Vandalism and racism on reverse in the white cultures.

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ABC News.
What Would You Do If You Witnessed a Break-In?

Last night I watched on channel 7 a report from 20/20, and I was bewildered by it. What were they trying to do in this report, put whites in a bad light! What was that? Vandalism and racism on reverse in the white culture! That's what I call "sensationalism and unfair journalism". ABC News-20/20 had only a one sided view while, it was reporting this so called "experiment". It was useless and somewhat unsavory. We know already, there is racism in our cultures we don't need it to be depicted in an unfair and biased manner especially towards the white population.

Before, I emphasized the word "cultures" because I meant the all human cultures, not just white culture but in general any other culture, meaning white, black, red or, yellow cultures. I don't even like the world "experiment", I prefer rather to use the word investigation. (For me, the word experiment evokes in my mind those experimentations perpetrated in concentration camps, like those run inside the Nazi German laboratories by some mad scientist on human bodies as though, they were laboratory guinea pigs.)

When the producer of 20/20 wanted to do this investigation, he should have done it the right way by, reversing the investigation and making the same report in a Black neighborhood. Today, I went in the ABC website and I noticed there were 682 comments talking about last night program and than, I decided to post some of them here plus a small brief of the article.

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Brief of the article:
By CLEM TAYLOR and NATALIE D. JAQUEZ

Black Vandals vs. White Vandals

Soon after those 911 calls were placed, the next phase of the experiment began. The three white teen vandals were replaced with Justin C., Jelani and "Matlok," three African-American actors. Would the responses to the vandals in this mostly white suburb be any different?

Skin Color and the Public's Response

Clearly the number of interventions and 911 calls with the African-American youths exceeded those with their white counterparts. So we asked those who approached the black kids or reported them to police, "Would you have acted any differently if the boys were white?"

Comments:

I love 20/20. But have you seriously turned into a reality tv show? Don't we have enough of these? The experiment with the two boys was such a 1/2 a**ed attempt at showing how racism exists in America. No duh!!! The two group of the vandals were dresses totally differently and this may have something to do with the outcome. Gang violence is on the rise and the second group of boys (the black boys) were dresses in what I would consider to be gang attire. Especially the boy in the red faux Gucci hat and matching jacket. The first group was dressed in skate/surf logo sweat shirts, as middle-class teenagers would. If you are going to do an experiment that is going to be as controversial as this subject is I would dress the two groups of boys the exact same outfits and then see what the response would be. Nowadays, people fear for their life, not knowing whether getting involved in this type of situation will end up in a stabbing or shooting. I personally would be a lot less threatened by three boys dresses like the first group, than I would by the second group. Regardless of skin color. I think you all did a sloppy job in this experiment and it would have been more accurate if you had minimized the differences between these two groups and the only difference was ethnicity.
Wow...was it a lack of rare, unintentional oversight or just plain stupidity? Talk about one sidedness and unfair journalism. Why didn't the producers take the same scenario into a predominantly black neighborhood and wait on the results. I tell you why... they were fearful their major medical wouldn't cover what might happen to them. But, the bottom line is, why in the world would you do a segment that highlights what we already know - discrimination is alive and well. But, secondly, and more importantly, because of your unfair and slanted angle (you didn't go to any black neighborhood) all you did was widen and help disconnect even more the gap between people based solely of their color of their skin. Thanks 20/20 for making this place a better world to live in.
That was pretty disgusting how you put it in a white neighborhood and made it look like everybody was out to discremenate against blacks. I think you should put that car in a black neighborhood and let the white boys vandalise the car. I think that you would find that the white boys are getting discremenated against. Just film it the opposite way around.
Ok, I was appalled at this segment of your show. Of course if you put 3 black kids a white neighborhood this is what is going to happen. I challenge you to put 3 white kids in a black neighborhood and see what happens. I sure you would not even consider this as someone would probably wind up hurt very bad or even killed. After your show last night, I watched the local news. Three black men were arrested for bank robbery, one black man was arrested for domestic battery on his girl friend and a black lady lost her second son to gang violence. You tell me what race commits the majority of the crimes and then you wonder why white people are more inclined to call police on black people. I do not concider myself a racist or even prejudice. I have many very close black friends and we discuss this all the time.

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Racial discrimination has been perpetrated even among people of color in Africa.

There are different form of racisms even among black people, so please don't make whites look like they are the only racists in the world! Look at the ethnic tensions in Rwanda between the Hutus and the Tutsis, which caused a genocide because the hatred and racism in its pure form (Some 800,000 Rwandans were killed in three months) or, you can look at the atrocities occurring in Darfur region in Western Sudan. Isn't the Darfur "holocaust" going on because of, discrimination and racism stirred up by ethnic differences? You can see, signs of racism even between Black Americans and Black Africans emigrated in the USA. You will find racism in any form and shape even in the Western societies, between white people of the same ethnic group. Don't tell me, that racism is a prerogative from the white race only by, showing us that report! If you want to talk about racism then, enlarge the view on this matter by reporting different forms of racism in a more wide range, don't limit it on backward perspectives and only on whites. They should have been more responsible rather than, going into sensationalism reporting. That's not the best way (I believe) to help in this serious issue but, by focusing only on whites, you are raising the hatred level in the society.

An innocent conversation turned into something else.

I am not racist and never been racist but sometime ago, something happened that made me thing about the United States and their multicultural society. One day on work, while I was conversing with a friend of mine about a Jewish wedding that was going on nearby, I asked if he was Jewish because, he knew a lot about Jewish traditions. Consequently my question, he started acting offended "why you asking me that?" I replayed in a serious voice "asking you what?" He answered my question with an indignant tone "if I am a Jew" promptly I replied to him "what are you talking about, my was just a question, that all" I was a bit confused by hes reaction. He continued with his attitude towards me "my was a generic question, nothing was implied with it, I could had asked something else if, you were Catholic, Buddhist, Hinduist, or other". I couldn't get why, he was acting offended by my question, as he kept on his position. Now, I was the one getting angry and offended by his reaction. When we finally decided to drop the incident, we went back to work. My innocent question was turned by my friend in accusation, like I had pronounced some blasphemy. A similar episode happened with another friends of mine and this time, he was a Black American.

I never had any of these problems here in the State, before those incidents.

I didn't see any differences when speaking to someone that was from a different religion or, race. What I got from these two episodes was: I had to be careful when I was speaking to someone different than me! I believe all these happen because the society we live in, keeps remembering us of our differences. Maybe if, medias such as ABC News, would tone down the rhetorics on the subject (especially when done for the sake of money) maybe, we will forget our differences and in time see each other as similars.

You can read more about, the 20/20 report plus more related comments here:

ABC News-What Would You Do If You Witnessed a Break-In?