PROFILING
This Cranky re-run is from August 2013
I don’t believe in profiling, but:
If you have one eyebrow and your name is Habib, I might distance myself from your backpack.
If you wear your pants below your ass and say “yo, yo, yo” mother-f-er, I might reach for my can of mace.
If you have a Mohawk haircut and wear a shirt that says, “What the F*ck are you looking at” I might wait for the next train.
If your bumper sticker say’s “America, love it or get the frig out!” I’ll probably just let you cut me off and not honk my horn.
If your car has all tinted windows and a chrome chain around your license plate, I will probably not stop to help you fix a flat tire.
If you have giant plates in your earlobes, I probably won’t ask you for directions.
With no other information to go by, I am choosing LaQuando Mustaffa over Herb Jacobs for my fantasy basketball team.
With no other information to go by, I am choosing LaQuando Mustaffa over Herb Jacobs for my fantasy basketball team.
If you are whacking away on a pound of chewing gum and ask me if I have any spare change, my pockets will most likely be empty.
If you smell, I may not sit next to you.
If you have an arm sleeve with tattooed satanic images, I might just hire a different babysitter.
If you have really wide open eyes and a goofy smile, I think I might try the movie in theater #7.
If you have sores on your lip, I’m going across the street to Burger King.
If you roll down the windows in your BMW and turn your rap music to “Reverberate all of Main Street,” I'm going to assume you're an idiot.
If your bumper sticker says, “Impeach Obama” or “Kill Bush” my conversation with you will be limited to the weather.
If your name is Bubba, I might wait for Lance to cut my hair.
If you have a big smile, I might say “hello,” If you have a scowl, I’ll probably look away.
I don’t believe in profiling, but I profile every day.
It is called learning through experience.
Sometimes it’s wrong…
Sometimes it’s wrong…
I saw the effects of profiling. I may have shared this on another post of yours, figure me if I did. Son in his senior year of high school got a 1993 Cadillac Deville. At the same time he was in a bit of a trouble with the law (thankfully as a youth and expunged from adult records) but it involved probation and community service and if you got stopped by the police they had the right to search your vehicle. He was CONSTANTLY pulled over for this infraction or that infraction. It would be comic if it was happening to someone else other than him. I thought of keeping a record of the events and wondered if it bordered on harassment. Thing is one time I was riding along with him. A policeman was on the other side of him passing by. He shined his light into son's car. When he saw who was in the passenger seat, he just kept on going. I'm sure if it was someone else, he would have been pulled over. Son was not perfect during this time; he just knew how to make sure nothing was found.
ReplyDeleteProfiling exists. I'm guilty too when I look at people though with my experiences with son, etc., I should know better.
betty
"If you smell I may not sit next to you" would be my choice too, but whenever I'm on the bus and someone smelly gets on, he or she always decides to sit right near me; next to or in front or behind, even if the rest of the bus is empty. If the smell is particularly bad I will get off at the next stop and wait for another bus.
ReplyDeleteWe don't realise we're profiling until we stop to think about it.
Lol, but it can go the other way too. People judge others who are wearing a suit and tie or a young couple with 4 kids.
ReplyDeleteI think we all do this, whether or not we realize it.
ReplyDeleteHey, your post pic looks like the guy my daughter dated in high school. We called him "Dad's nightmare."
ReplyDeleteSometimes it's wrong...most times it's right. But....I've had some big hairy rough looking biker types smile and open a door for me so.......
ReplyDeleteEvery one of us make snap judgments about people, we can't help it. Our brains do it in less than a second and it is out of our conscious control. The trick is to grab that first thought, hold it, and look again to see if the first thought was the correct one. Very often, if you stop and get to know the person, you find it was not.
ReplyDeleteEveryone profiles even if they won't admit it. You're not always right, but better safe than sorry.
ReplyDeleteHave a fabulous day. ☺
Isn't LaQuando Mustaffa that guy that palms a basketball and has to bend down to drop the ball in the basket? Yeah, good choice.
ReplyDeleteI think we all do it to a point.
ReplyDeleteYou made me realize that I may do this also and was not aware of it. A little caution is not a bad thing.
ReplyDeleteSometimes this is simply called "Going with your gut feeling" I'd err on the side of caution and go with your gut every time.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a reasonable survival strategy to me. . .
ReplyDeleteYesterday, as I was bagging my groceries in Save A Lot, a little boy about 6 years old walked up and stared at me. I thought: "Oh, crap! I can't stand other people's kids! Teach him some manners!"
ReplyDeleteThen the kid said, "I can take your cart and put it up for you."
What a nice young man! His mother should be proud!
Sometimes our profiling is spot on, and sometimes we're way off. The good-looking young man in the white shirt and tie is a Wall Street scum bag who raised the price of the Epi Pen by I-don't-know-how-much, and the smelly guy on the bus is a homeless veteran who lost his sanity in Afghanistan.
ReplyDeleteBut yes, I think we all do it. It's human nature.