Was anyone listening to WUOT yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon? During the afternoon program All Things Considered, the local host who provides regional and local news informed the listeners that a "six foot black man" (note that this was the *complete* description) who robbed a Bearden bank was still at large. My husband called the station to complain, and the first person to answer the phone hung up on him after he voiced his complaint, and the second person with whom he spoke argued with him over the issue before asking him the color of his own skin! Both people stated that they were "just reading" the news that was given to them. Exactly...

Gravity sucks. Water is wet. Republicans lie. Beer is good. The pope wears a funny hat. And bears do what they want in the woods.

Well DUH!!!

CAFKIA

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It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.
  - William G. McAdoo

Anyone remember the black guy on Dandridge Avenue who officers pants in full public view in a gas station convience store and then proceeded to spread open his butt to look for contraband? It was disgusting and the people on the scene weren't all black. One young white woman was still trembling from outrage when the TV crew interviewed her. No white guy in any other part of town would ever have been treated that way.

Prejudice lies deep in all of us. It has deep roots and takes continual vigilance to free ourselves from it.

When I am not allowed to tell you something without making you mad that is the truth what is this called?

Seems like we get overly mad about things that can't be helped. Why would you not tell someone a description of a robber. Why would hearing this make you mad? How would you describe something or someone if you were not allowed to give any detail?

If it is local radio and the report is of a robbery or some similar crime where the suspect is not caught, the description of the suspect (whatever it may be) seems like news.

This particular scenario does not seem to be a racial issue to me. I'm not saying there aren't plenty others but to say what the on-the-loose robber looks like is news.

This hurts to agree with River Dog. I mean if he admits agreeing with me that's one thing, but me agreeing with him... ouch.

...while black and Hispanic drivers were more likely than whites to be searched by law enforcement during traffic stops, they were less likely to be harboring contraband.

WOW - that statistic is next thing to direct proof of profiling.

Unfortunately, our recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings fail to protect our liberty in this area. If an officer says he stops a person for a traffic violation (say, a lane violation) but it can be proven that the officer's motive was really to shake him or her down, that is not an unconstitutional stop. In the defense of our rights we are now told that it is not relevant whether we can prove profiling, if there's an otherwise objective reason for the stop. (Antonin Scalia in Whren v. United States (1996))

The state vs. liberty game is rigged.

I wonder if it's possible to get a Knoxville/Knox County statistic to compare with this national data?

I enjoy debating but I sure don't want to really make anyone mad. I appreciate the nice comment S. Carpenter wrote. This is to me like being back in school where we intelligently explored political issues.

An NPR liberal radio station gives out a partial description of a robbery suspect as it came in to them. They updated it as they were pressed by you for more detail? Good for you! More detail was needed. But a conspiracy?

My vote would be for more detail from all the media outlets, rather than dumbing down the news to fit a politcial correctness standard. Why are they not allowed to describe the crime suspect? I can't see how that helps neighborhoods struggling with violent crime problems and it assists in the concealment of the suspect.

"Black men all look alike."
" They're often times up to no good."
" Many are dangerous."

That's what is behind the comment and the outrage.

If it happened to be a white man would they only have said a six foot tall white man? It most likely would have been--a six foot tall white man with brown hair wearing a t-shirt and jeans with a red baseball cap. Chances are more description (and a more accurate details might have been offered. Because we don't "see" black people in a social way, we don't see the details that differentiate one of them from another.

It isn't just this one incident. It's accumulative anger because of the thousands of times things like this are happening every day to black, Asian., and Latino peoples.

Until we can dig deep and realize we tend to treat minorities with a bias, we can never enjoy the freedom that comes from unshackling ourselves from prejudice. We will always be scared of "them', and they will be scared of "us" and all for the most misguided reasons.

We really ought to have a national "Take Someone Different From Yourself to Lunch Day". You can't judge any race white, black, green, or yellow, from what you read in the media. The dirty little secret racists don't want anyone to know is--when we get to know each other we're very much the same with a few pinches of different spices and colors mixed in.

There is no "them". They are "us". We the people.

The suspect should have been described by where he was last seen or what he was wearing, anything rather than the generic and often racially devastating (sometimes deadly) phrase six foot tall black man.

At the News Sentinel (where I work) the policy is to only use race when it's pertinent, such as in a complete description of a crime suspect, emphasis on *complete*.

I don't know that we've always 100 percent followed that policy, but I do know that if I came across "the suspect was described as a 6-foot black man" in the course of my editing duties, I would never allow that through.

So if it makes some people mad to read the description of a criminal who committed the crime or a partial description your editors will not allow you to report it?

Read my post again. I'm doing the editing. While you're at it, read some of the posts above. "6-foot-tall black man" is not a description, any more than "6-foot-tall white man" is. Why would you print (or broadcast) either?

A man is accosting women at a popular park in Knoxville. He is taking their purses.

Here at the Sentinal I am not allowed to tell you any more details as it would offend the sensibilities of a few readers even though I have a few more details that would let you narrow down who to watch for and maybe let you help us catch him.

In another reported form of racial profiling:

From what my brother told me, my niece, who is half Latino and half white was in a small selected group from her Air National guard unit sent to Iraq. Oddly enough, it seems that no whites, or at least very few of them from her unit, were selected for this tour of duty.

I'm glad to report that she is now back home safe with her children once again.

Adrift in the Sea of Humility