Comment Re:The Stupid Criminal Fallacy (Score 1) 682
I believe our common association with the words "thief" and "criminal" are incorrect and biased. We would usually think of the guy that is drunk, half naked, missing most of his teeth and running from the police on an episode of Cops...
To the contrary, thieves are everywhere and come from every walk of life... just because someone is stealing wi-fi internet access, pirating software or taking a cigarette from his mom's purse instead of stuffing malt liquor down their pants or taking money from a cash register, does this make them not a thief?
The guys from Enron wore suits! They also weren't harrased, stalked by security, or even arrested in an inconvenient way. If someone in a hoodie was burglarizing homes, and the police let them turn themselves in with out actively pursuing them, there would be public outcry. And that would be over a piece of jewelry or a couple hundred dollars and a DVD player, not millions of dollars and entire family's life savings.
Even OJ (yes, I'm going there) was allowed to maintain a slow seed pursuit for a ridiculous amount of time, when the police would have forcefully ended the pursuit of an average person much faster... this is all based on status, money, power and public perception.
What our society believes to be moral, normal and status quo has been set by less than 1% of the population without regard to what is actually normal or may even be moral in the first place. We spend our entire lives trying to be this "type" of person, look down towards the people who are not and persecute them for it. This happens through financial, environmental and sociological means backed up with marketing and constant reminders that certain people are better and certain people are worse.
Your example of your experience with your security guard, while not entirely black and white, illustrates this effectively.
I work at a shirt, tie and slack job, and dress very "comfortably" (very similar, hoodie, baggy pants, boots / cheap sneakers) when not working. I am a level III field service technician and travel constantly. I have found a very distinct difference in how I am treated, looked at and responded to just from changing my clothes. It is very disturbing to me and I feel it is demonstrating the decline of society. Walking in to a convenient store with a comic book character on my short, should not change how I am viewed by the clerk. Does this make me less of a person? Why does he assume I will not buy the store and fire him, just because I wear those clothes? If I was in a suit, why would he treat me like I WOULD buy the store and fire him? I could be homeless coming from a job interview with a suit from the thrift store!
The point is, you were profiled... it has been making people angry for years and it should. Why do they sell clothes like that if everyone who wears them is a suspect? Our society is being driven towards plain beige standard issue jumpsuits for everyone instead of trying to embrace our differences and individualities. We will continue to have declines in creativity, inventions and market edge if we are not taking advantage of all resources and all people. allowing certain "classes" of people to slip in to the void of non-social acceptance is unacceptable!
To the contrary, thieves are everywhere and come from every walk of life... just because someone is stealing wi-fi internet access, pirating software or taking a cigarette from his mom's purse instead of stuffing malt liquor down their pants or taking money from a cash register, does this make them not a thief?
The guys from Enron wore suits! They also weren't harrased, stalked by security, or even arrested in an inconvenient way. If someone in a hoodie was burglarizing homes, and the police let them turn themselves in with out actively pursuing them, there would be public outcry. And that would be over a piece of jewelry or a couple hundred dollars and a DVD player, not millions of dollars and entire family's life savings.
Even OJ (yes, I'm going there) was allowed to maintain a slow seed pursuit for a ridiculous amount of time, when the police would have forcefully ended the pursuit of an average person much faster... this is all based on status, money, power and public perception.
What our society believes to be moral, normal and status quo has been set by less than 1% of the population without regard to what is actually normal or may even be moral in the first place. We spend our entire lives trying to be this "type" of person, look down towards the people who are not and persecute them for it. This happens through financial, environmental and sociological means backed up with marketing and constant reminders that certain people are better and certain people are worse.
Your example of your experience with your security guard, while not entirely black and white, illustrates this effectively.
I work at a shirt, tie and slack job, and dress very "comfortably" (very similar, hoodie, baggy pants, boots / cheap sneakers) when not working. I am a level III field service technician and travel constantly. I have found a very distinct difference in how I am treated, looked at and responded to just from changing my clothes. It is very disturbing to me and I feel it is demonstrating the decline of society. Walking in to a convenient store with a comic book character on my short, should not change how I am viewed by the clerk. Does this make me less of a person? Why does he assume I will not buy the store and fire him, just because I wear those clothes? If I was in a suit, why would he treat me like I WOULD buy the store and fire him? I could be homeless coming from a job interview with a suit from the thrift store!
The point is, you were profiled... it has been making people angry for years and it should. Why do they sell clothes like that if everyone who wears them is a suspect? Our society is being driven towards plain beige standard issue jumpsuits for everyone instead of trying to embrace our differences and individualities. We will continue to have declines in creativity, inventions and market edge if we are not taking advantage of all resources and all people. allowing certain "classes" of people to slip in to the void of non-social acceptance is unacceptable!
