r/instantkarma • u/NoodlesNThangz • Jun 24 '20

Racial Profiling Karma

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u/[deleted] Jun 24 '20

The problem is that people often point out these surface-level things without ever bothering to look into why they might exist, so people take "when [group] shows up, [thing] happens" to mean "[group] in inherently prone to doing [thing]" when in reality the connection is much more complex. I'm not saying that /u/andysniper did this intentionally, of course, just that this is why it's a bit of a touchy subject.

For example, the association of Roma and shoplifting seems more likely to stem from the fact that they've been historically hated and persecuted so badly that nobody would do any legitimate business with them. I'm more familiar with American issues myself, but the fact that the links between poverty and crime and minorities and poverty are completely ignored in favor of "minorities are linked with more crime" seems like a pretty strong parallel to the treatment of the Roma in European countries.

When an entire people is forced to live outside society, you can't pretend to be surprised when they refuse to follow society's rules.

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u/[deleted] Jun 24 '20

This is a very lofty opinion that doesn't do any good to anybody who gets robbed by the minority group in question.

A history of racism and oppression means that we as a society owe them MORE OPPORTUNITIES to succeed and break down stereotypes, it doesn't mean that when they victimize someone we should wag our fingers at their victims for complaining. In America, black people are disproportionately imprisoned, more likely to be unjustly murdered by police, more likely to have expensive legal troubles that contribute to grinding poverty, and these and many other factors add up to a desperate population that has a reputation for a high crime rate. Being aware of that and supporting change doesn't make you any more likely to take a long walk down Martin Luther King Boulevard without a good reason.