Racial profiling

[supergee]

Judging white people by the Quiverfull movement, which treats “The Marching Morons” as a battle plan.

Comments

[arlie]

The sad thing is, that this kind of judgement is normal. If someone does something egregious, we tend to pick a category we do not share with them, and attribute their behaviour to that category. Thus for most North Americans, if any kind of non-Christian commits a terrorist act, particularly with a religious justification, it's caused by the religion - whereas if the perp is Christian, it's either caused by the specific sect they belong to, or some other personal attribute. (I have a housemate who instead blames Christianity for all bad actions committed by Christians. She's more than intelligent enough to realize that Quiverfuls are a minority, as are e.g. Branch Dravidians - she just insists that these are Christianity's natural form, and other expressions are aberrant. To me, she sounds just like the average American discussing "Islamists".) Likewise, if a neuro-diverse person does something horrific, the press is sure to repeatedly mention their diagnosis.

In the case cited, it's probably parody. But enough nonsense gets blamed on race - by mostly white people - that I'd be unsurprised to see serious judgements of this kinds. Heavens knows, after a few encounters with racist cops etc. it would be easy for any black person to judge all white folks as inherently evil - or at least out to get them, and with no valid cause.

[minoanmiss]

after a few encounters with racist cops etc. it would be easy for any black person to judge all white folks as inherently evil - or at least out to get them, and with no valid cause.

I was thinking about this. On the surface it looks logical, but in my experience... we usually can't get away with thinking that, or at least, acting like we think that. Being leery of White people is viewed as "suspicious" and "hostile" and likely to [be used as a reason to] get one in trouble. Just as many men are ready and willing and able to hassle any woman who isn't sufficiently cheerful and pleasing for their liking, many White people are likely to react negatively to Black people who aren't sufficiently amicable.

Resentment is complicated, but it's dangerous to show it.

[arlie]

Yeah. And people tend to come to believe what they repeatedly enact, even if they started out knowing they were merely going along to get along - or lying for their own safety.

I'm not black, so I can't speak from that experience. But I can go from being pleasant to individual males, to raging at the behaviour of males as a class, and back again, depending on whether I'm at work being professional, or at home reading the news :-(

And in rage mode, they are all evil. (Nonsense, of course, if examined logically. But this is overwrought emotions speaking, not logic.) Whereas when dealing with individuals, I have nuanced judgements about each person, not merely a persona put on to succeed at work. And in Vulcan mode, I'm aware that generalizations about all members of a human category are always rubbish.