I was randomly attacked by someone. Truly random. Physically attacked me and walked away. A friend asked what ethnicity they were. I said black. I was slightly offended by the question, as I've been raised not to profile anyone. But later I realized that of the random (unprovoked) run-ins I've had with theft and near-assults (half a dozen in 10 years) , they've always been black.
Me: I am white. Most of my friends are not white, a few black, and I have had long-term girlfriends that were black. I'm truly not racist. I get upset with any racist comments/questions.
Setting: I'm in a major U.S. city, in a downtown area, with mixture of many ethnicities. As with many big cities, a mixture of very high-end restaurants/shopping/living and much poorer/homeless surrounding area. I often steer clear of scary looking people of all ethnicities. I wouldn't be wary of a well-dressed, nicely groomed person of any ethnicity. The other run-ins I've had the people looked poorer, some obviously mentally ill, others not, but this person was fairly well dressed (urban wear, but new and a young, clean-cut person).
CMV: I don't want to be prejudice. But I feel with little other common traits, my brain is now searching for a common trait to be wary of. I don't want it to be skin color.
Please change my view. Thank you.
Update:
I walked the same streets again today (after taking some days off by driving and going over this situation over and over in my head). I realized:
- There were many black people that walked by me that incited zero fear. This was a relief that my brain hadn't been hardwired in some weird, racist setting.
- I walked past a crowd of black guys screaming at a cop, one shadow boxing in my general direction, then kicking a metal gate as I passed. While unsettling, it would have been equally so if they were white.
- Later, a white guy covered in some crusty substance walking toward me. This was concerning.
- A thuggish white guy was quickly walking toward me. This was concerning.
...welcome to the neighborhood. Gentrification can be a topic for another time.
I find myself settled that it was more the thugish/mental stability of the people that was most concerning. Color wasn't playing as big a role as I feared. I'd like to think I'd read an equally presentable black/white person the same way.
Thank you for the (literally) overwhelming number of comments. Will try to get to as many as possible.
How about socioeconomic status as a common trait? It would make sense to me that people who are poor are more inclined to be desperate. People who are desperate are more inclined to commit crimes. IF poor people are dis-proportionally black, then that might explain violent crimes being dis-proportionally committed by black people. I'm not saying this is the case, I'm just theorizing here. If this is the case, then it makes sense people thinking that black people commit more crimes because they are black...when in actuality it may just be because they are poor.
A poor black person and a poor white person, are equally as desperate and therefore equally as dangerous.
I'll take the thought process a bit further. If we can prove what I'm saying above, then we can do something about it. We can work on how to get people out of poverty. But if the stats show that black people do not commit more crime then white people, or we can't agree that poverty is the real issue, then we won't be follow that path as a solution.