re race and violence in apr gtx com al gtx com alan filipski writes even though this city phoenix has a relatively small black population black people seem to be responsible for a disproportionate amount of violent crime yesterday black men robbed a cafeteria beat the employees for no apparent reason and shot one dead even though they were being cooperative a few days ago a car full of black men opened fire on a car containing a young white couple and their baby possibly because they didn t like the way the man was driving the baby was slightly injured these incidents are not even unusual even if a white person starts out without racial prejudice as after all we all do and no one teaches them to be prejudiced it s sometimes hard to see how they can avoid becoming so based on their own observations and instinct for self preservation we always taught our children that racial prejudice is wrong not only bad but also mistaken but how do you counteract the effect of these kinds of incidents what s the answer how can we work against racial prejudice when incidents like this keep fanning the flames what can we say to deny that racial prejudice is a rational response to our environment is it should we since the s i have thought the only hope is through integration based on ignoring race and treating each person as an individual but so many either preach divisiveness by emphasizing race or validate racism by their actions where does it lead alan filipski gtx corp e camelback road phoenix az usa internet al gtx com uucp uunet gtx al phone alan you can start by teaching your children that the perpetrators of crimes no more represent the black community than racist hateful whites represent the majority culture although there are many ethnic minorities who have fallen into the very trap that you are struggling with and believe otherwise the trap is the easy way out for yourself i think it would be a good idea to realize that the demographics related to the crimes you speak of have less to do with race and much to do with socioeconomic status and disenfranchisement you re going to find higher crime within any community comprised of any ethnic group or subgroup that has become dysfunctional whatever the factors leading to that dysfunction with ethnic minorities it is more usually than not as i said socioeconomic disenfranchisement if for example you lived in an area where there were very few blacks but quite a few poor for generations whites you d see the crime statistics reflecting the dysfunction of those white people would you then worry about whther your children would begin to see whites as undesireable or whatever the trap springs into action when our innate compunction to define us and other raises its little voice the trap becomes dangerous when we stop to listen to that little voice and stop thinking like rational humans it s interesting that blacks are traditionally seen as the or the most criminal element in many of our urban areas i don t know the racial makeup of phoenix so i can t speak to your situation however i live in san francisco a city that loves to tout its ethnic diversity here we have black gangs hispanic gangs asian yes the model minority gangs and even a few white gangs the asian gangs have become a particularly troublesome element for law enforcement here mainly due i think to their propensity for engaging in organized criminal activities but ask people on the street and they ll out of times tell you that black gangs and crime are what they most fear during the disturbance in los angeles last year many of the rioters and looters were not black some were even white i remember being amazed at television news scenes that showed looting mobs where there were maybe one or two blacks at most my perceptions gleaned from tv news were further corroborated by numerous friends and relatives that live in los angeles this may have been the country s first truly multi ethnic riot yet i know from face to face and online discussion that in the minds of america the popular perception is that it was a black riot in closing i d like to say that you raise some interesting points that really need discussion our country has spent too long ignoring the racism and its attendant ills that is very much a part of our culture as a people we are afraid to face up to some hurtful truths and the problem becomes compounded daily we cannot afford to do it much longer i truly believe that the well being of all of us depends on changing our current course of denial and repression i wish you and your children and all other people of all colors luck in avoiding the trap peace my brother m hokh ton the crystal wind is the storm mdouglas netcom com and the storm is data michael douglas llyr and the data is life player s litany the long run
