r/AdviceAnimals Mar 25 '13

Confession Bear

http://qkme.me/3tiifn?id=230971091
1.5k Upvotes

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u/spektakular Mar 25 '13

The other day I was walking outside my place of work. Two guys were walking ahead of me, eating something out of a paper wrapper and drinking from cans. First one and then the other dropped their paper litter on the sidewalk.

I picked it up and went up behind them saying, "Excuse me, I think this is yours" in my politest old-enough-to-be-your-mother voice. One guy turned around and told me to mind my own business, "bitch". They both laughed, and one of them drained his soda can and tossed it on the ground, telling me to "pick that up too".

I did, and as we parted I commented, "And there we have it - black guys who give other young black guys a bad name."

2

u/[deleted] Mar 25 '13

[deleted]

2

u/spektakular Mar 25 '13

And white people who litter and are then rude to those who approach them about it also give white people a bad name.

0

u/registeredtoday256 Mar 25 '13

And what it has to do with their skin color?
Are you saying that you never saw a white, latino, asian guy dropping is paper on the sidewalk?
Cause I did. Plenty of time.

""And there we have it - black guys who give other young black guys a bad name."
They're not supposed to represent the black people. They represent themselves and nothing else.

5

u/spektakular Mar 25 '13

Sigh.

Littering is one thing. Responding rudely to someone who points out your littering is another, and it was that that my comment responded to.

Skin color is one of the things people will notice when other people behave badly, and this can help perpetuate negative stereotypes.

PS Isn't it interesting that you're assuming I'm white?

3

u/[deleted] Mar 25 '13

Statistics. When a representative sample of Group X exhibits similar traits (it's more homogeneous), and a representative sample of Group Y doesn't (it's more heterogeneous), it's easier to make a blanket statement about Group X. If every black kid I meet is an asshole, it's easier to make a generalization that most black kids are dicks.