Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Value

About a week ago an African American teen in North Carolina was pepper sprayed in his home for being mistaken as a burglar."Stacy Tyler said she had left her home unlocked because she knew her foster son, DeShawn Currie, would be arriving home from school. When neighbors spotted Currie, who is black, entering the Tyler residence, they immediately called police."When the police asked why he was in the house he told them that he lived there and when the police saw pictures of the white parents on the wall they thought that clearly Deshawn was lying.Its difficult to say on whether the police were the ones at wrong here for having the same reaction most people would have.I myself have an african american friend whose foster parents are white and often times when he tells people that his parents are white they don't believe him as well.I don't think the police not initially believing that he was not apart of the family to be wrong , however pepper spraying him without getting to the bottom of the situation is. However the neighbors who saw him walk through the front door of the house, but not break in nor get into the house in a suspicious way, wouldn't have assumed a white man walking in the front door as a burglar but instead saw a young black man and expected the worse.However this isn't a white vs black problem but how society in general views young black men as threats to society. Although I do believe that is more likely for the white family to have called the police on the black teen walking into the house I'm not confident that a black family wouldn't have assumed the same thing.The lives and attitudes toward young black men are one of the most devalued in our society today, by not only white but black people as well.Before this racial profiling and black and white controversies can ever stop we as african american have to stop profiling ourselves.


for more on this story : http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/10/black-teen-in-white-foster-home-pepper-sprayed-by-police-who-mistook-him-for-burglar/

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