# Racism: A bit too obvious?? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 1, 2012, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racism-a-bit-too-obvious/626905 "2012-07-01T15:07:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![L.mo5rg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f475e1/32.png) [@L.mo5rg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/L.mo5rg)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racism-a-bit-too-obvious/626905/1 "2012-07-01T15:07:25Z")
So me and my friends were going to this theme-park, and it was a speciall halowwen themed night. They had a “random” search at the door. I was the only non-white person among my friends and I got randomly searched, everyone else in the random search queue was non-white. My black friend also gets randomly stopped by the police every now-and-then and gets asked how he had money to pay for his car, and if he stole it. I’m under no illusion that there is no more racism, but shouldn’t it be more subtle nowadays? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racism-a-bit-too-obvious/626905/2 "2012-07-01T15:58:51Z")
Why should it be subtle? It will be denied if brought up, and nothing will be done even if proven. ---
**Author:** ![L.mo5rg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f475e1/32.png) [@L.mo5rg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/L.mo5rg)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racism-a-bit-too-obvious/626905/3 "2012-07-01T16:24:29Z")
Well because of all the negativity surrounding racism, I would’ve just thought people wouldn’t be as open about it. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racism-a-bit-too-obvious/626905/4 "2012-07-01T17:45:41Z")
People are idiots. And cops asking ANYone how they can afford their car? That’s…beyond retarded. Have your friend start carrying a little recorder with him to start up before the cop gets to the window. And let the cop KNOW s/he’s being recorded. ---
**Author:** ![L.mo5rg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f475e1/32.png) [@L.mo5rg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/L.mo5rg)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racism-a-bit-too-obvious/626905/5 "2012-07-01T17:53:05Z")
He’s not the only one, there was a show about it on the radio and apparently it’s quite common for black people to be stopped and asked questions like that. There’s some areas where it’s reported that you are 22x more likely to be stopped by the police if you’re black. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racism-a-bit-too-obvious/626905/6 "2012-07-01T18:29:54Z")
> [@L.mo5rg](#): > > So me and my friends were going to this theme-park, and it was a speciall halowwen themed night. They had a “random” search at the door. I was the only non-white person among my friends and I got randomly searched, everyone else in the random search queue was non-white. My black friend also gets randomly stopped by the police every now-and-then and gets asked how he had money to pay for his car, and if he stole it. I’m under no illusion that there is no more racism, but shouldn’t it be more subtle nowadays? I’m having a hard time believing this, especially from someone who just signed up here. Sorry, and its not because you are a non-white. The scenario is just too damn obviously racist as you suggest. Racists require some degree of deniability in order to preserve their racism. What were they searching for ? Did any non-whites and/or blacks pass through without search ? What city did this occur in ? ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racism-a-bit-too-obvious/626905/7 "2012-07-01T18:36:53Z")
Here’s a related question - why don’t your white friends question things like that when it happened? Someone sent me [this video](http://youtu.be/Wf9QBnPK6Yg) recently about how white people can use the white privilege that we have just by being born white to step up in situations that occur. I don’t know that it would be appropriate in all situations - but I suspect techniques like this could be used much more than they are to educate. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racism-a-bit-too-obvious/626905/8 "2012-07-01T18:49:31Z")
> [@L.mo5rg](#): > > There’s some areas where it’s reported that you are 22x more likely to be stopped by the police if you’re black. 22x, eh? I once read where Laotians are 16.318x more likely to buy 50 pound bags of rice than people of Finnish descent are… ---
**Author:** ![L.mo5rg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f475e1/32.png) [@L.mo5rg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/L.mo5rg)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racism-a-bit-too-obvious/626905/9 "2012-07-01T18:50:44Z")
> [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](#): > > I’m having a hard time believing this, especially from someone who just signed up here. Sorry, and its not because you are a non-white. The scenario is just too damn obviously racist as you suggest. Racists require some degree of deniability in order to preserve their racism. What were they searching for ? > > Did any non-whites and/or blacks pass through without search ? > > What city did this occur in ? Not sure what they were searching for, it was just that handheld scanner thing, emptying your pockets and checking your bags. Yeah some non-whites were searched but no whites passed through the search. It was Thorpe park in chertsey, uk. It’s not a permanent thing they were only doing it during the Halloween nights. > [@Lsura](#): > > Here’s a related question - why don’t your white friends question things like that when it happened? Someone sent me [this video](http://youtu.be/Wf9QBnPK6Yg) recently about how white people can use the white privilege that we have just by being born white to step up in situations that occur. I don’t know that it would be appropriate in all situations - but I suspect techniques like this could be used much more than they are to educate. They did question it, just the same way I did, in the end we all just said its harmless racism as long as no one is getting hurt. ---
**Author:** ![L.mo5rg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f475e1/32.png) [@L.mo5rg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/L.mo5rg)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racism-a-bit-too-obvious/626905/10 "2012-07-01T18:57:10Z")
[http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2011/08/uk-riots-2011-uprising-losers-chancers/](http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2011/08/uk-riots-2011-uprising-losers-chancers/) > [@](#): > > After all, black people are 26 times more likely to be stopped and searched by police than their white counterparts. Not sure of it’s authenticity but if I find a more reliable figure I’ll post it. The figure gets thrown about quite a bit though. ---
**Author:** ![L.mo5rg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f475e1/32.png) [@L.mo5rg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/L.mo5rg)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racism-a-bit-too-obvious/626905/11 "2012-07-01T19:06:05Z")
This article gives the same figure, I think the guardian is pretty trustworthy. > **[Black people are 26 times more likely than whites to face stop and search](https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/oct/17/stop-and-search-race-figures)** > > Analysis of government data shows shocking discrepancy in stop and search figures for England and Wales > [@](#): > > The figures coincide with plans to weaken the way stop-and-searches are recorded by police forces. Draft Home Office documents, seen by the Observer, reveal that future recording will be so heavily weakened that repeat stops of the same person will no longer be recorded. They also open the way for officers to search someone under Section 60 on the basis of ethnicity. Although Home Office guidance states care must be taken not to discriminate against ethnic minority groups, it says there are times when officers should “take account of an individual’s ethnic origin in selecting persons and vehicles to be stopped”. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racism-a-bit-too-obvious/626905/12 "2012-07-01T20:41:06Z")
> [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](#): > > I’m having a hard time believing this, especially from someone who just signed up here. Sorry, and its not because you are a non-white. The scenario is just too damn obviously racist as you suggest. Racists require some degree of deniability in order to preserve their racism. What were they searching for ? > > Did any non-whites and/or blacks pass through without search ? > > What city did this occur in ? I’ll agree there. Racism is real and while I don’t like to think of myself as a victim, I’ve experienced it, but I’ve never seen it practiced that blatantly. At least not in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racism-a-bit-too-obvious/626905/13 "2012-07-01T22:27:59Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > I’ll agree there. > > Racism is real and while I don’t like to think of myself as a victim, I’ve experienced it, but I’ve never seen it practiced that blatantly. At least not in the US. I was going into an Oasis concert in the mid 1990s in Kansas City Kansas (not the nicest neighborhood) and EVERYONE was getting frisked as they entered the venue. My date and I were the only brown (South Asian) people around, that I could see. The white friends who were with us were frisked all right. Then they looked at us and said, you can go through. Various theories were advanced in our group for why this might have happened. My date and I were better (more formally) dressed than almost anyone around, and we were probably among the older folks in the audience. It was funny how they wouldn’t go to an obvious cause. Racial profiling. Indians don’t carry concealed weapons or drugs into concerts. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racism-a-bit-too-obvious/626905/14 "2012-07-01T22:41:52Z")
Since you don’t know why they were searching, I will just point out that it’s remotely possible that they had a call looking for, say, a robbery suspect described by the victim as “a dark skinned” person. I mean, yeah, it’s a pretty remote possibility, given race relations today, but it’s _possible_. ---
**Author:** ![L.mo5rg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f475e1/32.png) [@L.mo5rg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/L.mo5rg)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2012, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racism-a-bit-too-obvious/626905/15 "2012-07-01T22:46:42Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Since you don’t know why they were searching, I will just point out that it’s remotely possible that they had a call looking for, say, a robbery suspect described by the victim as “a dark skinned” person. > > I mean, yeah, it’s a pretty remote possibility, given race relations today, but it’s _possible_. Well they always do the random search during fright night. I mean it’s possible that it was just chance and 10 minutes after I had gone every person in the random search was white. But the figure that black people are 26 times more likely to be stopped and searched and Asian 6 times more likely points that it’s something more. ---
**Author:** ![followrivers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ee59a6/32.png) [@followrivers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/followrivers)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2012, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racism-a-bit-too-obvious/626905/16 "2012-07-03T01:17:14Z")
I’m a bit shocked that some people don’t think blatant racism like this happens in the US or rather don’t believe it happens frequently. I worked at a museum in NYC and had a woman remark that she wasn’t “surprised the performance is running late because they run on a different time schedule than we do.” They being Asians and Black people, she was dead serious. Maybe that museum was just the portal to hell because things like that happened often so to me it seems like it happens all the time. Plus NYC is a mess in that regards anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2012, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racism-a-bit-too-obvious/626905/17 "2012-07-03T03:28:59Z")
> [@Lsura](#): > > Here’s a related question - why don’t your white friends question things like that when it happened? Someone sent me [this video](http://youtu.be/Wf9QBnPK6Yg) recently about how white people can use the white privilege that we have just by being born white to step up in situations that occur. I don’t know that it would be appropriate in all situations - but I suspect techniques like this could be used much more than they are to educate. **Lsura** , thank you for that link–it’s awesome, and it’s a great antidote to a [rather stilted and wholly unpersuasive video about white privilege making the rounds in GD](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=656068). Gonna go post it there now. ---
**Author:** ![New\_Deal\_Democrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9d8465/32.png) [@New\_Deal\_Democrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/New_Deal_Democrat)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2012, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racism-a-bit-too-obvious/626905/18 "2012-07-03T03:31:26Z")
Because blacks have a much higher crime rate than whites race profiling is an appropriate method of deterring criminals. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2012, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racism-a-bit-too-obvious/626905/19 "2012-07-03T03:36:44Z")
> [@New\_Deal\_Democrat](#): > > Because blacks have a much higher crime rate than whites race profiling is an appropriate method of deterring criminals. [Relevant pit thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=657257)–I hope folks will read that OP before responding to NDD here. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2012, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racism-a-bit-too-obvious/626905/20 "2012-07-03T03:40:35Z")
Welcome to the SDMB, **L.mo5rg**. This topic is a better fit for our Great Debates forum, so I’ll move it there for you. **twickster** , MPSIMS moderator [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/racism-a-bit-too-obvious/626905.md?page=2)