http://contexts.org/socimages/2009/01/24/looks-can-be-deceiving-black-men-are-scary/ A lot of young black males can relate to this video, not literally but more so conceptually. Even when youre making big (positive social contribution) moves in life, the first thing mofuckers see when they look at you is BLACK.
That video actually pisses me off. WTF is wrong with people that they’d even try to draw such a parallel in the first place, and to market toothpaste no less. Someone needs to fire their marketing people and start over. Now on the topic, Intrigue actually explained this to me already because frankly this concept of black men as scary is completely foreign to me, so thank you Intrigue. I absolutely don’t see skin color as playing a part in threat assessment. As a female, statistically I am more likely to experience violence at the hands of a man than a woman, that I get. But beyond that black men present no greater threat to me than white men, in fact the opposite it true. I’m sure as hell not going to avoid a black man because he’s black, that’s just racist BS. And furthermore, I don’t know where white women got ideas like this in the first place? I’m guessing it had to come from racist white men whose primary goal is to keep them away from black men. The woman who submitted that video said “there’s the stereotype of Blacks as muggers, and women (particularly White women) often fear that they might be sexually aggressive”. Okay I’m a white woman and I’m here to tell you that regarding sexual assault it’s not the black man I need to fear, it’s the white man. The overwhelming majority of sexual violence, in fact all forms of violence, against white women is perpetrated by white men. Anyone who doubts that can look at the Criminal Victimization Statistical data collected by the DOJ. The most recent study I believe I’ve seen is http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/cvus0402.pdf, but there may be more recent studies available if you search the DOJ site. Scroll down to table 42 and you’ll see that crime against white people is predominantly committed by white people. So really as a white woman if I were to view each man I see as a potential threat, it’s the white guy that’s going to concern me as the only basis I would have for determining who poses a risk to my safety would be statistics on past reported assaults. Now granted statistics should always be taken with a grain of salt as they can be twisted to support almost any position if taken out of context, but they do tend to be useful in establishing broad trends. And I’m not saying women should assume every male on the planet is safe, that’s ludicrous. As a single female you have to be aware and not place yourself in an unsafe situation in general, for instance I wouldn’t personally go jogging alone in Central Park at 3 am. But trying to say that a man should be more feared because of his skin color is not only racist, but purely false. I’m still appalled anyone thinks like that and I feel badly for the men who get judged that way. That’s unfair and they don’t deserve that. Everyone should get respect and the benefit of the doubt until they give you reason to think otherwise.
