The persistance of suspicion

[spudtater]

So I was on the bus the other day, with an asian-looking young man sitting a few rows in front of me. Suddenly he jumps up and runs downstairs, leaving a largish backpack on the seat.

I look at it for a few moments.

Niggling fears are starting to form at the back of my mind. Should I take it downstairs, hope the guy's still on the bus, and give it to him? Should I tell the driver? Should I chuck it out the window? (No, of course not, don't be silly.)

Then, half a minute later, the guy comes back upstairs with his mate, who he'd obviously spotted getting on the bus. False alarm — I'm moderately relieved.

Now, I'm quite significanly anti-racist, and avoid tabloids alarmist publications like the plague, and yet still fear, uncertainty and doubt presented themselves in my mind. Would I have thought these thoughts if he had been white, or chinese? Probably not. "Mud sticks", it's said, and it does seem true that our subconsciousnesses are quick to stereotype, and quick to attach negative attributes to categories of people.

In conclusion: Beh.   8^P

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In other news:

Answers up for the book-guessing meme! Based on a scoring system wot I just invented, the top scores are:

sigmonster, 200 points
xquiq, 125 points
zotz, 110 points
digitalraven, 108 points

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Finally, I'd like to point and laugh at a spam email I received today, purporting to be from "fascist regimes". Yes, I receive lots of email from such entities — how did you know?

Comments

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

AIUI, the people picked for these tasks tend to be young and impressionable. I wouldn't be surprised if a not insubstantial portion of them get scared and change their minds at the last minute.

In the 2002 Bali bombings, it was discovered that the bomb had a remote detonator as well as a local one; presumably in case the "martyr" chickened out...   8^P

[luckylove.livejournal.com]

or got 'caught'. Someone else watching could detonate the bomb before it was removed.