White woman's bag snatched on Chicago Train by black young male

Damn that sucks for her.
She should know better then to take her hand off her bag on a busy train. I keep mine looped on my arm the whole time... You want my bag your going to have to take me with it.
If this happened to me I wouldn't view African Americans different, just people who get on the train and start acting suspicious. But that's just me. I look like the pretty standard 20-somethin Caucasian chick, blond hair and blue eyes. However, I'm a mix of a couple different groups and have relatives of pretty much every ethnicity. I just know better then to lump people together based on their perceived race, but find it entirely to funny when people act like my family is some sort of blue bloods.
Hopefully this person will realize that one person cannot be used to judge an entire ethnicity, and learn some street smarts. Otherwise this isn't going to be the last time she gets targeted.

The incident, to me, has nothing to do with race. There are good and bad, philanthropists and crooks, in any race.

What matters to me is how the media and some people with racial agendas would overlook this incident or find defense for the crook because he is black.

If it were a white-on-black crime, those same defenders would be unnecessarily upset and creating a storm about it in the name of some sort of racism.

The media and certain people with racial agendas are hypocrites and so that is what comes to my mind when I consider this scenario.

It's a complex situation- But I assume so long as you weren't crass about his actions with your body language or facial gestures that for all she knows you could have a bum knee, were scared to go after him or a million other things. Bottom line is while it would have made you a good guy in her eyes it is not your responsibility to play the part of a hero- and I'm sure she knows that.

I see your dilemma Hustleman86.
Your heart told you should go after this crook and help a fellow citizen.
Your brain told you from experience that it is dangerous. I would listen to your brain to stay alive.
You are apparently a caring person who will make a difference in other ways someday. That is more important to your family. Maybe you will see the lady another day and ...if she recognizes you you can explain what happened, to her
Sadly, if she is a racist you might not make a difference anyway.

It's funny to me how we keep referencing and empty social construct, race, to describe our differences. There is no such thing as race, and the sooner we realize this, the better of we will all be. And to this real canadian cat. I'm glad you are sharing your bigoted views. The niggers do not out number Black men. There is no scourge of Black youth crime destroying America. Of course, we do have violence, but to blanket all of this under the guise of Black youth crime is irresponsible and simplistic. And further more, all Black people who where suits are not positive influences on America. I think Clarence Thomas has shown us that. I would suggest you do some reading or you know, actually talk to some Black folk so your view and comments aren't so constipated and Fox worthy...

Don't people discriminate based on how someone's face looks? How their voice sounds? I would always feel safer coming across a gang of old ladies with walkers at 2am than I would 18-25 year old guys of any race. But honestly Indians, Muslims, Scandanavians, Sudanese, Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Southeast Asians, etc. probably wouldn't cause me to think no matter what time and how many of them I crossed paths with. But there are some age/race combinations that cause me to think about the possibility of being attacked.

And I do think that there are differences between races, in other words, some races are better at some things, some are worse. That might sound racist, but there is daily discrimination based on a lot of other things besides race: clothes, face, voice, age, sex, etc.

What are you describing, shbhanda is socialization, and yes it is in fact racist. If you are associating a certain type of behavior based upon how someone looks, sounds, etc, that is what the very heart of racism is about; assigning characteristics, behaviors, tendencies, etc based upon the fictitious idea of race, is, well, racism. This kinda makes me sad. As far as we have come as a country, we still have a ways to go...

First of all using the N word is hurtful. Why do you do that? That is unnecessary and probably should be flagged. I think you are doing it in ignorance but you should apologize for that.

Some reaction to a person's appearance is normal.
If I see walk by someone who looks like my grandmother I would not be afraid at all of course. The chances of being harmed by her are near 0.

If I walked by a man who looks like he might not be from around here..my hackles will go up of course. It is normal...women usually don't pose a threat. Children are usually OK. Family groups are usually fine...mostly you guys I guess mostly in big groups..or alone. Not necessarily the color..maybe the dress...if I saw a sports team it would not bother me as much. Guys with babies and kids are not usually scary.

I once walked near some Goth looking kids and was fearful until I got closer and saw a swastika with an x over it...so you can't tell..usually the unusual kids are gentle artists..I was one of those when I was a teen so hung out with many of that type.

So I think it is unrealistic to think we will all be appearance biased free...although it is a good direction to strive for.

We are all blends of the same cookie dough.

RealCandian,
If you actually did some research as opposed to, once again, tossing out ignorant statements, you would see that there is in fact, no such thing as race. A poodle and great dane, are obviously two different species of canine, which debunks the comparison. There are no different species of human. As far as the differences you speak of, they relate more to environment, diet, upbringing, etc. The idea of race is simply a social construct, not something backed by actual empirical data, much like your response. And it would probably help if you actually read what I said as opposed to being reactionary. I called you a bigot, not a racist. And your wobbly, knee jerk reactions are only proving me right. Please... keep going...

Areoh, but don't you think brains and bodies from different regions of the world evolved differently?

Oh no doubt, shbhanda. I do believe we all develop differently based on where we are at. We all have different experiences that shape how we think, and we live in different regions that affect our physical appearance. But this has nothing to do with our genetics. Black people are not a different scientific classification from say, the Chinese. Caroyln said it nicely, we are all blends from the same cookie dough. There is no scientific basis for the term race. It's purely a social convention that we use to classify ourselves.

Ha, canadian man... if you don't believe me or remain skeptical, go to your local library or even do some research on the web. Any scientist that uses race method of classification is a hack. Any academic/ or reasonably well read person will tell you this. I would be more than happy to help if you like. Ignorance is not a permanent condition, but rather one we choose to hold onto.. ha, and some us cling to it a bit longer than others.

Ok, where do we start with this. You talk a lot about numbers, but have yet to produce anything to support your claims. We are all concerned about crime here in the States, but blatant bigoted view points only further the problem. If there is so much data that proves your point, show me. Furthermore, I find it interesting that because one Brother describes a crime, you proceed to condemn the entire Black youth population in the States, claiming they need to be "civilized". Once again, more racist rhetoric. As the data actually shows, Black people are no more likely to commit crime than anyone else in this country. There is no denying crime happens, but to solely place the blame on the shoulders of Black youth is inaccurate, irresponsible, and prejudiced. And I think decades of research and human genetics trumps your lone Russian's race theories, so I won't even comment on that.

I think the true dreamers are people like you, actually, who refuse to see the reality of the world, preferring to live in a white cocoon of denial. I can throw all the statistics and data I can to disprove every single point you have, but if you don't want to like Black people and want to remain in an irrational state of fear because of that, that is your choice. I challenge you to back up any of your claims with solid data. Until then, you are just another bigot. It's easy to make quick social judgement based upon what you see on, uhm, Cops, and you probably have a lot of people that would agree with you. However, the facts still stand as the truth, no matter how many ignorant people band together.

If you have anything of substance to add, other than more reactionary commentary, please, post up. I'll read just about anything and I'll talk to anyone. But if you are going to respond with more hate and ignorance, this will be my last post. I've already pointed you in the right direction in an effort to sway your ignorance a bit, but if you simply want to hold onto your bigotry, even in light of the facts, then that is what you will do. And actually, the post is about the Brother asking a question about the perception of Black people, which we can obviously see is a bit skewed. The only thing rampant in this post is your continued racist conjecture. Get some facts, then lets talk...

ps
And to your point about "rampant" Black crime.
http://www.lipmagazine.org/~timwise/colorofdeception.ht...

Ha, this is way too easy. Ok, lets break down all your links.

The first with Heather MacDonald,
She is a known right wing sympathizer that has no objectivity what so ever. True, her statistics site race, but an interesting point is that is it PERCEIVED race, which is non sense because, as I stated already, there is no such thing as race, and a true study does not lend it self to perceived conjecture, so her data is irrelevant.

The second,
Ok, so you want to go to Africa. Cool. I will agree that has been much ethnic violence in Africa, but where did the get it from? And the idea that violence is foreign to Europeans is just asinine. I guess you've never heard of such global events as World War I & II, the Dark Ages, the Crusades, etc, all of which cut bloody swathes into the pages of history. Ha, so if you want to talk about tribal/cultural warfare, Europe wrote the book.

The third,
It shows that, by a large margin, White people commit the most crime, as expected, because they are the majority in the states. Do me a solid and point out what page that black on white statistic is, because I couldn't find it.

The Color of Crime,
I can see reading isn't one of your strong points, because this book has already been debunked by Tim Wise. It helps if you actually read the links I put down.

Ok, so now for the real. You site the Knoxville murders. Cool. Ok, so there is one instance when where blacks commit violence on whites. I'm not sure this is even real, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Since we are talking about hate crimes, we can talk about, oh I don't know, the Civil Rights Movement, Jim Crow, The Tuskegee Experiment and you know, slavery. The very idea that violence is a solely black idea is, quite frankly, not based in reality. I'm sure you will continue to cite right wing pundits, racists, and, ha, make stuff up, but the bottom line is that you have no idea what you are talking about. Now if you would like to get caught up with everyone else, I'll drop another link which I hope you read. This will be my last post as I see I cannot have an intelligent conversation with you. I wish you the best man...

A good place to start concerning the validity of the concept of race. Read if you care to join modern thought...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_%28classification_of_...%29