Spin Off: Hate Crimes, etc.

Hate Crimes. I can see this being a very turbulent topic.

Affirmative Action a fancy name for discrimination. To be something like politically correct, or perhaps 'updated'...Reverse discrimination.

Hate Crimes legislation. A seemingly unfair bill that deems it more horrendous to assault someone based on race, faith, or sexual orientation.

Racial Profiling, an unfair practice that allows law enforcement to make judgment calls based solely on race. Not every non-caucasian is a criminal. Not every caucasian is an upstanding citizen. That statement in itself renders racial profiling as inaccurate. And I don't care what any statistics say, does that make it ok for law enforcement to target people based on the color of their skin? Or their last name?

Now any bill or law put into effect with race as a qualifier is "Suspect Classification". Under that rule of thumb, both these bills are therefore, suspect. (or are they part of the same bill? I think not, Affirmative Action, I believe was instituted before the Hate Crimes Legislation surfaced) Profiling as well.
Just as suspect as segregation, lack of rights for women, and further back, slavery.

Yet, the growing number of these 'hate crimes' certainly propelled the bill's incorporation. Anyone out to 'hang me a nigger' should be given a dose of their own medicine. Just like anyone out to 'roll some bum' , 'knock over an ol' lady for her social security check', or 'beat me up a faggot' or rob a bank. Hate crimes could even be treated as 'terrorism'. There's not much difference, aside maybe from the fact that hate crimes rarelly leave as spectacular a body count.

As I said in the other thread, from which this is the spin-off; it's no worse to beat someone because of the color of their skin, than it is to beat up someone for a pocket full of spare change. Both are heinous, neither should happen. But, hate crimes, in the simplist sense are a problem that need to be dealt with. How should they be dealt with, in a manner that is fair to both perp and victim?

 

Discrimination is discrimination- it does not solely apply to a single race/ethnic group/relgious group etc.

I dissagree with you on racial profiling. They should at least be doing some profiling, otherwise they will waste resources. When I was at the airport, I watched them wand down and 80 year old WASPy white grandma. Do you honestly think that she would do anything? It is a waste of time, energy, and resources to wand down people that are harmless. They should use common sense, at least.

 

See, that doesn't make any sense to me. How can anyone say 'discrimination is discrimination' et al, then say that racial profiling is ok? After all, discrimination is discrimination.

Just because a white-haired granny is a white-haired granny, doesn't mean she couldn't possibly be doing anything wrong. Granted, it is highly unlikely, but she could be smuggling bombs or dope to Timothy McVeigh just BECAUSE she's an 80 year old granny, and no one will give her a second look. If I were a crime lord, that's a tack I could see using. I'd hire old people to supplement their dwindling fixed income to transport my stuff. (remember, I'm a crime lord, nothing is sacred) Because, A: They're not likely to attract much attention. B: They'll either forget any details of me because they're so old, or be dead before the cops catch on.
And if they squeal, well they're old, easy enough to make them die 'of natural causes'.

Ok, I'm not a crime lord anymore. I'm me, just me. Joe Average white male. I have long hair. I don't own any guns. I read a lot. I read books that could be deviant, because I don't believe in limiting the intellect to one particular line of thought. Because I have long hair and maybe a big mouth, I get pulled and searched. Among my possessions is found, ohhh...The Poor Man's James Bond. Bam, I'm now suspect, held for questioning, and just as peeved as that white-haired granny. Except under the Patriot Act, I can now be classified as a terrorist, and held indefinately.

My Name is Ahmed Fahwad, I'm a Muslim, I'm coming to America to escape the violence of the Middle East. I'm a man of peace. I believe that any violence against any other human being is wrong. I go through the checkpoint, and I get pulled because I'm wearing a kaftan and one of those funky hats. My name is Arabic, and I happen to have a copy of the Muslim Scripture (whose name eludes me at the moment) I can be classified as a terrorist and held indefinately.

Now I'm a clean-cut looking, white, business man in a pinstripe suit. My shoes are made of explosives, and I've got a bomb hidden in my ass. In the suitcase I checked, there's a stripped apart sniper rifle, with which I'm about to assassinate some rich Jew, because, like the rest of the ignorant masses, I blame someone else for my problems. I walk right through the checkpoint, because I'm white, and important-looking, and security's busy hassling the other me, and Ahmed. I am a terrorist, and can be held indefinately. But, because of my conservative appearance, and lack of 'deviant' literature, I'm nodding and smiling my way to my hit.

Discrimination is Discrimination.

 

Tair Nean, like I said in another post, the vast majority of names on the FBI's watch list are not Joe, Tom, Dick and Harry. They are Mohammad, Ahmed, Ibn, ...... You get the picture.

No, I don't think that people should be searched just because they are Arabs. Suspicious activity, but not just ethnicity. But searching old grannies is just stupid, a waste of time, and is seen through very easily as just a political throw-off to claims of racial profiling.

So, what to do? Your average white male is not very high up on the Watch List. Your Arabic men are. So, how do you go about making airports, etc. safe, while worrying about offending someone? Standing aside, and searching only whites, or only Arabs, or an equal amount of either is stupid, and defeats the purpose. Some things I think politics need to be left out of.
Also, I don't think racism is good, or just. What we did to the Japanese immigrating to this country during WWII was disgraceful. I seriously seriously doubt that that kind of thing is happening now to Arabs, or will in the near future.

But the thing is, it is people of Arabic origin who are most intent on harm to our country...

Ah, hell. This seems to be one of those topics to which there really is no good answer. But, I would rather risk offending an Arab than risk a bomb going off on a flight, or another suicidial hijacking.

 

What I mean is that people say that AA is "reverse discrimination" but that doesn't make any sense. If I said, "Mary wasn't accepted at this college, she was discriminated against," most people would think that she was a minority, but it doesn't just apply to them. Sorry if I didn't make myself clear.

 

Affirmative action is reverse racism. Let's say that you and a black person both have the same GPA and SAT scores. You have both worked hard for the grades you received. The black kid gets accepted to a college that does not accept you because they want to have a diverse campus. Would you feel discriminated against, I sure as hell would.

 

You don't think that offending an Arab will perpetuate terrorism? You think offending an Arab won't lead to more bombs going off, or suicide hijacking? You think unjust classification of Americans with profiling won't perpetuate civil unrest?

Where is the justice if Ahmed, the former man of peace over there, gets so disgusted with his treatment in the US that he decides maybe the radical Muslims weren't so wrong. So he forms his own litte group complete with suicide bombers, et al. Now that certainly doesn't make him justified in bombing civilians, but Ahmed's Martyrs are a product of society, and the US' callous and unjust treatment.

It's true there are no easy answers here, because, yes, the top names on the FBI watch list are Arab. Yes, it is *some* Arabs, at the moment, who wish to cause the most harm to the US and its citizens. But that still does not give ANYONE the right to judge a person(s) based on race, creed, or physical appearance.

That's very true. There is no 'reverse racism, or discrimination'. But the rest of my post still very much stands.
And this is where I part ways with the liberals, apparently. Mary didn't get into Anytown, USA's college. She's white, and got passed over because the college wanted to pad its numbers, and have more 'minority' students. How is that any better than passing Mary over, because she's black, yellow, Irish, female, or red?

(Ok..an aside here..how the heck do you get the "S0 and S0 wrote" without quoting the whole post? Do you have to manually type it?)

 

(You just hit the quote button and delete the parts you don't want.)

It isn't any better, or worse, in my opinion. It's the same as if you passed over Mary because she was black, yellow, Irish, female, or red.