Posted on 08/30/2005 3:30:38 PM PDT by paulat
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Why do faces like mine evoke negativity?
By ROBERT L. JAMIESON Jr. SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST
Thugs are thugs.
Their behavior should not be tolerated, regardless of their race or the race of their victims.
That was one underlying message in Saturday's column about a vicious beating in Pioneer Square that left two servicemen from the war in Iraq unconscious.
The attackers are three young black men -- a narrative arc the city pounced on. People were quick to grab hold of the military angle of the assaults. Some assumed that the victims are white war heroes and that their female companions, who were groped by the thugs, are white as well.
The enlisted men and their female friends are black -- a detail absent from previous news accounts until my column brought it to light. Like a crazy mad-lib, people filled in the blanks of the story to suit their biases.
Race should not have mattered.
The hard truth is, people seek out or assign weight to evidence that confirms their hypotheses about people and ignore evidence that could debunk their thinking.
Psychologists have a name for this -- confirmation bias.
When it comes to race, such bias makes people quick to equate "war heroes" with whites, perhaps because those are the faces they see most on television.
"Thugs" become cemented as predatory blacks.
"Victims" -- particularly in instances where race is not mentioned -- are whites.
The phenomenon partly plays into why people assign more value to pretty blond women who go missing.
It also feeds into why yesterday I became a "purse snatcher."
Before coming into the office, I stopped for a cup of joe at a bustling coffee shop on lower Queen Anne. As I waited in line, I looked down and noticed a cream-colored purse dangling on the back of a chair. "Did someone leave this?" I asked Justin, the barista. He pointed out an elderly woman standing outside the entrance with three people.
I instinctively reached for the purse and walked to the door, pushing it open. "Excuse me, ma'am," I asked, leaning through the door frame. "Did someone leave this behind? It was on ..."
Before I could finish the sentence, a young woman in the group with the elder woman violently yanked the purse out of my hand, twisting my pinkie and arm. The elderly woman looked on in what I took to be embarrassment. Seconds passed -- it seemed like an eternity -- before one person in the group nervously mumbled, Thank you.
I slinked back inside the coffee shop and wondered, Did that really just happen?
I'd love to think that the young woman would have reacted the same way had one of my white colleagues, wearing the same preppy sweater and pressed corduroys, tried to help. You know, equal opportunity rudeness?
My experience in liberal Seattle has taught me better.
The city smugly touts open-minded thinking, but that doesn't always translate into open-minded behavior.
In my three decades of life in far more urbane cities, Seattle is the first place where police slapped me in handcuffs. Moments after my shackling as a suspected "car prowler," the white officer said, "Oh, this has been a mistake."
Inside my wallet, he had come across my university alumni card right next to my Post-Intelligencer business card. The police report, which I subsequently fetched, had this for the suspect description: "BM, 20s" -- black male, 20s. A mistake.
Countless times I have gone to Seattle watering holes, where a trip to the bathroom has turned into an unexpected business proposal. Strangers hit me up for drugs as if "dope dealer" were emblazoned on my forehead.
I can't count the number of times I've walked past couples in broad daylight. The guy will reach to offer a strategically timed protective hug to a female companion the instant I walk by. Such a gesture, I suppose, wards off dark spirits.
At a popular restaurant in town, a cocktail waitress I'd known casually was shocked to see my column picture in the paper. "I didn't know you had a job," she said.
She probably thought I hustled for a living.
It all makes me wonder why the image of young, black men is so mired in negativity.
Parallel universes seemingly exist.
In one, there are black men, like many of my friends, who are Wall Street execs, top-shelf movie writers, decorated war vets. They are all successful professionals, dedicated fathers and upstanding citizens.
The other universe -- the one that garners media attention -- is peopled with pimps and drug dealers, deadbeat dads, womanizers and thugs who just might turn a night at the club into a dangerous dance.
When white frat members go berserk at bars or meth-addled skinheads rampage or white men become the most prolific serial killers in the land, society doesn't paint all white guys with a broad brush stroke.
Why, then, when it comes to young, black males, do people jump to conclude the worst when the actions of some are not the actions of all?
P-I columnist Robert L. Jamieson Jr. can be reached at 206-448-8125 or robertjamieson@seattlepi.com.
"It all makes me wonder why the image of young, black men is so mired in negativity."
He wants answers. I will direct him to this thread.
Yet another column by Jamieson on this subject.
If you are a liberal/communist/socialist/baby killer. I don't like you, no matter the color of your skin.
Like wise if you are a freedom loving conservative, you are ok in my book, no matter the color of your skin.
You get in bed with the left wing's skin color brigade, you should not be surprised to reap the result.
Personally, it did not occur to me to make any assumption at all about the skin color of the soldiers (and girlfriends) who were attacked. I still feel the same way about it - that the thugs who did it need to have their heads put on pikes.
Evergreen State ping
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Ping sionnsar if you see a Washington state related thread.
for a P-I journalist.
He's spot on. Seattle, while proudly wearing a "nice" veneer, is probably one of the most cynical, racist places in the country, sad to say.
Liberals are the biggest racists on earth.
It's a simple matter of statistics and probability. It's the same reason we expect terrorists to be Middle Eastern. But I suspect the writer knows that.
Probably has something to do with the photos of looting in New Orleans now seen on the news worldwide.
Young, black men are not "mired in negativity."
Young men of any kind who dress up like gangbangers are.
Therein lies the major rub for many a lamebrained multiculturalist.
perfect example of liberal hypocrisy....practice what we preach...not what we practice....
Maybe he should ask Jesse Jackson, who once stated that he was relieved one night when the group of men coming up behind him turned out to be white rather than black.
Dear Mr. Jamieson
There are literally hundreds of places in the United States that white people cannot go without genuine fear of being killed simply because of their race.
Can you say the same? No? Then STFU
I thought that was Je$$e Jack$on himself who said that.
Methinks he should address the question to the hip-hop and rap artists plying their trade of BAD ASS N*GG*R.
That group of black entertainers are creating images that do not include Mr. Jamieson's friends, "who are Wall Street execs, top-shelf movie writers, decorated war vets. They are all successful professionals, dedicated fathers and upstanding citizens".
It is sad but true that Mr. Jamieson has as much influence on society as his white counterparts when it comes to stereotyping the worst of us.
sp
Jesse and Al play up the race card issue.
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