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Thread: Reflections on the Color of My Skin By Neil deGrasse Tyson

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    Default Reflections on the Color of My Skin By Neil deGrasse Tyson

    As for me, I had a dozen different encounters to draw from. There was the time I was stopped late at night at an underpass on an empty road in New Jersey for having changed lanes without signaling. The officer told me to get out of my car and questioned me for ten minutes around back with the headlights of his squad car brightly illuminating my face. Is this your car? Yes. Who is the woman in the passenger seat? My wife. Where are you coming from? My parent’s house. Where are you going? Home. What do you do for a living? I am an astrophysicist at Princeton University. What’s in your trunk? A spare tire, and a lot of other greasy junk. He went on to say that the “real reason” why he stopped me was because my car’s license plates were much newer and shinier than the 17-year-old Ford that I was driving. The officer was just making sure that neither the car nor the plates were stolen.

    They were common, recurring episodes. How could this assembly of highly educated scientists, each in possession of the PhD—the highest academic degree in the land—be so vulnerable to police inquiry in their lives? Maybe the police cued on something else. Maybe it was the color of our skin. The conference I had been attending was the 23rd meeting of the National Society of Black Physicists. We were guilty not of DWI (Driving While Intoxicated), but of other violations none of us knew were on the books: DWB (Driving While Black), WWB (Walking While Black), and of course, JBB (Just Being Black).

    As I compose this, about 10,000 chanting protestors are filing past my window in Manhattan. And because of the intermittent looting and related violence, the curfew for this evening has been pushed earlier, to 8 p.m., from 11 p.m. in the preceding days. The most common placard was “Black Lives Matter.”

    The way peaceful protesters and the press are being shoved, maced, tear-gassed, pepper-sprayed, and tackled in the streets of our cities (when the police should have focused on arresting the looters) you would think the protestors were doing something illegal or un-American. But, of course, the U.S. Constitution has something to say about it:

    Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom … of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.


    In 1991, Rodney King (age 25) was struck dozens of times, while on the ground, by four LAPD officers, with their batons, after being tased. The grainy 1990s video of that went media-viral, inducing shock and dismay to any viewer.

    But I wasn’t shocked at all.


    Based on what I already knew of the world, my first thought was, “We finally got one of those on tape.” Followed by, “Maybe justice will be served this time.” Yes, that’s precisely my first thought. Why? Since childhood my parents instilled in me and my siblings, via monthly, sometimes weekly lessons, rules of conduct to avoid getting shot by the police. “Make sure that when you get stopped, the officer can always see both of your hands.” “No sudden movements.” “Don’t reach into your pockets for anything without announcing this in advance.”

    Yet when I exit my front door, I’m a crime suspect. Add to this the recently coined “White Caller Crime,” where scared White people call the police because they think an innocent black person is doing something non-innocent, and it’s a marvel that any of us achieve at all.

    More at https://www.haydenplanetarium.org/ty...of-my-skin.php

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    Quote Originally Posted by AProudLefty View Post
    As for me, I had a dozen different encounters to draw from. There was the time I was stopped late at night at an underpass on an empty road in New Jersey for having changed lanes without signaling. The officer told me to get out of my car and questioned me for ten minutes around back with the headlights of his squad car brightly illuminating my face. Is this your car? Yes. Who is the woman in the passenger seat? My wife. Where are you coming from? My parent’s house. Where are you going? Home. What do you do for a living? I am an astrophysicist at Princeton University. What’s in your trunk? A spare tire, and a lot of other greasy junk. He went on to say that the “real reason” why he stopped me was because my car’s license plates were much newer and shinier than the 17-year-old Ford that I was driving. The officer was just making sure that neither the car nor the plates were stolen.

    They were common, recurring episodes. How could this assembly of highly educated scientists, each in possession of the PhD—the highest academic degree in the land—be so vulnerable to police inquiry in their lives? Maybe the police cued on something else. Maybe it was the color of our skin. The conference I had been attending was the 23rd meeting of the National Society of Black Physicists. We were guilty not of DWI (Driving While Intoxicated), but of other violations none of us knew were on the books: DWB (Driving While Black), WWB (Walking While Black), and of course, JBB (Just Being Black).

    As I compose this, about 10,000 chanting protestors are filing past my window in Manhattan. And because of the intermittent looting and related violence, the curfew for this evening has been pushed earlier, to 8 p.m., from 11 p.m. in the preceding days. The most common placard was “Black Lives Matter.”

    The way peaceful protesters and the press are being shoved, maced, tear-gassed, pepper-sprayed, and tackled in the streets of our cities (when the police should have focused on arresting the looters) you would think the protestors were doing something illegal or un-American. But, of course, the U.S. Constitution has something to say about it:

    Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom … of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.


    In 1991, Rodney King (age 25) was struck dozens of times, while on the ground, by four LAPD officers, with their batons, after being tased. The grainy 1990s video of that went media-viral, inducing shock and dismay to any viewer.

    But I wasn’t shocked at all.


    Based on what I already knew of the world, my first thought was, “We finally got one of those on tape.” Followed by, “Maybe justice will be served this time.” Yes, that’s precisely my first thought. Why? Since childhood my parents instilled in me and my siblings, via monthly, sometimes weekly lessons, rules of conduct to avoid getting shot by the police. “Make sure that when you get stopped, the officer can always see both of your hands.” “No sudden movements.” “Don’t reach into your pockets for anything without announcing this in advance.”

    Yet when I exit my front door, I’m a crime suspect. Add to this the recently coined “White Caller Crime,” where scared White people call the police because they think an innocent black person is doing something non-innocent, and it’s a marvel that any of us achieve at all.

    More at https://www.haydenplanetarium.org/ty...of-my-skin.php
    I guess Reginald Denny was driving while white huh?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Yakuda View Post
    I guess Reginald Denny was driving while white huh?
    How is that the same?

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    Quote Originally Posted by AProudLefty View Post
    How is that the same?
    Was he attacked because he was white? Yes or no? Dont be a pansy ass and start with the stupid drill.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Yakuda View Post
    Was he attacked because he was white? Yes or no? Dont be a pansy ass and start with the stupid drill.
    Where those who attacked him cops?

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    Quote Originally Posted by AProudLefty View Post
    Where those who attacked him cops?
    I'm sure that mattered a great deal to Mr. Denny but I'll take that as a yes. BTW more whites are killed by cops every year than blacks but you folks prefer truth to facts.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Yakuda View Post
    I'm sure that mattered a great deal to Mr. Denny. BTW more whites are killed by cops every year than blacks but you folks prefer truth to facts.
    So you agree that it isn't the same? Good job.

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    Quote Originally Posted by AProudLefty View Post
    So you agree that it isn't the same? Good job.
    No not at all. Tell me how it mattered to Mr. Denny then I'll agree.

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    Quote Originally Posted by AProudLefty View Post
    So you agree that it isn't the same? Good job.
    As a matter of fact it's probably worse because Mr Denny was minding his own fucking business working.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Yakuda View Post
    No not at all. Tell me how it mattered to Mr. Denny then I'll agree.
    Of course it didn't matter to him, dumbass. What a retarded question.

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    Quote Originally Posted by AProudLefty View Post
    Of course it didn't matter to him, dumbass. What a retarded question.
    So then his getting beaten by assholes or cops doesnt matter. What a fucking "genius" you are.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Yakuda View Post
    So then his getting beaten by assholes or cops doesnt matter. What a fucking "genius" you are.
    Wow. You truly are a brainlet.

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    Quote Originally Posted by AProudLefty View Post
    Wow. You truly are a brainlet.
    So we agree who's doing the beating is irrelevant and it's STILL try more whites than blacks are killed by cops. Apparently being white is a terminal illness in this country

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    Quote Originally Posted by Yakuda View Post
    So we agree who's doing the beating is irrelevant and it's STILL try more whites than blacks are killed by cops. Apparently being white is a terminal illness in this country


    Let me try again. The cops are supposed to protect and serve. Dr. Tyson was talking about cops stopping the black drivers more often than the white drivers.

    Would it have mattered to your man if they were cops beating him up? Would his perspective change about the cops?

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    Quote Originally Posted by AProudLefty View Post


    Let me try again. The cops are supposed to protect and serve. Dr. Tyson was talking about cops stopping the black drivers more often than the white drivers.

    Would it have mattered to your man if they were cops beating him up? Would his perspective change about the cops?
    And killing whites more often

    I don't know youre the one that mentioned they weren't cops. Why do you keep asking me answer things you said?

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