In the movie “Groundhog Day,” the main character, played by Bill Murray, is forced to relive February 2 in Punxsutawney, PA, over and over again. At first, he believes it was an odd occurrence, but as the day repeated itself the character sunk further and further into despair. He eventually would emerge – using the time to educate himself, learn new skills, and help people. The day finally ended for him when he got the day right.
I bring up the analogy because a reader this week likened Vanguard coverage of community complaints of racism to Groundhog Day. For them, it was the repeated message over and over again that in the movie was depicted in the wake-up song by Sonny and Cher, “I Got You Babe.” But the lessons of the movie are that the solution is actually to focus on the problem and attempt to resolve it.
Part of the problem, I think, in gaining an understanding is that whites and minorities do not see the world and experience the world in the same way. I think a white person who experiences something like the flyer that we depicted earlier this week is in a position to shrug it off and even treat it with humorous bemusement rather than a threat.
For Eli Davis, it was a great humiliation to have a police officer approach him while mowing his lawn in the middle of the afternoon and asking him if he lived there and then requesting identification.
By all accounts, Mr. Davis was a soft-spoken, unassuming man. And yet something about this incident drove him to anger and indignation. For him, that manifested in his writing a letter to the editor.
A few months ago I became aware of an incident at Woodstock’s Pizza in Davis. A couple members of the Chicano/Latino community ordered pizza at the counter and searched for a place to sit down and eat. They found a few unbussed tables that appeared to be unoccupied and sat down at one.
Suddenly a female customer sat down at their table and accused them of stealing their table. Soon after, a male approached the table and accused them of eating their food and drinking their drinks. Both were white.
The male made the comment, “I hope you enjoy your stolen pizza the way you enjoy welfare.”
The incident escalated when a female staff member in a security shirt came in and accused the group of Latinos of “being out of hand.” Other customers joined in and the room began chanting “Jerry, Jerry, Jerry” in reference to the Jerry Springer Show.
Woodstock employees called the Davis Police Department. According to one person, they asked the security guard why they were being kicked out. The security guard replied, “Because you won’t get out.” They replied, “You never asked us to leave.” They then asked, “What reasons are you asking us to leave?” The security guard gave no reasons and just replied, “You need to go!”
There were also complaints that the police simply came in and ordered them to leave without assessing who was in the right. One of the officers physically pushed one of the students out. After the incident both students called the Davis police department to file a complaint.
These are small incidents, but put together they create a viewpoint that many students of color find this community to be hostile and unwelcoming to people of color. In 2014, UC Davis issued a 300-page “UC Campus Climate Assessment Project,” which found that 24 percent of respondents (4371 people in total) “believed that they had personally experienced exclusionary, intimidating, offensive and/or hostile conduct,” with large differences based on key demographics such as race and ethnicity.
Part of the problem with attempting to deal with many of these types of problems is the subtlety. At the Breaking the Silence event in February, a member of the public talked about an experience she had with a man from India whom she had gotten to know on a bus in Davis. She had recently seen him and he had moved to Sacramento. When she asked how he liked it there, he said, “It’s much better.” People were not making the kinds of comments to him that they did in Davis.
She then described her experience as a female civil engineer. There was one guy, she said, from whom “I kept getting digs all the time. I talked to the other women in our group and they didn’t see it at all because it wasn’t happening to them.” She said, “The light came on, if it doesn’t happen to you, these subtle things, you don’t see them. But if it’s happening to you, it’s a slap in the face each time.”
After that experience, she said, “I want to make sure I’m not doing that because I think that the guy who was doing that to me and the people that were doing it to my friend on the bus, they may not have even realized that they were doing it because it’s so subtle.”
What she was describing is what is known as microaggressions. Microaggression theory is one form of unintended discrimination. “It is depicted by the use of known social norms of behavior and/or expression that, while without conscious choice of the user, has the same effect as conscious, intended discrimination.”
Part of the problem with dealing with microaggressions is that the behavior is very subtle. We could point out an example and most people would say – in isolation – it is not a big deal. The problem I think comes with being exposed to these microaggressions on a regular basis, and they probably just begin to wear on you.
What troubles me is the efforts on these pages by commenters to minimize these sorts of incidents. The sort of thing that happened to Eli Davis is obviously not at the same level as some of the police incidents we have been covering, but for him, it was a source of a great indignity that he would be treated as a suspect based strictly on his race.
For the students at Woodstock’s, the way it was handled by all involved turned the incident from a simple misunderstanding to a degrading incident once it was personalized. And that indignity was escalated by the indifferent treatment allegedly by both Woodstock’s and the Davis Police.
I think we can do better and I think it starts with a restorative justice-based approach. Allow those who feel wronged to sit down at the table and have the offenders get a chance to listen to how their behavior impacted others.
I don’t go so far as some who believe that this is a manifestation of UC Davis and the city being deeply racist. Instead, I think these are largely white communities that suffer from unconscious bias more than deep-seated conscious prejudice and that the best way to approach these issues is by setting up restorative processes that can be utilized whenever such situations arise.
If we can put these new processes in place and address these problems – rather than trying to minimize them, turn them on the victim or denigrate the victim – I believe that the next time one of these incidents occur, instead of waking up in a perpetual feedback loop (i.e. “Groundhog Day”), we can move on to a new day.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
“For them, it was the repeated message over and over again that in the movie was depicted in the wake-up song by Sonny and Cher, “I Got You Babe.” But the lessons of the movie are that the solution is actually to focus on the problem and attempt to resolve it.”
many of your viewers have focused on “the problem” and “resolved” it……..leave the vanguard. many have left. for them, Febuary 2nd has come and gone.
“many of your viewers have focused on “the problem” and “resolved” it……..leave the vanguard. many have left. for them, Febuary 2nd has come and gone.”
Why, dear Lady, do you not join them?
;>)/
🙂
LadyNewkBahm likes this 🙂
Love your posts on here LadyNewkBahm, keep contributing.
ty for the support BP I appreciate it, but the atmosphere here is too poisonous.
Don’t leave LNB, I love your wit and sarcasm.
Don’t worry BP, he/she can always come back with his/her third identity.
I guess you’d know all about how that works.
It’s funny how some commenters get called out while others don’t for using more than one identity which is okay per Vanguard terms of use.
If you suspect a person with more than one identity is posting on the Vanguard, report the specific screen names to the Vanguard Editorial Board. As a Vanguard reader that is what I would do. Or better yet call the screen names and their specific comments out here in a Vanguard comments thread.
Why would I report it? It’s within the rules and that’s why I’m surprised that someone is now being pointed out for having changed an identity or using more than one identity.
BP, your sarcasm meter is clearly on the fritz. If you thought my comment was anything other than sarcastic, please think again.
You are the one poster who recurrently brings up the subject of multiple poster identities. I can’t think of another person besides you who has that concern. If you didn’t bring it up, it never would be discussed.
I don’t see anything sarcastic in your post at all. If you were really trying to be sarcastic you sure aren’t any good at it.
You didn’t see “Don’t worry BP, he/she can always come back with his/her third identity.” as sarcastic? In what universe would it have been serious?
And then they change their log-in and come back.
we’ll see about that.
I have a few thoughts. 1) It is a gift to our community when people speak up, because I am sure that these two incidents are just the tip of the iceberg. I would not want to return to Woodstock’s, if that happened to me–and probably wouldn’t/may not now. 2) Could one more layer of complexity be added to this discussion and not lose the point? Within the group labeled “white” is a ton of diversity. The discussion might benefit from acknowledging that the vast majority of whites are “nobodies” and that very few are “somebodies.” People who abuse their power don’t turn it on and off like a switch so cleanly and the vast majority of white people experience the power elite’s power trips and have to suck-it-up, too. In other words, whites end up in groups (churches, schools, jobs) where they are not a member of the “in” group because they weren’t born to the right family, etc. 3) I am a middle aged gray haired white lady. A few years ago, I had two interactions with the Davis police within a short period of time and was struck by how, when I was “bad,” they treated me like I was a horrible person and when I was “good” they were solicitous and kind. 4) I acknowledge that the sheer number of times that I’ve had to interact with the police is lower than most/all people of color. As just one example– A few years ago I was meeting a friend of mine at a mall and arrived 5 minutes late to see him being confronted by Security because he’d been reported by a shopper as loitering. I would be angry all of the time, if I had to deal with it.
A one-sided version of a story is given and Woodstocks loses money.
I hope Woodstock’s managers write a rebuttal.
“Allow those who feel wronged to sit down at the table and have the offenders get a chance to listen to how their behavior impacted others.”
In Davis, “the offenders” are the two students who disrupted the (Euro-centric) gemütlichkeit. Just ask Davis PD or the security guard, or the business owners, who know it would be bad business to assign blame or responsibility to their “regular” customers. I see little inclination on the part of “White” Davis to “listen” to anyone who challenges their, always self-aggrandising, assessment of the status quo.
;>)/
Groundhog day again, different day same old racism articles and examples.
Davis is a very accepting community of all races, all the Vanguard is doing is smearing our community in the eyes of outsiders who don’t know better. Good job Vanguard, doing what you do best.
I want to clarify, I don’t believe that the intention of the Vanguard is to smear the community, but the constant drumbeat of racism articles I believe is having that affect.
BP
“different day same old racism articles and examples.”
I would like to reframe your comment. Different day, new example of a case of racist behaviors. When there are frequent new examples, should this not be considered a problem to be addressed. How many new examples would it take for you to decide that there is a problem ?
What about the Bonillo case which while not in Davis, seemed very telling to me with quotes about how “they looked like narco traffickers. I have heard nothing about this very blatant example from the “ground hog day” set who like to minimize these cases even when they fall into the macro rather than microagression realm.
My view is that the intent is less to smear the community than to point out how it looks from the other side. Microaggressions are by nature subconscious though some of this bleeds into overt behavior
BP
“the constant drumbeat of racism articles I believe is having that affect.”
On what are you basing that opinion. Are people refusing to move here because Davis is portrayed as a racist community ? Are businesses choosing not to open here on that basis ? Is this a cause of people selling their houses and leaving or closing their businesses ?
I am truly curious about how you see Davis as being harmed by the Vanguard articles on this subject.
Tia Will, first off Happy Mothers Day
To answer your question,
if a student of color thinking of going to UCDavis or a family of color who was thinking of moving here and were trying to gather info on the community and came across the many Vanguard articles about racism in Davis it might sway them to go elsewhere.
outsiders who don’t live here and don’t know any better might read the Vanguard and get the impression that it’s a racist community when in fact it isn’t.
I love my community, it’s not racist and is very open to all walks of life so it irritates me that an outsider might get that impression.
Trust me… there is probably less than one in 100,000 prospective UCD students who would read the Vanguard and make a decision based on that, if they did read it. Which is a good thing. Shows intelligence.
The Vanguard is a legend in its own mind.
But, it’s fun to ‘play’, right?
“The Vanguard is a legend in its own mind.”
nice
“I love my community, it’s not racist and is very open to all walks of life so it irritates me that an outsider might get that impression.”
I I think a lot of people of color disagree on that.
BP, don’t you know declaring that Davis isn’t a racist community makes you a racist? For shame!
Davis isn’t racist says the white person. Well, not if you’re white, it isn’t. But seems like what counts is the opinion of the people who do experience racism. Hey, I lived in the south in the 50’s. IMO it wasn’t racists at all. Now my neighborhood and school were all white and I can’t remember encountering a non-white person so maybe my experience isn’t pertinent.
I’m saying that Davis isn’t racist in an overall context. Sure you’re going to have an incident here and there where some idiot creates a racist act, but I stand by what I said, as a community Davis isn’t racist.
i’ll put it this way – davis is a lot more racist than you would expect of a town that is as progressive as it is.
So if 50% of the Davis “most wanted” criminals are Latino, is that racism, micro aggression, or legal consequences?
BP (see below), given those wide parameters, I could blame gluten or global warming for everything, too.
I’ll put it this way, if one goes out of their way looking for racism in every crack and blows small things out of proportion because they’re hyper sensitive and like playing the victim then sure, you’ll find racism anywhere.
tbd: you keep wanting to conflate criminal activity with this, it’s not about criminal activity.
Is it just me, or are we constantly seeing instances of “micro-aggression” based on race, political inclinations, philosophies, etc. on this blog?
Yet, that seems to be OK in the last two, and particularly welcome from the two far ends of the bell curve, against the middle.
Happy Mothers’ Day to all you mothers out there!
Read up on Victim Mentality and hypersensitivity.
Every have someone go off on you, and when you come back with a rational and measured argument in defense they reverse course and either attack you for always being right, or always needing to be right or for being mean?
If so, you have probably encountered a hypersensitive person aflicted with a victim mentality.
The more a person rises toward a level of economic success, generally the more capable that person is at fostering and maintaining stong relationships with others. But hypersensitive victims will struggle with this. They can’t stop burning from the slightest of slights. They deconstruct rather than build relationship bridges with a constant stream of accusatory positions and tend to passively-agressivly make life miserable for those around them. Except for the other hypersensitive victims they encounter who will echo their feelings and make them feel “safe”.
Put one of these people in a locker room of the average professional sports fanchise and they would struggle to handle the normal banter between players. In fact, even gifted with althletic ability they would likely not make it a professional status having dropped out of the high school and/or college banter.
The issue here is the point of reasonablness. It is not reasonable for a person to feel unsafe from what are average and normal encounters. Just like it is not reasonable to accept banter or aggressive interactions over the line of what is average and normal.
There should be no universal acceptance of demand that the world make everyone always feel safe from bad feelings. Sometimes the person feelng bad has a problem with coping and/or problem forging and maintaining relationships with others. And for them this term “microagression” is just a justification for the same in retrobution against those they target as making them feel bad.
“There should be no universal acceptance of demand that the world make everyone always feel safe from bad feelings.”
perhaps ps but we can do better. The examples in this piece are keen examples
Newtons law. Sometimes we cannot do better because trying to do tips a balance that makes other things worse. I think we have already gone too far in accepting and accomodating this “I don’t feel safe” claim.
The examples above are too one-sided to be believable. I suspect that there is more to the story that would cause the average reader to be less sympathetic to the “victim”.
That is another halmark of a hypersenstive victim… factually embellishing the story to promote a victim status. It is because they feel so bad that they have to add strength to the story in support of their feelings. But as we discover time and time again, the truth ends up being much less fantastic and the victim much more deserving of what actually happened.
you don’t think your dismissive attitude has an impact on the climate of the city – i mean every single article some one of color reads on this site contains your insentive portrayal of victimization (which is an assertion without foundation other than your own prejudices).
It does not do anyone a damn bit of long-term good empathizing with their personal narrative of being mistreated.
I don’t know what your history is, and I hesitate to even make the following statement because of my general understanding of the distructive slippery slope of feeling like a victim, but I have faced a lot of adversity growing up. I was the poor kid that looked and acted differently. My family moved many times, and I was always picked on coming to different schools. I was harrassed by cops in my long hair days. But none of that defines me as an adult. When shit happens to me… and a lot of shit has happened to me and I expect more to come… I don’t look for others to blame unless they are specifically and materially to blame.
I read Daniel Goleman’s books on destructive emotions and emotional intelligence. The problem I have with this impulse to reach out to satiate the troubled emotions of those that feel like they are mistreated is that it enables their destructive emotions.
I don’t want people to feel bad, but I recognize the placebo verses long-term resolution.
you raise an interesting point that i have often observed. young white people with long hair have some commonalties with minorities, however, at some point they grow older and cut their hair and they no longer get harrassed by the authorities. i suspcct you would have a slightly different view if the harrassment continued when you were in your 30s, 40s and 50s. unlike you, a young black man can get older, but he doesn’t stop being black. as the eli davis incident demonstrates, even a 62 year old african american is treated with suspicion.
sinc you mentioned yours, my view is colored by my daughter’s experiences as a mixed-race girl in davis.
So then, why do long haired males get more attention from cops?
And while you are at it, why do Asians get less attention from cops?
in both cases it’s profiling, although with the rise of asian gangs and the influx of immigrants from se asia, i suspect that will change.
My thoughts too. Here we have David regurgitating some of the same old stories that I think I’ve heard 10 times already. As far as the new supposed racist incident at Woodstocks, let’s just say there’s two sides to every story. Who’s to say it was about race and they weren’t just being overly aggressive? We don’t know and David doesn’t know either. So to throw that out there like it was another example of racism imo is jumping the gun.
if i described a crime as the guy was walking down the street, jumped out of the bushes, took my phone and ran off – would your reaction be: (a) i believe you or (b) that description is too one-sided to be believable?
I’d believe you. But if you said someone jumped out of the bushes and took your phone because your are a Latino and that would’ve never happened to a white person then I’d have to say you were full of it.
DP, if Davis was so oppressive to your mixed race daughter, why not relocate to Vacaville, Sacramento, or Elk Grove?
Growing up, my friends who were mixed race often got more grief from their minority brethren … terms like “sell out”, assumptions of wealth, and really a lot of envy and jealousy… as well as being a target in South Central for looking different. Nuances were different for such young people who were girls, as they were typically seen as more attractive and desirable by young black men, older men, but they caught tremendous grief and sometimes outright hostility from African American girls.
I should have guessed that this would be your answer.
I call it statistical probability assessment. If demographics did not matter, every group would have nearly the same crime statistics.
Your point that Asians will be more represented in law enforcement ecounters because of the rise in Asain gangs is quite astounding coming on the heels of you saying that the lower representation is racial profiling.
To “prove” profiling you would need to develop a formula that calculates the profile of a person and the probability that their representative group would be involved in some activity that justifies attention from law enforcement.
I don’t discount that there is bias in some cops. I wish you would demonstrate some intellectual honesty to admit that much of the difference in law enforcement attention of difference demographic groups is simply risk and probability assessment. The vast differences between Asian and black crime and other social statistics is proof of this and I think you know it but stubbornly won’t admit it.
tbd: i know a lot of people who ended up doing that. in the end, i guess i was a fighter. our daughter had enough support to make it through and succeed, but it was unnecessarily tough for her and we had some tough times.
frankly: the problem with that approach is that you end up alienating a lot of innocent people who end up caught up in the net. that’s part of what we are seeing play out now.
Touche. Even David embellishes the Eli Davis story, making the false assertion that he was only questioned because he was black. In fact, he is also male, an adult, and there was a criminal loose in the area who was an adult black male. Duh. The police department wasn’t checking black toddlers or black grandmothers. Further, David leaves out that once Eli Davis gained admission to his own house, even though he didn’t have ID on him, the questioning ended without incident.
The Vanguard also ignores violent attacks and sexual assaults when committed by people of color – actual assaults – in favor of perceived slights.
I’d also add that kids from the inner city or barrio often don’t have strong male role models who can teach them how to interact with authority figures, and how ‘backing down’ is not a sign of weakness, but maturity.
if you’re going to play that game, you omitted that he was a 62 year old man mowing a lawn, not likely the profile of a criminal. as they, the caller said it was a black man, apparently the police exercised no judgment as to which. interestingly enough i’m informed that the officer, who had been on the force for some time, retired abruptly shortly after that incident.
as i pointed out to you earlier this week, the violent attacks resulting in arrests and prosecutions. the other incidents nothing. so why would it focus on something where solutions were already in place?
The four unidentified young black men who attacked 2 students on the street last week were arrested? Really? I’ve seen no police descriptions, clues, or updates as to their suspected affiliations.
not much you can do if they can’t identified, but if they are identified, do so you suspect we have mechanisms to handle it?
Which would suggest he was a jackass and/or a racist and/or a dumbass and/or they needed a scapegoat. It says nothing about Davis being a racist community.
He probably had enough years on the force to cash out and start collecting a generous pension, and he doesn’t have to deal with a 6-month public proctology exam.
” It says nothing about Davis being a racist community.”
nor does the article say anything about davis being a racist community. in fact, there is only one reference to racism in the entire article and that is: “I bring up the analogy because a reader this week likened Vanguard coverage of community complaints of racism to Groundhog Day.”
the article however is not about racism. it’s about something called microaggressions. as he writes: “Microaggression theory is one form of unintended discrimination. “It is depicted by the use of known social norms of behavior and/or expression that, while without conscious choice of the user, has the same effect as conscious, intended discrimination.” Part of the problem with dealing with microaggressions is that the behavior is very subtle.”
key part of microaggression theory is that it is unintentional and subconscious. it’s not that people are racist in davis its that they are oblivious to how their conduct affects others and how insensitive they are.
Frankly: Every have someone go off on you, and when you come back with a rational and measured argument in defense they reverse course and either attack you for always being right, or always needing to be right or for being mean?
If this happens with my wife (which it does once in a while), I find that it is healthier for our relationship, once in a while, to figure out how to listen sympathetically, and with minimal to no comment, and especially not try to respond with a “rational and measured defense of myself.” There are times when I find that this is a helpful strategy with other relationships in my life.
I thought this was called Mars vs Venus, or also sometimes menopause?
TBD: Are you married?
Actually, wdf, the better question is ‘how many times’?
Hilarious! 🙂
wdf1: that is a fair point. me too. and with others. but go too far and it is enabling. and for a husband and wife, you can decide what you are willing to accept of that type of behavior (that saying “happy wife, happy life”, I think sorta’ covers that approach. but keeping the peace in a marriage is not in the ballpark for this attempt to legislate the whole of society to “keep the peace” by allowing the “victims” to rail and point fingers and blame… and then fall back on a victim card when it is later proved, as it usually is, that “victim” was wrong.
I personally would not stand for much of this in my marriage. It is a partnership and certainly I have to give in to some of the battles to win the war even when I know that I am right. But allowing too much wrong to win the day only to make my spouse feel good and to keep the peace leads to a spiril of dysfunctional expecations and bad decisions that end up wrecking things in the end.
Most of my friends and family that divorced did so because the lack of a stand in the relationship ended up creating an unsatisfying mess.
I think each spouse should tell the other… if there is going to be too much walking on eggshells expressing an opinion, then one might just walk away at some point.
Communication needs to real and genuine. There are tools we can use to demonstrate that we are listening and can hear the meaining (and feeling) of the other, but that does not mean we should just roll over and accept what we know is wrong. Sometimes the truth hurts, and we all have to learn how to accept it.
Can you explain this one a bit more?
“Most of my friends and family that divorced did so because the lack of a stand in the relationship ended up creating an unsatisfying mess.”
I’ve always thought the “happy wife, happy life” had some truth to it, but also made it seem like the man had to suppress or subjugate his needs. I’ve known men who did this for decades, and then eventually left the union of what everyone thought was a great marriage.
TBD – Yes, that is what I was trying to explain. The term “happy wife, happy life” should be changed to something that ensures the husband isn’t building expectations that he eventually cannot live with. It depends on the personality of the people in the partnership, but generally it is not healthy for a partnership when one side is prone to emotional response and the other side keeps placating.
At the same time a partnership won’t be healthy if one side tends to be dismissive of the emotional responses of the other side.
Getting back to my point about race and law enforcement, we have a broken partenrship between law enforcement and some race demographics in some areas of the country. It seems to me that law enforcement needs to do better demonstrating that they hear and understand and have empathy for the emotional response of these racial groups, while the racial groups and the social justice crusaders supporting them need to stop with the passive-agressive behavior against law enforcement.
A-F-ing-men Frank Lee!
why on earth should we read up on any subject you love? You are always here to inform is of you beliefs and explain them to us. Trust me, that is more than enough.
TBD
After 30 plus years of practice including counseling thousands of menopausal women : just because the woman is menopausal doesn’t mean the man in her life is more rational.
LOL. Well said. ALthough I think we can draw a parallel with increased hormone production and irrational thought and behavior… no matter what sex!
At the risque of being ‘inappropriate’, had a college roommate who told me his grandfather advised him “peters don’t think”. That would be the “T-factor”, and explains a lot of things in adolescence.
Your grandfather might also have said that god gave man a brain and a penis, but only enough blood flow to run one at a time.
Also hilarious! 😉
Funny that the comment you reacted to (appropriately, I might add), today of all “days”, as I first read it, reminded me of someone standing barefoot, inches deep in saline water, on an iron pad with an iron rod sunk well into the ground, licking their finger, at a BART station, and deliberately touching the “third rail”.
Again, to all the mothers out there, and specifically to you, Tia, Happy Mothers’ Day.
Also hilarious! 🙂
This town is anything but progressive and by no means racially tolerant.
The Eli Davis incident was spurred by a resident racially profiling some african americans selling items door-to-door in West Davis. Apparently, if an african american is walking around a West Davis neighborhood, there needs to be police intervention.
There are a number of other well-documented incidents where a call to the police department is made because it is two african americans having an argument outside an apartment building or a hispanic male knocking on doors in a neighborhood.
We also have more than our share of hate crimes, and I can tell from my experience of having children in our schools that non-white students are often belittled by both students and teachers and often profiled by administrators.
Yes, this has happened in other communities that I have lived, but I find this town far more racist/elitist than communities I lived in which would be considered the “old south”.
While the Vanguard and others like to focus on the police and the justice system — I believe the racial bias is far deeper than that. This town has more than its fair share of older whites who have never paid more than more than lip service to racial integration — and with a very expensive college that is part of the UC system, we have a lot of kids who grew up in elitist neighborhoods and went to elitist high schools who have never encountered anyone that isn’t just like them.
i agree with your post. i did not realize that the eli davis incident was spawned by a false community report. so basically you have a racial profiling incident by the public leading to a racial profiling incident by the police. the vanguard likely focuses on the police because its assessibility, but given my daughter’s experience, i agree with you, it goes well beyond that. unfortunately some of it is too subtle for some on here to really notice it.
My perception is a bit different. Close to the elitist label… but actually a mix of uptight, suburban, and progressive liberal nanny state. I came from a very diverse neighborhood, and there was culture shock, growing pains, and the uptight feeling. I believe it is very easy for young people to mis-characterize what they experience as “racism” as its been drubbed into their heads for at least 6-8 years by the time they get to college, and within certain subgroups they may have been given this mindset since Day 1.
Progressives have a hard time dealing with the facts that crime statistics are off the charts in certain communities, so what they see is a natural reaction to those facts. We just had two students sent to the hospital with serious injuries by a car full of African American youth, a female student sexually assaulted by an international student from Africa, and here we have another article about a minority group having their feelings hurt. Welcome to political correctness.
If minority youth are truly “belittled” by teachers, they should be removed. Period. But this doesn’t sound like the whole story.
You also gleefully stereotype white people. I heard another liberal stereotyping and mocking a preppy looking white teenager … the egg on his face was considerable after he proffered stereotypes similar to yours, and she replied with a response about her charity work in Africa two years running.
“Progressives have a hard time dealing with the facts that crime statistics are off the charts in certain communities, so what they see is a natural reaction to those facts. ”
how do you deal with the fact that crime stats are at 50 year lows in those communities where you re saying they are off the charts?
That’s good news, but not in all cities. I believe the stats are still highly disproportional.
I won’t even quote a part of Gunrocikgog’s comments. The entire way of thinking appalls me.
Would Chicano gang graffiti in campus and public bathrooms be considered microaggressions?
In Davis? Where?
Your question would be better phrased (IMO) as “has this happened”? If the answer is ‘yes’ should you not take it at “face value”? I suspect the question you responded to was a bogus attempt to stir up stuff…
Graffiti is placed more than in the bathrooms. It is on the signs, dumpsters and other places. I notice it because I used to find it in the Med Center when I worked there.
They come to campus and around to steal and sell drugs to the locals and students. Not every kid here on campus came from the pristine neighborhood you think. When they get here, their family also comes to visit and the crimes start again.
If you think it needs to be a soundwall sized tag to be a gang, you don’t understand it. The Police and Gang Units have web pages devoted to the tags they find. You can educate yourself which gang, which area, and more.
They???
Sorry Alan, not specific enough for you. The students – some trying to escape their environment, others trying to score a little stuff (your choice of what) bring in relatives or friends who are criminals. Some are criminals, others are related to them or want the product they have.
So you find graffiti all over, in Sharpie and other media, just a quick tag.
In campus bathrooms.
Fascinating that they would come onto a college campus to graffiti the bathrooms.
I take heart that maybe the conventional gang life doesn’t hold as much meaning for them and they are getting a college education at one of California’s top institutions of higher learning.
So maybe I wouldn’t get that micro-aggression jolt that you must get in light of that thought. Except I don’t think I would know how to recognize specifically chicano gang graffiti.
Especially since they have to walk or bike in to do it, since cars aren’t allowed on campus. Very, very motivated gang graffiti-ers.
Don Shor: Especially since they have to walk or bike in to do it, since cars aren’t allowed on campus. Very, very motivated gang graffiti-ers.
But also rather modest ambitions in their tagging. Not going for anything big, bold and public, like a 10 foot figure on a water tower, but rather a bathroom wall. Nothing to brag about to your colleagues.
Good point wdf1, which makes me wonder what TrueBlueDevil’s concept of “Chicano gang graffiti” is. I also wonder if he would share some of the referenced bathroom locations so that if any of the Vanguard readers want to go see the graffiti, they can. Most Davis residents have driven down Second Street on their way to and from Downtown, and see railroad cars on the tracks that have been tagged, so most of us are familiar with the visual characteristics of tagging. It will be interesting to see how TBD’s scaled down versions compare.
Maybe “they” also snuck into a Jewish frat to write in the grout.
Matt, what makes you think “they” snuck onto campus, as opposed to simply being a UCD student who occasionally partakes in the cultural acts of their friends, family, or neighborhood?
Even if it happened, it would not be a microaggression. “Microaggression is a form of unintended discrimination. It is depicted by the use of known social norms of behavior and/or expression that, while without conscious choice of the user, has the same effect as conscious, intended discrimination.” It is debatable that gang graffiti is representation of racial discrimination, but more importantly it doesn’t fit the basic concern which is that this is an unintended behavior whereas gang graffiti by definition is intentionally designed to both mark territory and intimidate rival gangs. You’re attempting to jam a construct where it was not intended. And even if you want to argue that there are racial components of gangs, many of the fiercest rivals are actually gangs of the same race – Bloods-Crips; Surenos-Nortenos. That makes sense sense they are fighting over territory and the areas of conflict are going to be within a given ethnicity’s neighborhood. Bottom line is no, microaggression is meant to depict subtle and unintentional behavior.
Actually David, TBD’s use of the term “Chicano gang graffiti” in his prior post may well be a variant of microaggression … one where the person looks at something that offends them (“normal” bathroom graffiti offends me for instance), and unconsciously associates it with a particular minority group.
The term “chicano” more a generational label. For TBD to use the term to refer to contemporary gang culture seems to display some ignorance. The term chicano used to be a more pejorative term in ~1960’s to refer to Mexican immigrants in the U.S.
That generation became more politically active at that time (60’s and 70’s), in relative connection to Cesar Chavez’ work, and many Mexican immigrants of that time appropriated that term as a positive identity label for themselves. You can find Mexican-Americans of a certain age (~baby boomers) who are college professors, business executives and owners, politicians, actors, etc. who readily call themselves “chicano”. I haven’t ever heard recent Mexican immigrants identify themselves as “chicano,” though.
And I can’t imagine these baby-boomer folks who would actually call themselves “chicano” gathering into gangs and going into college bathrooms to write culturally identifying graffiti on the walls. TBD likes to talk about gang culture, though, so maybe he knows something I don’t.
Really?
https://davisvanguard.org/2015/05/concern-expressed-about-recurring-incidents-of-racial-harassment-and-discrimination-at-uc-davis/
Read the article, there are many Chicano references and they even signed their letter:
wdf: the primary latino gangs are the nortenos and surenos. the surenos came out of the prison system and what was known as the mexican mafia. however, the nortenos when there was a perceived level of abuse towards those who came from rural farming areas of nothern california. the norteno-sureno divide is not just geographic but also rural-urban, where the nortenos, who have taken the huega bird symbol of the united farm workers, affiliating more the rural areas.
my understanding has been the chicanos are people of mexican descendance but not born in mexico, rather born in the usa.
BP: Really?
By recent, I mean having immigrated since maybe the mid-80’s. The example you give of “Chicano Studies” is more an academic term. I don’t hear that word used much in every day conversational language the way I remember it from the 1970’s. To use the term “chicano” the way TBD does seems antiquated, like using an even older term, “pachuco,” which was the common term for Mexican-American immigrants of the 40’s and 50’s.
DP: I’m well aware of Latino-american gangs. I’ve just never heard anyone recently refer to them as “chicano.”
There are Mexican-born immigrants of the generation of the 60’s and 70’s who identify themselves as chicano.
wdf1, you have read the name of the department for ethnic studies in question, right?
OK David, maybe gang graffiti is macroaggression.
The only example posted above where it seems there may be some racial/cultural bigotry is the Woodstock’s incident, with the jibe about being on welfare, which is a rather nasty remark to make to a stranger (unless this group of Chicanos/Latinos were indeed eating the pizzas and drinking the drinks paid for by the group of whites, in which case anger is justified!), almost sounds like they were trying to provoke a fight.
I would call such verbal behavior asinine; and if this group of whites were aquaintances of mine; I would reprimand them. Hopefully just a few people having a bad day and taking their frustrations out on others; and that this type of rude asinine behavior is not common (could lead to physical violence!).
I’m in disagreement. The Eli Davis case is a prime example – someone spots some african americans selling items door-to-door in West Davis. They give a very vague description and an officer spots an elderly black man mowing his lawn and approaches him. I just don’t see how you can defend that.
So by your logic, when once every 10 years a police officer stops me to as me questions – once out on the front lawn, just like Eli Davis – that had racist intentions.
Or when I used to go to a long-standing newsstand in downtown Oakland late at night that has papers from across the state, and the police stopped me once, that was racist?
would have to depend on the circumstances. simply stopping someone isn’t necessarily racist.
Damn near everything you describe in the history of this blog isn’t necessarily racist.
[moderator] Post removed. Off topic.
“that had racist intentions”
If the premise call was based on your race and the caller specified your race, and you were out mowing your lawn, then yes, I would say that race was involved. The probability of masking your criminal activities by grabbing the nearest lawn mower and starting to mow a neighborhood lawn so as to escapee detection is so ridiculous as to be beyond what any rational person, let alone a trained police officer would find reasonable, that I find it indefensible, and yes, probably race based at some level, either that of the caller or that of the police officer.
David–I have nothing to defend, but the evidence of racial bias in this particular case is flimsy at best:
(1) Why would the police respond to a call about some body selling door-to-door? Do they have a policy of responding only if the salesperson is black? I doubt it. So presumably, the caller to the police must have noticed something fishy about the salesperson, maybe suspecting a scam of some sort, and reported that to the police (and yes I have been scammed once, to my shame, by a black salesperson selling magazine subscriptions in Davis–he won me over with charm, even though I suspected in the back of my mind that it was a scam–I paid him some money for a subscription, never got any magazines or saw or heard from him again; I did not report this to the police).
(2) There are very few blacks residing in Davis, except perhaps in a couple of neighborhoods. If a suspect is reported as a black man, and you are in a neighborhood where only maybe one in several hundred people is a black man, it is not unreasonable to think that this person may be the suspect or acquainted with the suspect, and to approach them. Now, was Eli Davis actually behind the lawnmower mowing while the policeman approached, or was he walking to or away from the mower (perhaps unloading the grass or coming back from a break or for some other reason). I would agree that it would seem strange to suspect someone actually engaged behind a lawn mower in mowing a lawn; the devil is in the details here and I do not know the details; however even if this was the case then perhaps the policeman thought he may have been acquainted with the suspect or more likely have seen the suspect; since Eli Davis was outside in the yard and the suspect was reported in the neighborhood, not unlikely that Mr. Davis may have seen the suspect.
Was the policeman a little too brusque or nondiplomatic? Maybe he was guilty of that; with the evidence presented I see no indication of racial bias and wonder why people jump reflexively to that conclusion; seems like a stereotyping of police to me.
As DP posts above; “would have to depend on the circumstances. simply stopping someone isn’t necessarily racist.”
toward your point one – you seem to want to give the benefit of the doubt to the police. the caller saw a black person in their neighborhood and leaped to the conclusion that they were a burglar rather than having a more routine explanation. would a white person in the same circumstances have had the police called? my guess is no.
did the police act improperly in responding to the call? no.
so then we have to ask what did the police officer see when mr. davis was mowing his lawn. it seems odd that he would be viewed as a potential suspect. but perhaps the officer simply didn’t see what he was doing.
“Was the policeman a little too brusque or nondiplomatic?”
i believe the officer made a critical error having approached the gentleman of not making sure when he was clear that the man lived there, that this contact was explained. a twenty second explanation might have gone a long way.
“I see no indication of racial bias”
all due respect, if you don’t see any indication of at least potential racial bias i don’t think you are being intellectually honest. would a white person have been stopped in the same manner under those conditions? i’d be surprised. but here is where i might agree with your point – it is not all on the officer. he was given a very vague description of the individual but still – 62 year old man mowing his lawn, use better judgment veteran police officer
tribeUSA makes more sense than DP, who brings his preconceived bias to the story.
We simply don’t have enough information regarding why the original call was made. Would an African American door-to-door solar salesman in his company shirt draw suspicion? No. Would a black PG&E rep? No. Would two black religious women going door-to-door on Saturday morning warrant a call? No. Did they look disheveled, were they driving a ratchet car, did they look out of place for any number of reasons? We don’t know.
I have been questioned by police when I visited De Lauer’s Super Newstand in downtown Oakland at night. I looked out of place. I have been pulled over in ritzy neighborhoods when I looked out of place.
Your assumption that the police aren’t called on white folks is patently false and reveals your agenda.
You never get to the second series of questions to get corroboration on this supposed act of stereotyping or improper profiling (I haven’t heard any facts that allege racism). Did the officer call him vile names? No. Did the officer throw him in handcuffs and take him downtown? No. We could also consider that this gentleman has apparently lived in Davis for decades and never had the police called on him or been stopped without reason, further proof there is no grand conspiracy against black citizens.
“(I haven’t heard any facts that allege racism). Did the officer call him vile names?”
you’re missing the point. micro aggression isn’t about racism. it’s about unintentional behaviors. the same the unconscious bias. it’s not that people are racists, it’s that they harbor certain stereotypes subconsciously that lead them to behave differently when faced with a white subject than a black subject. your comment demonstrates you don’t understand the concept introduced here in the article (nor for that matter does alan miller).
DP, no, I just don’t buy your construct.
We don’t know all the reasons why the caller reported the two individuals as being suspicious. This is fact. In contrast, you assume there are racist intentions, which you can’t prove.
Then we get to the difference in perception between facts and stereotypes. Is an officer warranted for taking race into account along with dozens of other factors, if one small subgroup commits 40-50% of violent crimes? Because there are dozens of factors that are considered, I heard a radio commentator refer to our vigilance towards potential terrorists as “criminal profiling”.
Our terrorism efforts are a perfect example for your fuzzy thinking. We have had tens of millions of Americans searched, body scanned, and put through the ringer while we have never had a mass killing by an American traveler in decades. We know who terrorists are predominantly, but Political Correctness makes us jump through all these hoops. Thank goodness they’ve recently been very poor at making bombs. (Underwear bomber, shoe bomber.)
it’s not my construct.
but again you miss the point: “in contrast, you assume there are racist intentions, which you can’t prove.” no one assumes that there are racist intentions and the microagression theory actually overtly says no, these actions are not due to racist intentions, on the contrary they are unintentional and subconscious. you say under the concept but then you undermine your claim by talking about racist intentions.
You’re mincing words. Racism, micro aggressions … I don’t buy your newfangled PC construct, right up there with white privilege.
If by newfangled you mean a theory dating back to 1970 (45 years ago)
they are very different concepts. racism is an overt hatred – it conscious and it manifests itself through behavior and discrimination. microaggressions are at the subconscious level and there is a lack of intent. it is not a subtle different.
when you start saying “newfangled” you sound like the guy who doesn’t understand the computer. if you don’t understand the language, don’t engage in the debate.
Damn straight they are different concepts: one is real, one is BS.
It is always the victim types who create their own private language and then feel smugly superior when regular folk don’t “understand” their secret code. Small children do the same thing.
DP, your self-flagellation in seeking victim status instead of true understanding sees no end. I’m sorry I don’t traffic in your code words or confine myself to your personal utopian dictionary, which apparently is limited.
Like many Progressives, you can’t bear to deal with the successes of Ethiopian-, Nigerian-, Jewish-, Chinese-, East Indian, Vietnamese-, and Many-Other-Americans which directly rebut your concepts of omnipresent racism and micro-aggressions.
If these unconscious “aggressions” are so powerful, why is it that they don’t stop Ethiopian- and Nigerian-Americans? Why is it that they, along with British Blacks that come to America (Thomas Sowell term), succeed far beyond the average? Why is it that African Americans who make similar choices as many other Americans – graduate high school, go to college, get married – succeed at the same rate as their white counterparts?
“Like many Progressives, you can’t bear to deal with the successes of Ethiopian-, Nigerian-, Jewish-, Chinese-, East Indian, Vietnamese-, and Many-Other-Americans which directly rebut your concepts of omnipresent racism and micro-aggressions.”
I’m pretty sure that Davis Progressive is Jewish, as am I. Microaggressions are more irritants than something that would stop progress. I really don’t think you understand the concept of microaggressions and recommend you study up on the concept.
BTW, Professor Yilma is from Ethiopia, he wrote the piece on the family courts last week and talked about the criminal cottage industry. He’s an extremely highly successful black man rising from poverty to be one of the few blacks on the National Academy of Sciences. He can also tell you about the deep seated racism he encounters.
Another macroaggression has occurred in Mississippi, as two police officers were recently killed. At least two of the alleged criminals, now in custody, are from designated victim groups. The DA there is being cautious, and has said little about the case.
oh look… another hispanic male robbed someone at gunpoint in Davis last Sunday night… Mid 20’s 5’8 last seen eastbound on Catalina.
The victims failed to find out if this was caused by microaggressions…
Deploy the Chicano Faculty!
My contacts on campus say that the Chicano faculty speak quite negatively of “the white man”, think that white men are racist and homophobic, and cheer for the day when they are in the minority.
And Michelle Obama says she loses sleep as the first African American First Lady… while she gleefully travels all over the world.
Note: one claim is that cop killing is now up 100%.
My interactions with Chicano/a Studies faculty have only been positive.
That’s good to hear, but I’m sure they can distinguish between a community leader with an outlet versus young, naive sycophants.
More generally, conservative students often don’t feel safe voicing their opinions in public due to the backlash / name calling they will receive.
Of course! Don’t you know conservative thinking is wrong and cannot be tolerated?
TBD: That’s good to hear, but I’m sure they can distinguish between a community leader with an outlet versus young, naive sycophants.
“Young, naive sycophants?”
I wouldn’t typically bother to respond to this, except that I do volunteer work with at least a couple of undergraduate students majoring in Chicano Studies, and their demeanor toward me (a middle age white male) and others doesn’t appear to fit your narrative. I am impressed at their ability to perform as college students in spite of the fact that both are first generation college students in their families. They are professional and reliable, and I would go out of my way to write a strong letter of recommendation for either if asked. As far as I’m concerned, they are as true Americans as anyone else I know.
wdf1, no one questioned national origin, but there is a question of young liberally oriented minds blindly following old liberals in their ideology. Some consider it an indoctrination. This is no new assertion.
Here is an example of a talk about feminism and the right of men to have (not have) their own support groups in Canadian higher education. You can fast forward past the intimidation tactics of the feminists to get to the (female) professors talk… and the inability of students to deal with basic facts and basic logic. The puppet master (professor) rifles in attacks from the crowd when her students don’t know how to respond.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jEQYHAFfjg
My interactions with Chicana/o Studies faculty have only been positive, as well.
“Note: one claim is that cop killing is now up 100%.”
a statistically quirk.
and remember, the michael brown killing happened in august, so most of the year had already gone by when this issue got ratcheted up. it would be helpful if you did more analysis before making such bold assertions.
“More generally, conservative students often don’t feel safe voicing their opinions in public due to the backlash / name calling they will receive.”
Devil, please. Loluprdml
;>)/
Well then, Davis is more racist then Sacramento. Case closed!
Thank you, Mr. Greenwald, for solving the race problem by branding our town racist.
If that is your conclusion, you understood none of the discussion.
I guess I never do, #sigh#.
i don’t know if you never do, but when you’re talking about racism and the subject is microaggression, that might be a hint that you’re the one whose off-track
#sigh# . . . . . . #sigh#
You sure fail to recognize sarcasm. . #sigh#
sarcasm is usually depicted through non-verbal clue like intonation of voice or facial expressions, the written median is too impersonal, especially between stranger to adequately convey the difference between sarcasm and a serious comment.
Or, of course, emoticons.
Pretty much everything I say is sarcasm, horrible personal insults, deconstructionism, or an outright lie.
Here’s a video that’s closer to the truth than anything the race baiting community would have you believe.
http://www.futuremoneytrends.com/stopthehate
Excellent but painful video. The vast majority of police do a good job, and few ever use their weapon… but it looks like we have been duped by the media into the false narrative that police attack black youth more than other groups.
the problem again is that a few bad police officers and a lot of police officers who look the other way produce a lot of systemic harm.
If there are 20 or 30 unlawful police shootings of citizens in America every year that are “systemic harm”, what do you call 10,000 deaths due to black-on-black crime every year?
there’s a difference between crime and an abuse of government power.
Matt you don’t know what I am going to do. but you keep thinking that way if it makes you feel better. actually, if you or Greewald are able – please delete my screen name I wont be needing it.
Groundhog day, another black says racist remarks against whites and gets to keep her job.
How’s this for a micro aggression?
http://www.startribune.com/black-professor-regrets-comments-critical-of-white-students/303497581/
Liberal hypocrisy. This is where the word splicers say “black people can’t be racist”.
It’s not that liberals don’t believe that blacks can be racist. Rather it’s that black racism is different in structure – it’s reactive and also isn’t based on maintaining power.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the whole power structure in Baltimore is predominantly black, and it has been “maintaining power” for decades.
We’re evolved to a place in time where the white-black construct often doesn’t hold true. Take the recent racist tweets by the SFPD, sent by black, Latino, and gay white male officers.
Martin O’Malley will be surprised to learn that he is black.
What?
Racism is based on a hegemonic relationship. In the south, white used racism to keep blacks down in social status and deprive them of rights. The doctrine of white supremacy is very different from blacks who are anti-white primarily because they have been mistreated and discriminated against over the years. It’s not therefore that blacks can’t be racist, it is that the structure of that racism is very different.
You could’ve just simply said that what the professor said was very racist and she should’ve lost her job. We know if a white professor had said the same thing about blacks he would’ve been fired. Why the double standard? Why do you have to go out of your way to make excuses for her bigotry?
My comment was a general response to the above comment not to the video.
Don Shor:
The Police Chief is black.
The Fire Chief is black.
The City Council President is black.
The City Council has 7 black members, and 2 mixed.
The President of the Chamber of Commerce is black.
The Chamber of Commerce has 8 black members.
The School Superintendent is black; 4 Assistant Superintendents are black.
The Attorney General is mixed.
The Mayor is mixed.
Meanwhile, there has been a big rise in crime in Baltimore after the curfew ended and a focus for police to be kinder and softer. 50 shootings since the riots, 10 people were shot this past Sunday, 84 murders total.
http://chamspage.blogspot.com/2014/12/2015-baltimore-city-homicidesmurders.html