gs1r: A story of mine about prejudice that I just remembered...

This is a true story.

In late 2006 at about 4am I woke up startled to my dad speaking a little louder then usual at this time. I got out of bed and went to where he was at because naturally I was worried. I found him at the door where there was someone knocking and trying to come inside.

My dad was telling him “I don’t know you,” and the man outside was saying “yea you do, let me in.” I went to look through the peephole in the door and I saw a white man in a drunken stupor, stumbling as he moved around on my front stairs. He kept knocking and knocking, trying to convince us that we know him and to let him in. After a while of him not letting up it was time to do something about our problem.

I called 911 emergency for the police to come and take care of the situation. They answered and I told them that there was a drunken guy outside my house trying to get in and that he kept knocking on the door waiting for us to open it. As I gave the description of the situation, the police woman asked me an interesting and provoking question that got me a little ticked off: “Is he Black or Hispanic?”

I wonder why she didn’t ask if the guy outside wasn’t any other race then the two she mentioned. Why couldn't she ask "what race is he?" or ask in a way that unassuming or not prejudice. Even though I understand that statistically most crimes in Los Angeles unfortunately are done by minorities, I’m rather shocked by this because even in the eyes of law enforcement, a government-ran department, there are stereotypical perspective and prejudice at a professional level. I bet you that this stereotype is so true in the minds of the 911 emergency department that asking if the perpetrator is Black or Hispanic is probably written down on paper as a standardized procedure of identifying questions to ask of incoming callers.

The irony about this whole situation is that the drunken guy was White!

Think about it.
-gs1r-