Apparently, the discrimination I experienced are common place occurances for black males.
Even President Obama has faced it:
"But in the most expansive remarks he has made about race since becoming president, Mr. Obama offered three examples of the humiliations borne by young black men in America: being followed while shopping in a department store, hearing the click of car doors locking as they cross a street, or watching as women clutch their purses nervously when they step onto an elevator. The first two experiences, he said, had happened to him."
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/20/u...-on-race-in-america.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&hp
I think I've told this story before on here, but I had black male roommate who liked to shop at Radioshack. He would go there with business clothes on and get great service. But if he went there with sweats or a running suit on, the clerks would follow him around the store watching him as if he were about to steal.
I guess that's upsetting from the perspective of if you didn't know better and saw that happening, one might assume that he was getting treated that way because he was a thief rather than out of prejudice. "Otherwise, why would they treat him like that?"... And just the disrespect and redundancy of those situations.
Since the examples of prejudice so far, are fairly concrete and obvious, I will add a little twist. Below are some types of prejudice that I believe often go undetected.
Subtle prejudice:
In some nice neighborhoods and various office buildings (maybe even classrooms or colleges in some places), security and tenants sometimes
really over scrutinize the presence of anyone who doesn't "look" like they belong. This can be used as a playing card by other tenants/colleagues, especially if there's motivation (like a competition for a promotion, competition not to be laid off, any sort of minor conflict). Some people call it "playing dirty," and even take pride in being "tough and fierce," overlooking or not caring about playing the
race card. (Subtle because of the justifications: "I'm not prejudice. I had to do it, or I would have been laid off.")
Then there's "
sowing seeds of distrust" as depicted in the movie, O (for Othello). The prejudice character here, a coach's son, was motivated by jealousy of the black guy. Instead of doing any one major or obvious act of discrimination or hate (for most of the film) he just kept "sowing the seeds of distrust like johnny appleseed" and successfully manipulated a lot of people one tiny step at a time. The movie explains it better than I do. (The people in the movie were able to be manipulated since they were wary of Othello. Because he was black, they saw him as different. This boils down to whether or not a white* person would have been treated like Othello.)
Using
excuses for hateful behavior. Occasionally there is a person or group that truly doesn't want so-and-so in their clubhouse based on race, gender, or something. Since everyone knows that in modern times it's inappropriate to say, "I don't like black people." Then you simply say, "I don't like him," or make up something like, "He shouldn't be in the clubhouse because (fill in the blank) say, he makes messes." Or worse yet, "He's too loud," using a stereotype to add sting or insult to injury. Of course, this involves pretending that the reason for hateful actions is not based on race at all. (This boils down to whether the reason for dislike, etc. is true or not.)
When the people in charge (wherever, at a business, etc.) are aware of these things and consider them when dealing with whomever (say employees, tenants, etc.) then they can usually counteract a good deal of these problems and not be fooled.
If the people in charge do NOT know about these things and are fooled consistently, I suspect that the effects on the victim and maybe even the victim's supporters could be traumatizing, re-traumatizing, or even worse. I suspect that this is especially true in situations where the victim believes that he cannot leave for financial or educational reasons (examples: elementary school, the corporate office, etc.), and is being intimidated or harassed (maybe behind closed doors or only when certain people are present). This is why I speak up here, to raise awareness for anyone who doesn't already know. To prevent this as much as possible in the future.
*I say "white" because in the movie it was white people. Of course, a person of any race can potentially be racially prejudice against any other race. And of course, people who are racial minorities are sometimes prejudice of LGBT people, other religions, etc. Being a minority doesn't necessarily stop someone from hating other minorities.
