7 ms·

I kept seeing a lot posts on Nextdoor from people who don't realize they are racist. An example post on was where someone was complaining about a strange black

by zadkey 6y ago

I kept seeing a lot posts on Nextdoor from people who don't realize they are racist. An example post on was where someone was complaining about a strange black man walking through their neighborhood. Of course when you read the post carefully you would then come to realize, that this man was walking down the sidewalk, during the day, not bothering or talking to anyone, just minding his own business. The reality is there was nothing particularly strange about this black man. Nothing in her description explains what he did that made him strange. She likely just finds it strange that a black man is walking through their neighborhood. The other thing is these kinds of posts would always be followed up with someone along the lines of "keep an eye out for him" or "don't let him near your kids" or "call the police if you see him again" or that kind of fear-mongering nonsense. I was honestly downright surprised how racist some of these people are.

jeffbee 6y ago
One of the problems of Nextdoor's fear-based social network is that "crime and safety" topics are more widely distributed than general topics, so one racist anywhere in your city can poison the whole thing. And it's not just racism. For some reason violent drivers feel like it is a safe space to openly advocate for running down bicyclists and stuff like that.
deleted 6y ago
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- deleted 6y ago
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snarf21 6y ago
Agreed. Nextdoor's whole model is built around fear-mongering. It is despicable. This is where the "see something, say something" can go too far. A guy driving a van through your neighborhood could be a plumber and not a pedophile trying to kidnap your kids. There seems to be no sense of "suspicious activity" before these people start spewing nonsense. To be fair, this isn't unique to Nextdoor. My relative is a state police and they get calls for things you can't even imagine, like "my kid won't listen to me, can you scare them straight?" or "the neighbor mowed one strip over the line, make them stop!" It just sucks when companies set out to exploit this human characteristic for profit but hide behind the guise of "open platform". "We're just trying to help build stronger neighborhoods", yeah sure you are.
- justaguyhere 6y ago
  It just sucks when companies set out to exploit this human characteristic for profit It is easy to make money off fear/hate than love/friendship. Racist people will always be racist, Nextdoor or not. It is just that sites like Nextdoor make it easier to vent and share their "feelings". If Nextdoor goes away, there will be 10 others to take its place unfortunately.
  - duckMuppet 6y ago
    People of color and economically challenged individuals are at extreme risk for the covid per multiple studies. Asking what these individuals are doing out of their homes during this dire time for them in the U.S. is a prudent action. Don't confuse The desire to protect them with allegations of subtle racism.
    - veggieburglar 6y ago
      This has been going on since the beginning of the platform, far before the shelter in place orders went into effect.
    - nogabebop23 6y ago
      >> People of color and economically challenged individuals So if you see a black person in your neighrbourhood, they must be poor? >> Asking what these individuals are doing out of their homes during this dire time for them in the U.S. is a prudent action. So you know there's no house arrest for the general public anywhere in the US right now, plus social networks exist before & after covid? >> Don't confuse The desire to protect them with allegations of subtle racism. Yes - everyone's first reaction to the scenario described is "how can I protect this person from themselves?" I'll give you the benefit of assuming you're just a really argumentative "debater" or this is a troll, otherwise... wow...
    - lame-robot-hoax 6y ago
      This is either sarcasm or a troll.
    - 6y ago
S_A_P 6y ago
I got off of Nextdoor when I saw a 'neighbor' who took to taking photos of people driving(in his words) like an idiot. The way he would take the photos is to chase them down, pull out his phone while driving and take a photo of the car. Then he would post a meme like photo of the car calling the person some variation of a jackass/moron/etc. When I pointed out the irony of chasing someone down to take their picture, I got a bunch of ad hominem attacks and accusations that I was one of the people he had named and shamed. (I wasnt). I suggested that maybe he leave traffic enforcement to the professionals, and if he noticed a rash of bad driving to maybe alert the police to step up patrol of the area. He doubled down on the character attacks and while I got a bunch of private messages saying thank you for saying something there was an equal amount of public posts from people thanking him for "keeping them safe". Sigh...
beeskneecaps 6y ago
Here’s a resource you can use next time you see racial profiling taking place on Nextdoor: https://go.us.nextdoor.com/safety/preventing-profiling-how https://go.us.nextdoor.com/safety/preventing-profiling-how
- Operyl 6y ago
  The problem is .. what if your Leads are the racist people like they are in my "neighborhood" (which consists of like, 30 neighborhoods..?). EDIT: I should note I have reported the member to Nextdoor Support a few times now to no avail.
  - beeskneecaps 6y ago
    It is concerning that you’re saying members and your Leads are racist. Hoping you also reported the Leads to Nextdoor.
    - Operyl 6y ago
      It's .. kind of something I fear comes with my area. I live in South Florida and have a ton of retirees around me. One of the giant 55+ communities is within a few miles of me. I've reported them time and time again, but obviously they do not care to moderate their platform.
ben1040 6y ago
I used to live in a neighborhood that had a few little spurs of discontinuous streets that were the same name as some half a mile away. So we’d get people lost in there all the time. I remember a Nextdoor post in my neighborhood where the author said they were out jogging and a black man in a pickup truck slowed down and asked for directions. So many replies along the lines of “did you call the police? he could be casing the neighborhood.” I’m pretty certain there wouldn’t have been a Nextdoor post made if it were a white guy in a sedan.
- mc32 6y ago
  I think it depends on what neighborhood the guy in the sedan is driving in. If he’s out of place, he’ll probably get tagged. People are suspicious of strangers. Once I lost my key to my bike lock and went ahead and got to cutting it. As I was about to take off a cruiser pulls up and takes my info in case someone reported it stolen. Neighbor called the police. A while back if you were in a place you might not normally find yourself you were either “looking to score or you were a narc.” Drive around the block three times in some neighborhoods raise alarms that you might be looking to do a drive by...
  - gbrown 6y ago
    > Once I lost my key to my bike lock and went ahead and got to cutting it. As I was about to take off a cruiser pulls up and takes my info in case someone reported it stolen. Neighbor called the police. That seems very different than the examples you're replying to.
    - mc32 6y ago
      Is it different from walking up a block peering into cars and testing doors?
      - joshuaissac 6y ago
        The black guy in the story you replied to "slowed down and asked for directions"; he was not "walking up a block peering into cars and testing doors".
BurningFrog 6y ago
The blessing and curse of social sites in this modern world is that it gives us a view of the mind of people we would never have interacted with 10 years ago. They were always there, but now they can talk to you, even if you would shun them in "real life". I try to remember you can frame what they say in different ways. The "black man walking" post can be seen as "racist" or "badly written" or "someone has an anxiety disorder".
- 3fe9a03ccd14ca5 6y ago
  “I don’t like that man. I must get to know him.” Is as true today as it ever was.
andrewljohnson 6y ago
Where do you live? This was also my experience moving to Spring, TX (a suburb of Houston), which I'm now leaving because of this type of attitude, among other things. It's not just NextDoor, many areas are on average racist and insular. One time I was strolling my baby, and there was a group of well-dressed, but wrongly colored, people (men, women, and children!) walking down the street. A woman pulled over in her shiny car to ask me if I knew these people, and I walked on and ignored her question. When I looked back, she had pulled over and was on her cellphone.
- wu_187 6y ago
  God nextdoor is so bad here in Spring. Half the posts are religious and the other half are racist rants. I'm white, but I have black neighbors. So what? They are nice people. I will say that the majority of the people that are like that are the older ones. Good luck wherever you are going.
- zadkey 6y ago
  I won't give the exact city, but let's say in the DFW area.
  - andrewljohnson 6y ago
    Maybe Texas is the problem and not NextDoor :)
- zadkey 6y ago
  I had a similarly awkward conversation. I sometimes take my mother to go see movies. I'm a fairly tall man, and my mom is a fairly short woman. Anyway, one day after seeing a movie, we had stopped in the parking lot near our cars to discuss what we did and did not like about the movie. While we are talking, a woman drives up with window rolled down and says, "Is that man bothering you?" My mom responds, "What?" The woman repeats, "Is that man bothering you?" My mom answers, "He's my son! No, he's not bothering me."
- S_A_P 6y ago
  I am on the opposite side of Houston from you, but its the same here- see my comment re: the 'idiot' drivers. I even have a guy in my neighborhood who has linked property tax increases to globalism and UN resolutions to reclaim land that has water under it.
andrewzah 6y ago
> I kept seeing a lot posts on Nextdoor from people who don't realize they are racist. Sometimes, but sometimes they know what they're doing. Living in a quiet suburb in South Carolina, I got tired of the shit I saw and had to stop using nextdoor.
SamWhited 6y ago
Warning: rant (but a hopefully useful example of this, none the less) ahead. Someone in my neighborhood (in the most white-flighty of white-flighty suburbs, sigh) recently posted a picture from their stupid privacy invading doorbell camera of someone peeking in their front windows and asked if they should call the police, if you see this individual let someone know, etc.… on a house that was empty and for sale. No fucking shit he was peeking in the windows, he was probably thinking about buying the fucking place like everybody else peeking in the windows all damn day. Similarly I've seen pictures of my own neighbor posted several times and labeled a "suspicious individual" while walking to the grocery or wherever. I walk the same route when I want to go to the hardware store or grocery, and somehow I (as a white dude) have never been labeled a "suspicious individual", and yet these people are still like "oh, it's not because he's black, I just didn't realize he lived here…" /rant
matwood 6y ago
Could be racist or someone seeing an unfamiliar person in their neighborhood and using the most obvious descriptive terms. For example, my neighborhood has a single road in and water around 2/3s of it. I am familiar with at least familiar most of my neighbors, and it would be odd to see a person I have never seen walking around. But, instead of going to Nextdoor (which is garbage) I would say hey and introduce myself.
cpayne624 6y ago
Yeah, I steer clear of the Crime & Safety section... I'm strictly on there for important neighborhood announcements, etc. This is from today, https://imgur.com/T9ILkYE https://imgur.com/T9ILkYE Some are quick to suggest calling the police, either not realizing or not caring that there's potential for things to escalate, & for someone to lose their life.
phreeza 6y ago
Fwiw, I had exactly the same thing happen a while ago at the University institute I worked at, via plain old email. There were some thefts from offices, and several people started posting "watch out for strange persons" posts, including descriptions of the "strange people" that were clearly racist, to the institute mailing list.

by zadkey 6y ago

jeffbee 6y ago

One of the problems of Nextdoor's fear-based social network is that "crime and safety" topics are more widely distributed than general topics, so one racist anywhere in your city can poison the whole thing. And it's not just racism. For some reason violent drivers feel like it is a safe space to openly advocate for running down bicyclists and stuff like that.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

snarf21 6y ago

Agreed. Nextdoor's whole model is built around fear-mongering. It is despicable. This is where the "see something, say something" can go too far. A guy driving a van through your neighborhood could be a plumber and not a pedophile trying to kidnap your kids. There seems to be no sense of "suspicious activity" before these people start spewing nonsense. To be fair, this isn't unique to Nextdoor. My relative is a state police and they get calls for things you can't even imagine, like "my kid won't listen to me, can you scare them straight?" or "the neighbor mowed one strip over the line, make them stop!" It just sucks when companies set out to exploit this human characteristic for profit but hide behind the guise of "open platform". "We're just trying to help build stronger neighborhoods", yeah sure you are.

justaguyhere 6y ago
It just sucks when companies set out to exploit this human characteristic for profit It is easy to make money off fear/hate than love/friendship. Racist people will always be racist, Nextdoor or not. It is just that sites like Nextdoor make it easier to vent and share their "feelings". If Nextdoor goes away, there will be 10 others to take its place unfortunately.
- duckMuppet 6y ago
  People of color and economically challenged individuals are at extreme risk for the covid per multiple studies. Asking what these individuals are doing out of their homes during this dire time for them in the U.S. is a prudent action. Don't confuse The desire to protect them with allegations of subtle racism.
  - veggieburglar 6y ago
    This has been going on since the beginning of the platform, far before the shelter in place orders went into effect.
  - nogabebop23 6y ago
    >> People of color and economically challenged individuals So if you see a black person in your neighrbourhood, they must be poor? >> Asking what these individuals are doing out of their homes during this dire time for them in the U.S. is a prudent action. So you know there's no house arrest for the general public anywhere in the US right now, plus social networks exist before & after covid? >> Don't confuse The desire to protect them with allegations of subtle racism. Yes - everyone's first reaction to the scenario described is "how can I protect this person from themselves?" I'll give you the benefit of assuming you're just a really argumentative "debater" or this is a troll, otherwise... wow...
  - lame-robot-hoax 6y ago
    This is either sarcasm or a troll.
  - 6y ago

S_A_P 6y ago

I got off of Nextdoor when I saw a 'neighbor' who took to taking photos of people driving(in his words) like an idiot. The way he would take the photos is to chase them down, pull out his phone while driving and take a photo of the car. Then he would post a meme like photo of the car calling the person some variation of a jackass/moron/etc. When I pointed out the irony of chasing someone down to take their picture, I got a bunch of ad hominem attacks and accusations that I was one of the people he had named and shamed. (I wasnt). I suggested that maybe he leave traffic enforcement to the professionals, and if he noticed a rash of bad driving to maybe alert the police to step up patrol of the area. He doubled down on the character attacks and while I got a bunch of private messages saying thank you for saying something there was an equal amount of public posts from people thanking him for "keeping them safe". Sigh...

beeskneecaps 6y ago

Here’s a resource you can use next time you see racial profiling taking place on Nextdoor: https://go.us.nextdoor.com/safety/preventing-profiling-how https://go.us.nextdoor.com/safety/preventing-profiling-how

Operyl 6y ago
The problem is .. what if your Leads are the racist people like they are in my "neighborhood" (which consists of like, 30 neighborhoods..?). EDIT: I should note I have reported the member to Nextdoor Support a few times now to no avail.
- beeskneecaps 6y ago
  It is concerning that you’re saying members and your Leads are racist. Hoping you also reported the Leads to Nextdoor.
  - Operyl 6y ago
    It's .. kind of something I fear comes with my area. I live in South Florida and have a ton of retirees around me. One of the giant 55+ communities is within a few miles of me. I've reported them time and time again, but obviously they do not care to moderate their platform.

ben1040 6y ago

I used to live in a neighborhood that had a few little spurs of discontinuous streets that were the same name as some half a mile away. So we’d get people lost in there all the time. I remember a Nextdoor post in my neighborhood where the author said they were out jogging and a black man in a pickup truck slowed down and asked for directions. So many replies along the lines of “did you call the police? he could be casing the neighborhood.” I’m pretty certain there wouldn’t have been a Nextdoor post made if it were a white guy in a sedan.

mc32 6y ago
I think it depends on what neighborhood the guy in the sedan is driving in. If he’s out of place, he’ll probably get tagged. People are suspicious of strangers. Once I lost my key to my bike lock and went ahead and got to cutting it. As I was about to take off a cruiser pulls up and takes my info in case someone reported it stolen. Neighbor called the police. A while back if you were in a place you might not normally find yourself you were either “looking to score or you were a narc.” Drive around the block three times in some neighborhoods raise alarms that you might be looking to do a drive by...
- gbrown 6y ago
  > Once I lost my key to my bike lock and went ahead and got to cutting it. As I was about to take off a cruiser pulls up and takes my info in case someone reported it stolen. Neighbor called the police. That seems very different than the examples you're replying to.
  - mc32 6y ago
    Is it different from walking up a block peering into cars and testing doors?
    - joshuaissac 6y ago
      The black guy in the story you replied to "slowed down and asked for directions"; he was not "walking up a block peering into cars and testing doors".

BurningFrog 6y ago

The blessing and curse of social sites in this modern world is that it gives us a view of the mind of people we would never have interacted with 10 years ago. They were always there, but now they can talk to you, even if you would shun them in "real life". I try to remember you can frame what they say in different ways. The "black man walking" post can be seen as "racist" or "badly written" or "someone has an anxiety disorder".

3fe9a03ccd14ca5 6y ago
“I don’t like that man. I must get to know him.” Is as true today as it ever was.

andrewljohnson 6y ago

Where do you live? This was also my experience moving to Spring, TX (a suburb of Houston), which I'm now leaving because of this type of attitude, among other things. It's not just NextDoor, many areas are on average racist and insular. One time I was strolling my baby, and there was a group of well-dressed, but wrongly colored, people (men, women, and children!) walking down the street. A woman pulled over in her shiny car to ask me if I knew these people, and I walked on and ignored her question. When I looked back, she had pulled over and was on her cellphone.

wu_187 6y ago
God nextdoor is so bad here in Spring. Half the posts are religious and the other half are racist rants. I'm white, but I have black neighbors. So what? They are nice people. I will say that the majority of the people that are like that are the older ones. Good luck wherever you are going.
zadkey 6y ago
I won't give the exact city, but let's say in the DFW area.
- andrewljohnson 6y ago
  Maybe Texas is the problem and not NextDoor :)
zadkey 6y ago
I had a similarly awkward conversation. I sometimes take my mother to go see movies. I'm a fairly tall man, and my mom is a fairly short woman. Anyway, one day after seeing a movie, we had stopped in the parking lot near our cars to discuss what we did and did not like about the movie. While we are talking, a woman drives up with window rolled down and says, "Is that man bothering you?" My mom responds, "What?" The woman repeats, "Is that man bothering you?" My mom answers, "He's my son! No, he's not bothering me."
S_A_P 6y ago
I am on the opposite side of Houston from you, but its the same here- see my comment re: the 'idiot' drivers. I even have a guy in my neighborhood who has linked property tax increases to globalism and UN resolutions to reclaim land that has water under it.

andrewzah 6y ago

> I kept seeing a lot posts on Nextdoor from people who don't realize they are racist. Sometimes, but sometimes they know what they're doing. Living in a quiet suburb in South Carolina, I got tired of the shit I saw and had to stop using nextdoor.

SamWhited 6y ago

Warning: rant (but a hopefully useful example of this, none the less) ahead. Someone in my neighborhood (in the most white-flighty of white-flighty suburbs, sigh) recently posted a picture from their stupid privacy invading doorbell camera of someone peeking in their front windows and asked if they should call the police, if you see this individual let someone know, etc.… on a house that was empty and for sale. No fucking shit he was peeking in the windows, he was probably thinking about buying the fucking place like everybody else peeking in the windows all damn day. Similarly I've seen pictures of my own neighbor posted several times and labeled a "suspicious individual" while walking to the grocery or wherever. I walk the same route when I want to go to the hardware store or grocery, and somehow I (as a white dude) have never been labeled a "suspicious individual", and yet these people are still like "oh, it's not because he's black, I just didn't realize he lived here…" /rant

matwood 6y ago

Could be racist or someone seeing an unfamiliar person in their neighborhood and using the most obvious descriptive terms. For example, my neighborhood has a single road in and water around 2/3s of it. I am familiar with at least familiar most of my neighbors, and it would be odd to see a person I have never seen walking around. But, instead of going to Nextdoor (which is garbage) I would say hey and introduce myself.

cpayne624 6y ago

Yeah, I steer clear of the Crime & Safety section... I'm strictly on there for important neighborhood announcements, etc. This is from today, https://imgur.com/T9ILkYE https://imgur.com/T9ILkYE Some are quick to suggest calling the police, either not realizing or not caring that there's potential for things to escalate, & for someone to lose their life.

phreeza 6y ago

Fwiw, I had exactly the same thing happen a while ago at the University institute I worked at, via plain old email. There were some thefts from offices, and several people started posting "watch out for strange persons" posts, including descriptions of the "strange people" that were clearly racist, to the institute mailing list.