Now when it comes to seeing “Street Calculus” I immediately thought this was..
We continue to make calculations about each others race in today’s society. Now look at this picture, isn’t it true?
When I look at this cartoon, the first impression that came to my mind was that this was telling the truth about what society believes in today. Looking at this cartoon, I clearly see an old white man carrying groceries walking through the neighborhood while a black male is walking through the neighborhood as well. They greet each other by saying good evening but the most important things are the bubbles on top of their heads. The risk factors shows that if you are a black male with a baseball cap on backwards, you have a high risk factor in the community. But, if you are a black male, with loafers, have a whistling Sondheim, a fed ex envelope and a polo shirt, you are less of a risk factor in a community. Now, for a white male, the one risk factor they have is for being in the wrong neighborhood. But, you are a white male who is humming Motown who brings in groceries and is over 40, you are less of a risk factor in a community. But some things weren’t check off on the list…
What the author is trying to say is that the white people have a perception about black people who are high risk factors in the community. Those risk factors are that they have an aggressive body language, have short hair, wears baggy jackets and that they are in the wrong neighborhood which is not what the young black male has in this cartoon. Now for the mitigating factors in this story, which is the least things to worry about, are that they are a female, over the age of 40 and has a tie and coat on. The young male is of course not a female, over the 40 or even has on a tie or coat on. With the opposite, the old white man risk factors in the street is very different. The young black male would assume that the older white male would either have to have long hair, be a police officer or to have on a baseball cap to raise his suspicion in the neighborhood which the older white male didn’t have on or was. Also the mitigating factors, which are the less risky factors that the younger black male would’ve assumed was that it was a female(of course it wasn’t), he had a briefcase (which he didn’t) or had on a tie or coat. Both characters had different perceptions of each other that turned out different than what they expected.
The author is trying to say that, every needs to..
The author is basically telling us we need to stop assuming what one race looks like. Racism will only continue to grow if we keep judging each other’s appearance in this world. We have to accept each other for who we are and stop thinking people are high risk factors because they are “dressed a certain type of way”. We also have to realize that not all people in a certain race is bad. This has to change quickly so society can stop being so racist! We have to work together if we want society to become a better place.
Question: How does identity affect how we respond to news events?
My answer is…..
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