# I make mental note of race and gender in crime stories? Do you? What have you noticed? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 13, 2013, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-mental-note-of-race-and-gender-in-crime-stories-do-you-what-have-you-noticed/652800 "2013-03-13T09:17:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2013, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-mental-note-of-race-and-gender-in-crime-stories-do-you-what-have-you-noticed/652800/21 "2013-03-13T22:49:07Z")
> [@JamesQueue](#): > > In fact, I think maybe life experience is better way to understand the world. Not really. Your life experiences are a very narrow window. They don’t give a good look at the big picture. And they’re very easily tainted by wishful thinking. You think black people make trouble for everyone else. You think they’re more likely to make false accusations about others, and are more likely to commit crimes if given the opportunity. Furthermore, you’ve convinced yourself that there’s a conspiracy afoot to hide these facts from the general public. But you don’t have any evidence to support these claims. It’s just a vague impression you have. So the question is … what sort of benefit is having this vague impression providing to you? Does it make you feel good to think about how you’re a better person than they are? Does it make you feel like the inadequacies of your own life are the fault of other people who are acting maliciously? You’re getting something satisfying out of being this way. What is it? ---
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2013, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-mental-note-of-race-and-gender-in-crime-stories-do-you-what-have-you-noticed/652800/22 "2013-03-13T23:34:26Z")
> [@JamesQueue](#): > > Hard statistics are only one source of knowledge, and sometimes they are tainted by various factors (political correctness, for example.) In fact, I think maybe life experience is better way to understand the world. Huh. If we’re gonna see the world through my personal life experience, in the 80s the world was mainly populated by black people. It’s now populated overwhelmingly by white Irish people. I know the hard statistics say otherwise, but that’s probably just political correctness, right? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2013, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-mental-note-of-race-and-gender-in-crime-stories-do-you-what-have-you-noticed/652800/23 "2013-03-13T23:38:25Z")
> [@eclectic\_wench](#): > > Huh. If we’re gonna see the world through my personal life experience, in the 80s the world was mainly populated by black people. It’s now populated overwhelmingly by white Irish people. I know the hard statistics say otherwise, but that’s probably just political correctness, right? Not political correctness, _conspiracy_. The Irish obviously don’t want people to know until it’s too late that they are slowly replacing the rest of humanity with their army of cloned Irish. Sort of Pod-Irish. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2013, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-mental-note-of-race-and-gender-in-crime-stories-do-you-what-have-you-noticed/652800/24 "2013-03-13T23:43:35Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Not political correctness, _conspiracy_. The Irish obviously don’t want people to know until it’s too late that they are slowly replacing the rest of humanity with their army of cloned Irish. Sort of Pod-Irish. Do they celebrated St. Poddy’s Day? ---
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2013, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-mental-note-of-race-and-gender-in-crime-stories-do-you-what-have-you-noticed/652800/25 "2013-03-13T23:56:02Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Not political correctness, _conspiracy_. The Irish obviously don’t want people to know until it’s too late that they are slowly replacing the rest of humanity with their army of cloned Irish. Sort of Pod-Irish. Ah-HA! Suddenly the ban on contraception makes sense! > [@Miller](#): > > Do they celebrated St. Poddy’s Day? Am I allowed to tell a mod to go to his room? ---
**Author:** ![JamesQueue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/858c86/32.png) [@JamesQueue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JamesQueue)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2013, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-mental-note-of-race-and-gender-in-crime-stories-do-you-what-have-you-noticed/652800/26 "2013-03-14T02:45:29Z")
Most recently there was a cheating scandal involving an entire school district (Atlanta, I believe) teachers, principals, school administrators were all involved. It’s an African-American district, I believe. Basically, a lot of African-Americans educators from the top to the bottom were involved. It’s quite scandalous. Here: [Systematic Cheating Is Found in Atlanta’s School System - The New York Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/education/06atlanta.html?_r=0) ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2013, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-mental-note-of-race-and-gender-in-crime-stories-do-you-what-have-you-noticed/652800/27 "2013-03-14T04:37:39Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Do they celebrated St. Poddy’s Day? 😃 _\_ ---
**Author:** ![Silophant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2013, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-mental-note-of-race-and-gender-in-crime-stories-do-you-what-have-you-noticed/652800/28 "2013-03-14T06:45:53Z")
> [@JamesQueue](#): > > Most recently there was a cheating scandal involving an entire school district (Atlanta, I believe) teachers, principals, school administrators were all involved. It’s an African-American district, I believe. Basically, a lot of African-Americans educators from the top to the bottom were involved. It’s quite scandalous. > > Here: [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/education/06atlanta.html?\_r=0](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/education/06atlanta.html?_r=0) Yep, that’s something that happened. And, if you were to find out about a district-wide cheating scandal in outstate Minnesota, it’d be white educators from top to bottom. And, as a scandal, it’d be scandalous. You betcha. ---
**Author:** ![Silophant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2013, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-mental-note-of-race-and-gender-in-crime-stories-do-you-what-have-you-noticed/652800/29 "2013-03-14T06:53:59Z")
Missed the edit window, but I looked at the article again, and saw that race isn’t mentioned in it. Not even once. What are you basing your “African-American district” belief on? Your “life experience” that black people are criminals? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2013, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-mental-note-of-race-and-gender-in-crime-stories-do-you-what-have-you-noticed/652800/30 "2013-03-14T06:59:40Z")
> [@Silophant](#): > > Missed the edit window, but I looked at the article again, and saw that race isn’t mentioned in it. Not even once. What are you basing your “African-American district” belief on? Your “life experience” that black people are criminals? What? Did you miss the part where the mayor of Atlanta called this “a dark day for the Atlanta public school system.” You just have to learn to read between the lines. Then you’ll be able to see what you want to see. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-make-mental-note-of-race-and-gender-in-crime-stories-do-you-what-have-you-noticed/652800.md?page=1)