My point of view on discrimination (Dmitry Ustyantsev)

The stories  "Slow walk..." and "Black man..." didn't touch me much. That is very typical. Fear and alertness against aliens or those who looks too strange and too different, who behaves differently. Every new wave of immigration was met with fear in America: the Irish, the Italians, who were often automatically considered as criminals, they didn't even have to be of different race, so what can be expected about Blacks or Latinos?.. Black people are not recent immigrants but there was a segregation. America is not an exception in such behavior, in Russia, if you look like an Asian or a man from Caucasus you may not be surprised that cops check your documents more often than if you would look Slavic. I find that explainable, because in reality some immigrants are illegal and are involved in criminal activity. Even Brent Staples, the author of "Black man..." agrees that Black guys appear often in criminal statistics. People spread the "bad guy's" image over the whole group and start to panic over those people, and that creates conflicts.

My experience teaches me different things. In my hometown in Russia I have fought on the street because groups of guys tried to rob me, twice, they were Russians. 

In America, every Tuesday I go to a Filipino martial arts class at the same time, after dark. Few times I met the same old man on the street, who walked the same direction before me.  when he saw me he stopped, stared at me, said "goodnight" and let me pass so I was no longer behind his back. I am white, about 5 and a half feet.

Discrimination is common. Just don't support people of your group who discriminate the other one, or, if are the victim, stay strong and fight for what is yours.