What Would You Do? Bike Thief

[MA-Caver]

Stunning experiment in how we react to what we see in our society.
This show creates (with actors) various situations and sees how people will react to them.

This particular one... a young guy is working on stealing a bike. He's dressed in a hip-hop style and has all these tools to work on the chain and lock that's holding a bike to a sign in a park. As he is working on it only a FEW people ask him about what he is doing.
But wait... they place a different young man, dressed similarly doing exactly the same thing and people are being angry with what he is doing and even going as far as using their cell phones to call 911 or boldly confronting him.

The difference. The first young man is WHITE the second young man... is BLACK.

Watch the video:

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As I watched it I was at first appalled at the seeming "non-reactions" of a majority of people... continuing to the end... I was sadly disgusted.

WE have a LONG way to go... sigh... just when I thought we were just getting over racial stereotypes.

Your thoughts...
There are other vids and I think they're worth sharing and discussing about. :asian:

 

[bribrius]

Stunning experiment in how we react to what we see in our society.
This show creates (with actors) various situations and sees how people will react to them.

This particular one... a young guy is working on stealing a bike. He's dressed in a hip-hop style and has all these tools to work on the chain and lock that's holding a bike to a sign in a park. As he is working on it only a FEW people ask him about what he is doing.
But wait... they place a different young man, dressed similarly doing exactly the same thing and people are being angry with what he is doing and even going as far as using their cell phones to call 911 or boldly confronting him.

The difference. The first young man is WHITE the second young man... is BLACK.

As I watched it I was at first appalled at the seeming "non-reactions" of a majority of people... continuing to the end... I was sadly disgusted.

WE have a LONG way to go... sigh... just when I thought we were just getting over racial stereotypes.

Your thoughts...
There are other vids and I think they're worth sharing and discussing about. :asian:

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/data/table_43.html

http://www.diversityweb.org/Digest/w98/research2.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype


I go with the theory that stereotypes are normal. It helps the brain efficiently categorize and is natural. Some types or stereotyping right and some wrong. Racial profiling is not always incorrect. I also am in the camp believing much of it is still the perception of groups from tribal thinking. A person more able to know and wanting to associate with their own tribe and while knowing less about another, the brain stereotypes out of efficiency based on perceived information of the other group or tribe. Agreeing with that part of the wiki article that people tend to notice difference more than similarities. Tribe may not just mean race but also groups of common interest or groups considered a persons safety zone. Race could be the more common as people do seem to self organize by race to a extent.

racial stereo types may never go away. I am pretty sure stereotypes won't. i think part of it is in are tribal dna and by nature the brain likes to categorize for simplicity sake. Maybe from competition for resources at one point. Not sure.

In the case of the bike. I haven't looked over criminal data well enough to make a decision on if theft is a legitament stereotype. I found a couple articles on how criminal statistics fail in some accuracy tests so i can't say one way or the other. My opinion currently, i would say the sterotype with the bike lacks merit.

 

[WC_lun]

It is a sad commentary on how we think we have preogressed as a race, but are still tribal animals that view different as wrong. At least not everyone in the world is so ignorant.

 

[girlbug2]

Yes I believe that the race of the second bike thief played a major role in the reactions of the passersby. It is sad.

May I point out something that I observed? Contrary to what was said about them being dressed in similar hip hop style clothing, in fact there were marked differences in how they were dressed. The white kid had a standard plain jeans and t shirt that fit him in a fairly conventional way. The black kids clothing were noticably larger on his frame and his pants were sagging. Those things say "gang banger" or at least "wannabe" loud and clear. No they were not really dressed that similarly. This is not an objectively staged sociological study.

 

[Bruno@MT]

May I point out something that I observed? Contrary to what was said about them being dressed in similar hip hop style clothing, in fact there were marked differences in how they were dressed. The white kid had a standard plain jeans and t shirt that fit him in a fairly conventional way. The black kids clothing were noticably larger on his frame and his pants were sagging. Those things say "gang banger" or at least "wannabe" loud and clear. No they were not really dressed that similarly. This is not an objectively staged sociological study.

+1. While the race was probably an issue, clothing was as well.
I also think that people tend not to get involved because a) there may be a valid reason to try and break the lock (it could be he lost his key). b) they may get a violent reaction. and c) have you ever tried calling the cops for a bicycle theft?

Regarding the cops... some jackass once backed his car into mine. By the time he got out, I could see that he was either drunk or high on something. In the end I could get the cops to show up, but they refused to write a citation for the other guy for driving in reverse on the road (which he admitted to, to the cops) nor did they want to test him for intoxication despite the fact that he was behaving erratically and confused. All they wanted to do is make us fill out the insurance form and get away.

So yeah. Unless this was happening in my little village and I thought it was a genuine theft, I would not even bother calling the cops.
EDIT: this is not a slight towards cops in general, but a bicycle theft in progress is really not something that the cops will spend time on.

 

[WC_lun]

hmmm Guess I'm lucky in a way, because if I call the cops in my neighborhood in Kansas City, they come. Now I haven't called them for anything really silly, but I have called them for drunk and disorderly and vehicle damage, which I would rate as low priority calls. I live in SE Kansas City which is fairly rough, so they are pretty busy. If I called them for someone trying to steal a bike or a vehicle accident, I'm sure there wouldn't be a problem getting them to do thier job.