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I’m in the top 10% of income percentile. But I still got looked at suspiciously as a Black person living in a county that’s 3% Black and as recently as the la

I’m in the top 10% of income percentile. But I still got looked at suspiciously as a Black person living in a county that’s 3% Black and as recently as the late 80s was a famous “Sundown town” (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eYKQdPMeJjk https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eYKQdPMeJjk) I once took my team to lunch and the waitress asked would we be on one check or separate, I spoke up and said one, started reaching for my wallet and she still handed the check to the older looking White guy that I hired. No matter how much money I have, there will always be assumptions about me. I have seen this a lot more when working for companies in the South than I do now when I travel to customer meetings now that I work for BigTech and I’m leading projects. Thought experiment: if I walk into a convenience store with a visible gun in an open carry state and a “lower class” White person does the same and a policemen happens to be in the store, who do you think will be harassed?

nickstinemates 4y ago
> if I walk into a convenience store with a visible gun in an open carry state and a “lower class” White person does the same and a policemen happens to be in the store, who do you think will be harassed? Presumably neither of you since in this straw-man neither party has done anything wrong
- scarface74 4y ago
  So you think a Black guy has to “do something wrong” to be considered “acting suspiciously”? Just like Ving Rhames, was “suspiciously” living in his own house when SWAT knocked on his door because someone thought he had broken into his own house. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/actor-ving-rhames-said-neighbor-called-911-report-him-large-n895611 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/actor-ving-rhames-said-... This isn’t just a random anecdote https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2020/may/black-drivers-more-likely-to-be-stopped-by-police.html https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2020/may/bl...

nickstinemates 4y ago

> if I walk into a convenience store with a visible gun in an open carry state and a “lower class” White person does the same and a policemen happens to be in the store, who do you think will be harassed? Presumably neither of you since in this straw-man neither party has done anything wrong

scarface74 4y ago
So you think a Black guy has to “do something wrong” to be considered “acting suspiciously”? Just like Ving Rhames, was “suspiciously” living in his own house when SWAT knocked on his door because someone thought he had broken into his own house. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/actor-ving-rhames-said-neighbor-called-911-report-him-large-n895611 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/actor-ving-rhames-said-... This isn’t just a random anecdote https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2020/may/black-drivers-more-likely-to-be-stopped-by-police.html https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2020/may/bl...