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> This line really bothers me. Probably because I simply don't think this way. I don't see color in people. It is because of this, perhaps wrongly, that I can't

> This line really bothers me. Probably because I simply don't think this way. I don't see color in people. It is because of this, perhaps wrongly, that I can't accept the idea that this kid was arrested because he is brown. If you really "don't see color", then that's commendable. If you don't think it's possible that other people see color -- well, that's just willful ignorance. The rest of your comment is irrelevant speculation. You have no idea about the political backgrounds of the teachers of this school. And if I had to speculate, I wouldn't think it's likely that you'd find a lot of hard-line liberal teachers in a suburban Texas high school, in a town whose mayor is notoriously anti-Islam. [1] In any case, it wasn't the teachers who put this kid in handcuffs and interrogated him, it was the cops. I'm not going to watch a couple of hour-long videos of talking heads, but I'm well aware that people like Sam Harris believe liberals are "intolerant" of anti-Islam sentiment. I'm struggling to see how it's relevant to this issue. [1] http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/northwest-dallas-county/headlines/20150319-national-islamic-furor-focuses-on-irving-vote-tonight.ece http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/northwest-dall...

rebootthesystem 11y ago
> If you don't think it's possible that other people see color -- well, that's just willful ignorance. I didn't say that anywhere. Yes, of course, bigots do exist. Perhaps the greater point is that we shouldn't jump at any conclusions, including one that proposes this kid was singled-out because of the color of his skin or his religion. Nobody knows, right? I am proposing it was ignorance on the part of the teachers, particularly the Engineering teacher. Had I been in that position I would have had the kid do a full presentation in front of the class on how he built the clock and how it worked and perhaps see about having him teach the other kids how to build their own in school or as a home project. Had other teachers expressed concern I would have said something like "Calm down, he is a great kid who'd been tinkering with technology for years. We need to encourage him, not smash him down. He just build a fantastic clock. How about everyone learns from him.". Then again, that's me. A non-engineer engineering teacher might think he is looking at Martian technology that could end life on the planet. This kid should not have suffered one bit due to the ignorance of the adults that surrounded him at school. Beyond that, I think about what he said in the video: They took him into a room with five cops who interrogated him. I, as a parent, would be angry beyond description for that alone.

rebootthesystem 11y ago

> If you don't think it's possible that other people see color -- well, that's just willful ignorance. I didn't say that anywhere. Yes, of course, bigots do exist. Perhaps the greater point is that we shouldn't jump at any conclusions, including one that proposes this kid was singled-out because of the color of his skin or his religion. Nobody knows, right? I am proposing it was ignorance on the part of the teachers, particularly the Engineering teacher. Had I been in that position I would have had the kid do a full presentation in front of the class on how he built the clock and how it worked and perhaps see about having him teach the other kids how to build their own in school or as a home project. Had other teachers expressed concern I would have said something like "Calm down, he is a great kid who'd been tinkering with technology for years. We need to encourage him, not smash him down. He just build a fantastic clock. How about everyone learns from him.". Then again, that's me. A non-engineer engineering teacher might think he is looking at Martian technology that could end life on the planet. This kid should not have suffered one bit due to the ignorance of the adults that surrounded him at school. Beyond that, I think about what he said in the video: They took him into a room with five cops who interrogated him. I, as a parent, would be angry beyond description for that alone.