This is a comment by Thaddeus on the post “That Seat Is Not Taken: Why Black Men Love Southwest Airlines“.
Is this really news to anyone? Oh wait, it is if you are not a Black man. I have experienced this phenomenon my entire life. Whenever I ride any form of mass transit, the seat next to me will remain open unless the person is more infirm or potentially more threatening than I appear to be. On airplanes, unless seating is assigned, the seat next to me remains open. I have even tested the idea of walking down the street and not deviating from my flight plan. People walk around me and anyone I am walking with, even if I walk against the flow of traffic. This subtle act of fear, built around racism regarding Black Men, has turn me from being 5 feet 9 inches of a highly educated, well spoken, unassuming, non-threatening, well-dressed Black Man into the Most Dangerous Man Alive. It would amuse me if it wasn’t such a sad statement about our society. This trick works no matter where I lived in the country. This is such an isolating condition. Imagine what the workplace is like when this “untouchable” state is active. Corporate work is hell when you are an “untouchable.” (And before someone rants and tells me about the castes of untouchables in other cultures, I know they exist and that is why I mentioned it.)
Photo credit: Flickr / Robert S. Donovan
Now in light of our recent tragedy of Trayvon Martin, anyone willing to look at me, yes, I am the guy that wrote the selected comment and tell me that “Being or Walking While Black” is not an obstacle in our current supposedly “post-racial” society is simply not paying attention. If you were not aware, Trayvon Martin was a young Black man in Florida who was shot because “he looked suspicious.” If you were a White person who told me that I should yield to people coming down the street, or a Black person who told me I should work… Read more »
Good post. But there’s clearly more to the situation (the inequities you mention) than just racism.
Not sure why people are convinced this is any evidence of racism. And by the way, I’d love to have this problem of having a clear walking path wherever I go. Awesome! Anyway, a black man in the office is reduced to the same threat level as other the office co-workers (one presumes he was hired thru the same processes). However, a black man on the street is an unknown whose relative risk must be weighed based on what we know or can observe about black males collectively…hence the wariness. This isn’t racism, but in fact is a good example… Read more »
Of course taking into account various other factors like location, time of day, appearance of dress (ghetto thug attire vs well dressed business/suit), etc.
Anyway, this is just one of a constellation of factors used to assess stranger danger.
It not just men honey, my mom is just under 6 feet tall and she gets this all the time. She doesn’t care but still. My son is a 15 baby faced 9th grader over 6 feet tall and he gets it all the time , then again we live in cincinnati.
I am a 60 year old white man with a full beard. For 20 years, I’ve looked for a black man to sit with on an airplane, because the seat between us will be the last vacant seat on the plane. This is one of the few advantages to be culled from the biases of others, so let them fear.
Peter. You’ll recall the “5’9” issue was when the guy walked down the street, not yielding to anybody. I pointed out the alternative was to walk over him. But being polite enough not to walk over a small, skinny guy who’s emitting attitude in all directions is “racism”.
Pull the other one.
Johnny you are so right, so I’ll carry doing what I’m doing, smiles, love and hugs
I’ll be honest, my first thought was: are you a big, well built guy? I am and I get more or less the same stuff. Even if its only because anyone who sits next to me will have less seat and I look like I wouldn’t even be slowed down if someone bumped into me.
But no: “5 feet 9 inches of a highly educated, well spoken, unassuming, non-threatening, well-dressed Black Man” its just plain old racism.
I had this same issue when I would come home from a deployment. I thought it was my hair cut, or maybe my silence that scared people. I found out it was my demeanor and my cold angry stare that scared them. It was the stigma that I was “crazy” because I just came home from a war zone. It started to bother me but my wife clued me in on something. If I focused on the good, had a positive attitude and stopped focusing on how I was being treated; my life would be better. She was 110% correct.… Read more »
Hmmm… I must not live in that racist a town. They sure don’t get out of my way much here. Ahhhh…. It’s good to be me, living in the land of the actually free and home of the actually brave, where people is people and where almost everyone is my neighbour. That said, there is a white supremacist march planned in a couple of weeks. But, I know that the many who stand with me and who are my brothers and sisters will be there and will spit upon them. I feel it best not to attend lest I cannot… Read more »
“That said, there is a white supremacist march planned in a couple of weeks.”
This still happens? FFS. Theres racists in Ireland too but at least they have the decency not to take it out in public and wave it around. Happy trolling, if I was there I’d be with out.
*with you
I believe Orangs and Greens. I mean Oranges. Sometimes march in each others’ neighborhoods.
The issue I think you are referring to has nothing to do with race, Richard.
If you are referring to marches in Northern Ireland, bear in mind that the province is part of the UK, not Ireland, where Peter appears to reside.
The issue I think you are referring to has nothing to do with ‘race’, Richard.
If you are referring to marches in Northern Ireland, bear in mind that the province is part of the UK, not Ireland, where Peter appears to reside.
This story was wrote by Editors, I don’t buy this just something you wrote to get a boo-hoo out of someone. You are the ones keeping racism alive by writing this kind of crap.
No, larry. “The Editors” is the byline given to comments that are posted separately as “Comments of the Day”. Perhaps one day you’ll write such a comment, and when it’s deemed worthy of being posted as a COTD, it will get “The Editors” as a byline, too.
This makes me so sad. I look after children and teach them yoga. I live in one of the most culturally diverse cities in the UK, Leicester, yet still I see division by skin colour. Why is this so? People are people, they are good, bad and indifferent and colour has nothing to do with it. My clients are English, South African, Asian, Congolese and Ghanian, but they are all people, parents and beautiful human beings, I pray others see us all this way