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Stereotyping: Questions

Posted by Dylan Thomas on 2007-June-25 03:05:42, Monday

I want this post to have nothing to do with boys or boylovers--in fact, I want this post to be inappropriate for the main index. I want it to be OtherChat material. But the fact is, it's not. It's a metaphor. Let's see if I pull it off.

I am a black man living in a rural area of a southern state in the United States several decades ago. Now, one day, I'm walking around doing my business when I am approached by several white guys--stereotypical rednecks at first glance--who tell me, "We don't like niggers," and proceed to threaten me and make sport with me, but, fortunately, it doesn't pass beyond threats. They don't actually beat me.

Now, in the course of working my trade--perhaps I'm some kind of craftsman or laborer--I do a job for a white man and his wife is at home. She is pleasant to me, so I am pleasant to her. Her husband is not happy that I would dare to address his wife, so next thing I know, I'm getting hauled up in court for attempted rape or something. Fortunately, I'm friends with a good civil-rights attorney from up north, so despite a few harrowing days and at the hands of small-town cops, I eventually am released, perhaps with a warning to keep away from white women.

Nonetheless, a few days later, a few more rednecks catch me somewhere and tell me, "We don't like uppity niggers," and they proceed to tell me that I'll get what's coming to me and they know how to put niggers like me in my place and all that. But it's a public place, so they stop short of actually assaulting me.

See, the thing to remember in my situation is that I haven't actually been hurt. Sure, there are threats--some of them quite explicit--and there are people following me around and "keeping an eye on me," but it's important to note that no one has ever laid a hand on me. Sure, I was subject to a false accusation and jailed, but I was acquitted and walked free, not unjustly imprisoned. I've been inconvenienced a bit, perhaps, but not actually harmed.

Maybe I've gotten a few poison-pen-pal letters. Badly spelled, atrocious grammar, letting me know I'm going to die. Maybe I've even overheard other people having conversations as I walk down the street: "Yeah, that's that nigger I was telling you about. One day, I'm gonna teach that boy a lesson."

Now, one evening I'm on my way home when, in a completely isolated location, I cross paths with three or four good ol' boys. I don't know them. Maybe they're not local boys, or maybe I just don't get out much. So I have no history with them; I can't say they've ever done me harm in the past because I've never even seen them in the past. You see the situation? I've never been physically harmed; merely threatened. And these guys aren't even the ones who've threatened me; they're completely new to me.

And one of them says, "Look what we have here. It's a damned nigger walking around like he owns the place. What do you think we should do about that, fellas?"

I'm armed.

Now, here's my question. When an environment in itself is sufficiently hostile--regardless whether or not I've yet suffered more than mere personal inconvenience--does there come a point when it's justified to assume you're at risk even if you have yet to be physically accosted? Are there situations where it is reasonable to assume, "I am in danger and must act accordingly," even if the other side can honestly say, "We never did a thing to him, hell, we didn't even say we was gonna do nothing to him!" Do they have a point when they claim that anything I might do at that point is an unjustified, unprovoked attack upon them?

Or am I failing to use my basic common sense if I say to myself, "Gee, these guys have never harmed me, they're not even the same guys that threatened me. I should give them the benefit of the doubt"? Did, perhaps, Reagan have a point when he talked about "first-strike defense"? Is there logic to the perversion of the Golden Rule which reads, "Do unto others before they do unto you"?

And just for a related question... does being subjected to consistent, regular messages to the effect of, "You should be sliced open and have your balls fed to you," or, "If I ever find out who you are, I'll take care of you my way," qualify as creating a "hostile environment"?

And now a final question, entirely rhetorical. Am I armed?

Much Love,
Dylan Thomas

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