gatopescado: *“If you don’t want to be confused with a thug, don’t look like one.”
there you go! its really just this simple.*
Again, the trouble seems to be that what really makes him “look like a thug” in the eyes of the police is not primarily that he’s wearing a puffy coat, but that he’s black. I completely agree with Biggirl that nobody should have to change their style of dress just to make up for other people’s negative perceptions of their race.
And, for the record, a wool cap, baggy jeans and nikes are not “thug gear”. Or it isn’t thug gear when my boss wears them. It wasn’t thug gear when my son was 12 and only 4’9".
There doesn’t seem to be any remedy for this ingrained racial bullshit. It pisses me off.
FWIW, from your description, I just immediately thought-your average sloppily dressed teenager.
But yeah, that does suck.
:mad:
It’s sad and funny - when my lily-white-uncomfortable with-new-places-live-in-a-rural-area-with-no-people-of-color parents came to visit me in D.C. and in Chicago, they were uncomfortable because my neighborhood seemed to have a lot of “gang kids” in it. Both neighborhoods were very racially and ethnically diverse, and in both, I lived 2-3 blocks from a high school.
I didn’t understand what they meant by “gang kids” - since all the kids pretty much dressed the same. They were just high school kids to me. They thought the kids looked “shady.” I had to laugh, and explain that a) no, they look shady to YOU, because the only people you see dressed like that are the skells on Law & Order and b) the ones who actually ARE shady or in a gang have better things to do than terrorizing a bunch of white people in a minivan with Massachusetts plates.
I say that I understand your fear and anger, Biggirl, because my family isn’t in the same kind of danger that your kids are in, in a city where cops shoot and kill young black men and then the Mayor smears their reputation after their deaths. I’m sorry that you have to be afraid for your son.
[sub]Can’t wait to meet your S.O. and kids in January, when I’ll be a resident of Brooklyn. I hear your kids are articulate smartasses, the very best kind of kid. :)[/sub]
that should be “I CAN’T say that I understand…”
D’oh.
Hmmm…I guess I’m coming from a SoCal mentality, where the Asian and Hispanic and white (not as many blacks in the area) gangbangers all wear roughly the same thing, khakis with the white t-shirt and, when it’s chilly, a flannel. So I’ve sort of come to associate potential harm to my body based on what people are wearing, not the color of their skin. Yeah, yeah, very egalitarian of me, I know. Anyway, I sort of assumed the situation was similar up in NYC, but I guess not.
You know, I almost want to apply to be your stalker. You have good material.