"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
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
