"They
Did A Psychological Study Of Police Officers. What They Found
Makes Me Sick With Worry." Upworthy
The above is the title on
Upworthy, not my title. I try not
to get sick with worry.
Please double check me, but I would say that this says that officers
of at least one police department have a strong tendency toward a
knee-jerk reaction of being more suspicious on sight of black males
from a very young age and up than they are suspicious of white and
Latino males of similar ages on sight.
I have the same reaction, and I have never even been a cop. Let me
make no attempt to justify that for you.
I recognize that that automatically increased suspicion and feeling
of threat for no particular reason other than skin color is bad for
black people. I am overall sympathetic to their plight regardless
of the risk that I might be part of the problem if I encountered
many black people--which I do not. My purpose in writing this to
you is to encourage you to be more sympathetic to their plight
overall even if you are part of the problem. Otherwise I have no
solution to offer.
I am not inclined to talk much on racism except maybe in talking
about Israel and the Ukraine. :-7 Racism is a huge problem in America. I do read,
and I know that. For large numbers of black people in America
conditions have gone back from a high from World War II and through
the Sixties back down to more like what they were before and during
the Civil War.
*(reference link)
Younger black males no longer have the real possibilities of getting
work or going to college in the percentages that they did in those
intermediate years.
Too, the public schools in most of the major American cities have
gone to the dogs, at least partly due to the influence of private
corporations working both nationally and locally to make a profit
without providing good service. I really do not know whether or not
that is more a cause or more an effect of other economic changes our
country has been going through. I suspect it's more an effect.
My personal priorities for my time seem to be on other things
besides working against racism in America myself. I do have a
student who is trying to get an Associates degree with her English,
a black female in her fifties who is in a city in the poor
neighborhood in the same house where she grew up, in another state.
An old friend who lives there introduced to me on the phone a few
years back. We have had phone conversations occasionally and this
English teaching thing evolved from that--her idea certainly, not
mine. I can do it easily without inconveniencing myself much. I am
not sure that helps black males any at all. As a female she does
have a job in a factory.
I'd like to draw your attention to
this
great Wikipedia page about empathy. It is a complicated and
multifaceted topic, really. One thing I noticed in the
Major
theories and empirical findings section was: ".....Others have
posited that taking on the perspectives of others (cognitive
empathy) allows these individuals to better empathize with victims
without as much discomfort,
whereas sharing the emotions of the
victims (emotional empathy) can cause emotional distress,
helplessness, victim-blaming, and ultimately to avoidance rather
than helping......"
[emphasis added-LS].
I am not aware of how that might relate to you or what one can
do about it if it seems to be a problem, except that I do think it
might be reasonably possible just to KEEP ONE'S MOUTH SHUT when it
comes to the victim-blaming, most especially when one is ignorant of
most of the true facts. In other words, in the event that you
yourself do not have the time, energy, and/or resources to help, you
can still refrain from adding directly to the problem by spreading
lies. There are lots of other things we can talk about and maybe
even do some good in one way or another way.
love,
Larry
