The truth about racial profiling!

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

But you suggested that it was causal...

[GabiandVi 34]

Unfortunately there are not too many people dressed like inner-city thugs in Europe now is there.

Actually, this aspect of culture has made it world wide. It seems that dominant culture is often the lowest common denominator. Perhaps this is a fad that has come and gone in Europe. I haven't been back to Europe in about 8 years. But my Australian, Kiwi, and British students in China just a couple of years ago were just as much into this culture as middle class kids here are. You see it everywhere here and I did there as well.

However, I take your point. My first teaching job was in a rural area that had all the same problems as an inner-city school. After several years, I moved to a school in another district. The school had the worst reputation in that district, but that district was affluent and the majority of the population were professionals. Not the parents of our students, but their neighbors. About a month or two into the year, we had an all-school assembly featuring Up With People.

If you aren't familiar with this group, they are very entertaining, but they are very middle-class America and a bit touchy feely. They promote middle class values and clean living very blatantly, with NO apologies. I cringed waiting for them to come on. After years in my old school, I expected the kids in this new school to make a joke of the whole thing. I expected it to be a disaster and to feel my ire raise. NO QUESTION if Up With People had made an appearance at my first school, they would never come back and the students would have rioted feeling insulted and disgusted with such a corny display. I had seen similar-type disasters while teaching there.

The performance was a great success. It was then that I realized how much I had been beaten down by the behaviors of my students in my first school, whom I ultimately learned to love, though I had to leave because I couldn't stand in my inexperience to watch my favorite students end up in jail for murder, six feet under because they were murdered, pregnant with their third child by yet another boy, etc. (All of those things happened.)

The point is that many of my students in my new school listened to the same sort of music my old students had listened to, and they dressed the same and had the same values, but they were not the predominant culture. So when Up With People came on dancing to pop music, pretty much ALL students accepted it, whether it was what they usually were exposed to or not.

That really opened my eyes to a lot of things.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ppomv0wHNQ

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT4pzkC4dqg&feature=player_embedded#!

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qlureu8RRb4&feature=player_embedded#!

[evli1966 88]

Completely agree with the bolded. This is not "profiling" or prejudging people based on a generalization related to their race, religion, physical appearance, etc. It's no different from saying, "The tall guy left his umbrella."

Furthermore, there is nothing wrong with recognizing differences between cultures. In fact, when people say "We are all the same," as some sort of reminder to not differentiate, they are revealing a sort of hidden prejudice that anything different is not as good.

However, we are all guilty of prejudging groups of people based on some criteria or another. Some of those criteria are actually politically correct in some circles. Others definitely are not. I'm not defending those who prejudge against politically correct groups. But I think before we throw self-righteous stones, we have to be honest with ourselves. That doesn't mean you don't address the racism or ageism, etc. You do. You should. You must!

What bothers me is when I hear or read vitriole about this instance and then in another instance I read or hear some sort of "politically correct" bigotry from the same person.

I was wondering if this is in reference to anything I may have posted. Sorry if I am wrong.

To be clear I am against intentional Racial Profiling and quite often as stated 2nd guess myself when speaking.

I am also strongly against someone who claims Racial Profiling when it meets their own Political Correctness. I use the AZ law SB1070 as an example I feel as the majority of USC do that the law is appropriate with removed context that allowed Racial Profiling.

People still scream Racial Profiling where none exist just to make a law go away.

As I stated me and my fiance (fillipina) {is quite brown to dark brown with a heavy accent} contiunally discuss this and possible ramifications of having to carry her papers or show those papers on request. Her response is why wouldn't anyone be willing to show they are there legally.