03-24-2012, 05:13 PM
Chakravartin wrote:
Take out "black male" and substitute the words "hippie, hipster, teenage boy, K-Mart Shopper, person with backpack, ginger, anyone who walks in this neighborhood..."
People are xenophobic.
"Not from around here" and "not like me" are convenient excuse for murder in many places... and sometimes legal excuses.
Both of these are true, but it's a mistake to overlook that violence based on race has a particular and peculiar place in our history and society. It's simply not true that over the course of American history, 'hippies, hipsters, teenage boys, K-Mart Shoppers, people with backpacks, or gingers' have been targeted in ways that begin to compare with racially-motivated violence.