tipping poorly is surprise and indignation, whereas the response to a black tipping poorly is often a sort of confirmation and vindication. It takes constant conscious mental maintenance to not let such preconceived notions affect one's professionalism.

The above is literally what has to go through my mind, slowly and deliberately, every time I am given one of the aforementioned tables. A curious thing which bothers me a bit.