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From the Toledo article you linked: ———— Kameron Dunbar, also a fresh Oberlin graduate, said he had “uncomfortable experiences” along racial lines in Gibson’s

From the Toledo article you linked: ———— Kameron Dunbar, also a fresh Oberlin graduate, said he had “uncomfortable experiences” along racial lines in Gibson’s, including times where he was asked to take off his backpack in the store when other, white customers weren’t asked to do the same. He remembers feeling “watched in ways that may not manifest the same for a white audience.” “I never wrote a review on Yelp, I didn’t write to Better Business Bureau — I just decided not to patronize there anymore,” Mr. Dunbar said. ————— This article and Mr. Dunbar’s potential bias are discussed in TFA, with the clincher: “Neither the New York Times, nor Rolling Stone, nor any of the other media outlets that quoted Dunbar noted that he worked alongside Jonathan Aladin in the Office of the Student Treasurer and was a paid blogger for Oberlin’s Office of Communications.” Not exactly star witness material, but precisely the kind of person who might subtly push an agenda in the media, facts be damned.

SilasX 7y ago
That dynamic reminds me of Scott Alexander’s toxoplasmosis of rage article[1]. That, even when there’s a legitimate grievance, activists make a cause out of the least sympathetic case, like Michael Brown for police brutality against black people. Let’s assume the Gibson store does racially profile customers, and does it in a way that doesn’t quite bubble up to the arrest statistics. Even so, why would you make your “hill to die on” out of a case where their suspicions were majestically justified, where the customer was not only shoplifting, but willing to assault the shopkeeper and kick him while he’s down? [1] https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/17/the-toxoplasma-of-rage/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/17/the-toxoplasma-of-rage...

SilasX 7y ago

That dynamic reminds me of Scott Alexander’s toxoplasmosis of rage article[1]. That, even when there’s a legitimate grievance, activists make a cause out of the least sympathetic case, like Michael Brown for police brutality against black people. Let’s assume the Gibson store does racially profile customers, and does it in a way that doesn’t quite bubble up to the arrest statistics. Even so, why would you make your “hill to die on” out of a case where their suspicions were majestically justified, where the customer was not only shoplifting, but willing to assault the shopkeeper and kick him while he’s down? [1] https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/17/the-toxoplasma-of-rage/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/17/the-toxoplasma-of-rage...