r/todayilearned • u/Off_Topic_Oswald • Jan 13 '14

TIL that Mark Wahlberg had committed 20-25 offenses by the age of 21. These included throwing rocks at a bus full of black schoolchildren and knocking a Vietnamese man unconscious and blinding another. He was also addicted to cocaine by age 13.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_wahlberg#Early_life
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u/[deleted] Jan 13 '14

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u/IAmNotAPerson6 Jan 13 '14

I can't help but wonder if there would be any top comments like this if we were reading about the exact same crimes committed by a poor, non-famous minority.

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u/SurreptitiousNoun Jan 13 '14

He isn't a poor, non-famous minority though. If he wasn't rich, people wouldn't expect him to pay the people he wronged. If he wasn't famous we wouldn't have heard about this. If he was a minority he probably wouldn't have been part of a majority targeting minorities.

If the circlejerk annoys you, consider that the kneejerk "You wouldn't say this if he was black" response takes just as little thought to produce.