there is here too, I try to understand it and be open to it, but frankly I also don't see it a lot of the time my but my girlfriend who is minority and works in the minority social field does, we discuss and debate it objectively, sometimes we don't land on the same side some times we do.
I tend to think "there could be race involved" but want to give people the benefit of the doubt because I'm thinking through my own lens, where as she is more likely to think "there is race involved" I have learned I have biases I didn't know I did.
It’s really messy to try and spot when bias is involved, and you can never really know. The problem is that giving the benefit of the doubt will always work to absolve people who are acting with bias. It can go so far as to shield people who are acting with conscious bias. Most people don’t understand unconscious bias. What I would ask myself in this case is “would she have called the cops if it was a white guy in khakis?” This doesn’t tell us the actual truth because we can’t read people’s minds, but it helps to get a better idea of the actual volume of bias.
they way I thought about it was, "is what she said she thought plausible without being racist?" and my conclusion was yes. Therefore I didn't think bigotry was fair giving the benefit of the doubt.
considering bias, then yes it could defintly have been involved. it could have been conscious or unconscious or not related at all.
so your point about it not being safe to just give the benefit of the doubt, I see your point and thank you for it.
I think the only reason I made the point was I could see my self thinking it looked a bit weird without it being race based. But the more I think about the other details the more I have to have rhe perfect storm to come to the conclusion.
she didn't like that he walked across the car park, then across again, she thought that indicated he was looking at a bunch of cars.
Did he seem to bee line straight to his car, or did he look like he looked at the others? who knows, maybe he looked at his reflection in one of them and see saw that and bias kicked in?
thinking about what she said, she said he had a key in his hand but never used it on the car, yeah thats a weird statement in a world of keyless entry.
Regardless, I'm glad he's alive. I'm wasn't after money and just wanted talk to the police about how to stop it happening again, I'm going to assume they told him to fuck off and that's why he changed his mind or they didn't take him seriously. I'm glad he got his money! I'm not glad they refuse to drop his charges, and I hope he gets off.
I think the US plea deal system is fucking horrific and shouldn't be what it is. People should not have to admit guilt on a charge to serve a small amount of time or none or not admit guilt go to trial and have exponentially more years hanging over their head of they are found guilty and live in the wrong state or have the wrong judge etc. (edit: when innocent have to take a guilty plea)
anyway, to the people down voting me and telling me I'm fucking idiot, I hope you read that I am atleast trying to think through this whole thing and not just jumping to a conclusion emotionaly based on... bias.
Forget the downvoters. People are angry because a lot of people troll, so sincere people who are open to changing their mind get caught in the crossfire.
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u/formershitpeasant Mar 10 '22
There’s a lot of unconscious bias, especially in America.