Let me first make this clear! Everyone has the right to be over-sensitive, especially given what had happened last week. A friend of mine, who uses a black backpack (unfortunately), was detained by station agent to speak with BART Police because someone had reported him! He is Caucasian, but what he did that triggered suspicion was he placed his heavy backpack on one of the circular "seats" on the BART platform, to give himself a break, as he walked 3 feet away to stretch.
An elderly man immediately reporter him! I don't blame him-- he was doing his due diligence especially given last week's horrific events. But are we all under scrutiny??
Separately, I've surfed Twitter for other complaints of over-sensitivity on #SFBART and found a couple incidences where racial profiling allegedly occurred.
This is the Bay Area. We are the shining example of multi-ethnicity, tolerance and melting pot. If it's happening here, I can only imagine how awful it is everywhere else in the US. I believe there have been at least 6 racially charged beatings reported by news outlets, and that's just me counting by how many I actually read. I'm sure there are much more reported and unreported!!
I pray for our safety, and our country's safety but for me at least, the increased racial profiling is a concern. I do my part by learning and reciting facts to dispel ignorance and stereotyping when I hear it. I was, after all, an Ethnic Studies and Political Science major at UC Berkeley...racial politics is of personal interest to me!
Have you heard or seen any racially-charged incidents lately due to the Boston events?
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