while watching some videos on YG I stumbled over two clips that caught my attention:


The first is about movie director Ryan Coogler (Black Panther), who got detainted because of a suspected bank robbery or such.

While I 'm somewhat able to understand that the bank teller misinterpreted certain information at the counter, this anyway is something that constantly puzzles me every time.

Coogler's case shows once again that prejudice and fear can very easily disable rational thinking and logic-based behavior and lead to more than embarrassing incidents. After all, Coogler behaved very calmly, which probably also prevented an escalation. Good man.





The second video is obviously closer to the thread title. It shows police officers detaining a dark-skinned man on suspicion of shoplifting.

The really strange thing is that the clerk, who called the police, described the alleged thief as white/caucasian, a man possible in his late 30s, who was wearing a jacket of a completely different color than the the jacket of that man, who immediately attracted the cops' attention.





no comment

As you may've noticed, I started my comment on the second video with

The second video is obviously closer to the thread title.

Of course, I'm aware that the bank teller's reaction was basically normal, and to rate her motivation for her reaction as purely racist is of course not fair, because it cannot be clearly proven. But of course I looked at the comments in the news, and most of them followed my spontaneous assessment that at least her supervisor's reaction could have been latently influenced by subconscious racism.


That's just pure empiricism, fed by years of consuming news through the media. Also, I can remember a similar situation to the one that gave Coogler that cruel experience with the cops.

My dad once decided to buy a used coach to convert it to an A-class RV. He found the right model at a dealer for such vehicles, but the dealer said the bus was as good as sold. He couldn't reserve it. Dad negotiated with him and the deal was that if Dad gave the dealer a certain amount in cash, the dealer would add the amount my father had already paid for another model and sell the bus to him.

So Dad and I drove to a branch of his bank up the street and he informed the clerk that he was going to withdraw a larger than usual amount from his account.

A sligthly similar situation to Coogler:

Dad with black covid mask, baseball cap, with glasses, but just slightly tinted lenses. He had no problems. The teller said he needed to talk with his supervisor. His boss came and asked us into his office to clarify details.

The whole thing was new to me and seemed a bit awkward, but please. Overall, though, it was a pretty smooth transaction. Dad's ID was determined and whether the sum to be withdrawn would be covered. It was her and the amount was paid to Dad in cash by the office. And then we drove back to the dealer.

The question now is why the bank employee reacted so professionally and didn't tell his boss anything about an alleged bank robbery. Dad is a businessman, but from his appearance he could have been a suspected bank robber anyway, since his outfit was very casual. Personally, even I would have wondered why such an average guy in sneakers, jeans and a shirt needs so much cash.

My guess is the first thing the bank clerk noticed was that Dad is white and acted polite, even tough he kinda whispered to the clerk.

Such signs are rarely conscious to an individual, but they can make an enormous difference when interpreting a momentary situation with just different protagonists.

That's why the video spontaneously ended up at the top of this thread, even though, as I said, I was well aware that racism is more of a pure insinuation here.

But the thread title is about the daily dose of racism. And so I picked up a stage program that I had once created with two classmates. Both are of African and Asian descent, which is why the topic came to mind when we were asked to come up with sketches for some events. It was about that kind of racism that individuals don't even notice as such, but those of corresponding ethnics descent do.


But in terms of your posted POV above, I might as well be a victim of my own latent subconscious racism.