Here in Dallas we have had a string of seemingly random shootings on our highways. A man in a dark colored compact car just started shooting folks while driving. He actually shot at a woman yesterday on a road I was driving on at the time of the shooting. Per the news there have been six victims since Sunday. They finally apprehended the perpetrator of the vehicle. His name is Thai-An Huu Nguyen. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the name. Why? Because I knew he wasn't black.
Often times when we see the news, it is death, crime, and anything and everything that can scare the hell out of you. That is how they get ratings. Part of this is perpetuating stereotypes and spinning stories to create a nice formulaic story to get those great ratings. Many times we see crime, we see black people. We see victims, we see white people. In my mind I knew the perpetrator of this crime was not a black man, they would have given out his description as such, instead they gave out a vague description of a man driving a dark colored compact car, race wasn't mentioned.
Am I wrong to feel relief that this story can't reinforce racist stereotypes? That this man wasn't the usual statistic we associate with black men? Does this make me a racist for feeling this way?
In another bit of local news, Patrick Waller is now the 19th person wrongly convicted in Dallas county for a crime he didn't commit. He has spent 15 years in prison. The men who actually committed the crime will not spend a day in prison because the statute of limitations has run out.
10 comments:
Want to know what's interesting? I'm a white female who lives in the northern suburbs of Dallas. As I was following the reports of the shootings, I was envisioning the shooter as a white male. Never even thought he might be black, and I was really shocked to see Nguyen's name and picture. Does that make me racist or not?
Isn't it odd that there is a criminal out there shooting at people and the biggest question on people's minds is, what race he is.
In a progressive society the questions would revolve around gun contol and quality mental health care.
On the other hand, Asians are beginning to get representation albeit undesired.
Am I wrong to feel relief that this story can't reinforce racist stereotypes?
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No you are not wrong. A famous nigerian comedian said in one of her jokes that when they were looking for suspects who helped with the london bombing, all the blacks said "Ah he is definately not black!", then as soon as they found out one of them was black the africans said "Ah he is not african" turned out the terrorist was jamaicain. Which is random enough as it is but the fact that black people felt a sigh of relief because because they thought that the limelight had finally been lifted off blacks shows how much stereotypes continue to influence our lives.
they should have noted his race along with everything else (like you said--the description of him was really vague), then i would have been more akin to feel that this wasn't stereotypical! because it has me feeling like we always get "pointed out" while other races don't when comitting crimes. what part of the game is that?!
...it's left up to the imagination to "figure out" which race he was...and i'm sure alot of folk STILL assumed he was black, and got a huge surprise when they found out he wasn't (which in it's own way still reinforces stereotypes--so "surprised" that an asian man did it, so "relieved" that a black person didn't)...it's really a shame sid.
and yanno what they say sid...d*mned if ya do, and d*mned if ya don't!
I always cover my face n hang my head in shame if an offender is black. I'm always thinking "dang, why give peeps more crap to say about blacks?"
I'm always relieved if it aint a BP. I dont know if I am wron for that or not but that's how I feel.
There's no way in hell that this guy is black. I mean besides the DC snipper, how many times do you hear about a black man shooting at random people, almost never, that's just a stupid crime. I don't condone crime, even though I've broken the law a couple of times in my young and stupid days, but one thing I know, most bm who do commit crimes don't commit stupid, pointless crimes. I remember this teacher I had back in highschool, she was hillarious, I will never forget what she said in class one time discussing the DC snipper guy. She was like, "what the hell, I was shocked when I heard it was black man, black people don't commit theses types of crimes, I would have sworn he was white, white people do these types of crime."
Look I'm not trying to stereotype here, but I the reason most bm do commit crime is because of money, this seems like a crime out of boredom or just crazyness.
JDR
Anon:
Stuff that makes us think LOL
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Grata:
It is odd and sad, but it shows how important race is in America.
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Which is random enough as it is but the fact that black people felt a sigh of relief because because they thought that the limelight had finally been lifted off blacks shows how much stereotypes continue to influence our lives.
Agree
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There's no way in hell that this guy is black. I mean besides the DC snipper, how many times do you hear about a black man shooting at random people, almost never, that's just a stupid crime.
JDR:
The DC sniper set precedent. Because of him now we are scared of cars and guns LOL
I generally assume serial killers are white. Actually they just arrested someone in our area who had gone on a killer spree in Iowa/Missouri/Illinois. It was a white male. I do feel relieved when murderers and rapist are not black males.
No, you are not wrong. I am guilty of doing the same thing when I watch the news. Praying the silent please don't let it be one of us prayers. I think I do it more now that I live in a predominantly white state.
No more wrong than the rest of us
But the sad thing is, most of the time its the bad things that are remembered
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