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Just because you point out someone's race, it doesn't make you a racist. Here's a great example that illustrates my point perfectly.

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you have to differenciate (which apparently isn't a word) between using a racial slur as an intentional racial insult and plainly pointing out someone's color.

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... see a man (maybe early 20s, thin, sweatshirt, African American) running towards me...

Mentioning someone's [sex] (no matter what it is) when it makes no difference in the situation is [sexual discrimination]. I'm NOT saying you are [sexist]. However, your situation does not warrant a description of [sex]. Height, weight, colour and age perhaps (because it's important if you were to get in a scuffle with him) however, his sex has nothing to do with his abilites to fight you or whatever.

Women have black (err... coloured) belts, too. And what's with the age discrimination? Does it really matter that he's early 20's, or late teens, or 30's, or 40's etc..?


Sheesh. What a bunch of politically correct bigots!

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Oh boy, I really don't want to get into this discussion, but I'm too curious.

To those who are arguiing to always step in (Webroach, primarily), I have a question: when you're driving, do you drive the exact speed limit or less? Do you stay in your lane no matter how fast the people behind you want to go?

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The speed limit is one of those things where, depending on the context, it doesn't hurt anyone, and isn't really "wrong", aside from it being "against the law".

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I went to traffic school when I was a teenager, and the instructor insisted that every driver in the room should drive 55mph in every lane on 495. His point was that you should go 55 and show the other people on the road that they should go 55. This thread reminded me of that "lesson."

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Oh boy, I really don't want to get into this discussion, but I'm too curious.

To those who are arguiing to always step in (Webroach, primarily), I have a question: when you're driving, do you drive the exact speed limit or less? Do you stay in your lane no matter how fast the people behind you want to go?

Since canuckInLA already very eloquently explained what I see as the difference between "right / wrong" and "lawful / unlawful", I'll skip that part and merely say "No" and "No."

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Oh boy, I really don't want to get into this discussion, but I'm too curious.

To those who are arguiing to always step in (Webroach, primarily), I have a question: when you're driving, do you drive the exact speed limit or less? Do you stay in your lane no matter how fast the people behind you want to go?

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You didnt read my post very carefully. Sex, age, weight, height, type of clothing, makes a difference as to how someone had to deal with the person. A 15 year old female 85lbs would be a bit easier to take down than a 22 year old male 230lbs.

I'm not trying to be politcally correct, that has nothing to do with it. I'm trying to take care of the subconscious racial bias that exists.

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I went to traffic school when I was a teenager, and the instructor insisted that every driver in the room should drive 55mph in every lane on 495. His point was that you should go 55 and show the other people on the road that they should go 55. This thread reminded me of that "lesson."

I want to punch that guy and all his friends in the face. =p

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I went to traffic school when I was a teenager, and the instructor insisted that every driver in the room should drive 55mph in every lane on 495. His point was that you should go 55 and show the other people on the road that they should go 55. This thread reminded me of that "lesson."

I want to punch that guy and all his friends in the face. =p

+1

In California the signs say "Slower traffic keep right". Since nobody ever considers themselves to be 'less than' anyone else insofar as driving is concerned, few people actually drive in the lane they're supposed to.

I really want those words to be changed to "Keep right except to pass". That's what the signs say in Nevada. It's much more direct and doesn't require you to compare yourself with others. Besides, if everyone *behind* you is limited to your speed, you're not actually *slower* than they are! Grrrr.

Please, let's not start on traffic etiquette!

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I guess my question is, what is the behavior like where you live? Perhaps I can figure out if it's a regional thing, or an urban vs smaller town thing.

It's pretty much as you describe. It's not regional, it's not a urban vs. small town thing, it's simply a matter of people only being concerned for themselves, with no concern for the rest of the people in their community. So don't worry about thread-jacking, since that is exactly the problem that caused this thread.

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Not to threadjack, but I was noticing something the other day.

I'll take some of the blame for the tangent

As crazy as northern Virginians drive, they do pull over to let emergency vehicles pass. Always.

Now that you mention it, I don't remember the last time I saw a funeral procession...

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I guess my question is, what is the behavior like where you live? Perhaps I can figure out if it's a regional thing, or an urban vs smaller town thing.

In London, everybody seems really good at getting out of the way of emergency vehicles -- when they can, obviously.

However, I did once see a policeman have to get out of a police van (lights flashing, siren wailing) to tell someone to move their car forward into a junction (against a red light), so that the van could get past.

The other week, I was driving on the motorway when I saw an ambulance in the distance in the rear view mirror. I mentioned to the wife that I'd pull out of his way when he caught up with me. He didn't

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The bad thing is... I have stopped pulling over for emergency vehicles, and I feel guilty every time. If I do try to pull off, people just blow my doors off as they pass by.

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So what? You should still pull over.

Good point. I always considered it as driving with the normal flow of traffic, which around here means NEVER using a blinker, tailgating, and consistently having 3 or so people run every stop light. I should set the example and maybe after 15 years or so, they might get it. The funny , or sad, thing to me is that if people would just realize that if everyone followed the rules, everyone would get to their destination quicker. Things might change, but everyone thinks that they are the exception to the rule.

If there is road construction up ahead and the left lane is ending, pull over as soon as you can and the flow of traffic continues. If you do what you WANT to do, you drive as far as you can in the left lane and try to merge over at the last minute, snarling traffic for everyone behind you. While this doesn't directly affect you, the 187 people that did it in front of you certainly affected you.

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if everyone followed the rules, everyone would get to their destination quicker.

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You didnt read my post very carefully. Sex, age, weight, height, type of clothing, makes a difference as to how someone had to deal with the person. A 15 year old female 85lbs would be a bit easier to take down than a 22 year old male 230lbs.

I'm not trying to be politcally correct, that has nothing to do with it. I'm trying to take care of the subconscious racial bias that exists.

No offense, mate, but you are being politically correct. You're a victim of the thought police, aka Newspeak ala 1984. If you can control what people can say, then you can control what they can think. But banishing certain words or concepts that describe a perceived problem does not make that problem go away.

Here's a tidbit of factual info for you. Whites make up something like 80% of the US population, but they are responsible for only about 15% of the crime in the US. The rest of the slack is taken up mostly by blacks. Blacks are more likely to rob and assault you than whites, based on historical crime statistics in the US. So yes, mentioning that the POS thief was black is relevant.

And to me, getting rid of crime is more important than getting rid of a "subconscious racial bias". And in order to get rid of crime, you have to look at who is responsible for the bulk of it. Besides, if a certain group of individuals didn't commit a largely disproportionate amount of crime than everyone else, then there wouldn't be any "subconscious racial bias". And it's not just subconscious -- it's based on fucking facts.

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WOW. Thanks for the REALLY interesting factual information!!!

Do you think that black people commit crimes BECAUSE THEY ARE BLACK? Those statistics are total bullshit. POOR, disadvantaged, uneducated people commit the majority of the crimes in this country. Now you may want to ask, WHY are so many blacks living in poor areas in this country? Probably because of ignorant fools like you.

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You think that most of those people want to live there?

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his lesson included diagrams, like a shot of a four lane highway with cars side-by-side in each lane, all going 55. I would love to see that on an actual highway.

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Indians and other South Asians come to this country for its opportunity.

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You think those poor families have $87,300 lying around?