Rational Thinking

I usually reserve this spot for humor and other items/things that make me scratch my head. Now, this incident certainly made me scratch my head. Earlier today I was accused of "thinking like a white person." I immediately knew what that person meant and was a tad offended. Here's how all of this got started: As I was dressing, I watched the local news out of one corner of my eye. A particular story seemed interesting to me. Later on I relayed to someone the story of a local liquor store that was robbed; the robber took a sum of cash and a bottle of champaign. I imagine that the bottle was to celebrate his victory over oppression? That was sarcasm for my new readers. Well, I continued my commentary adding that people seem surprised that small businesses and other services leave the city. I added that businesses like mom and pop setups are particularly vulnerable to stick-up bandits in that it is difficult to watch their shops and help real customers at the same time. Criminals can make quick work of these places where the register is not usually far from the door. What solicited the mean spirited comment was my statement that people tend to think of their and their family's safety over service to their communities. I made that comment without judgment. If they cannot run a business without a better than even chance of having their earnings taken from them, they most likely see no other choice other than to close down shop and move on to a safer venue.

I was responded to with loud cries that suburban and rural communities experience robberies all the time. I was not denying that. What I was saying was that a sense of community coupled with a stronger police presence made other areas at least appear safer to a business owner. If you live in a place where you know the police personally and you feel that your customers are not just customers but also your friends and neighbors you naturally feel more committed to offering the service(s) that you provide. If you are robbed you feel more secure that the culprit will be found. The community might even drop a dime (quarter) to see that the robber is brought to justice. In the city we have become jaded, apathetic. We do not take the violation of that shopkeeper personally; we almost expect that he will eventually have trouble. We don't see it as our problem.

What I do not quite understand is how my position has anything at all to do with race. Wishing for a sense of community where people can live and work and run their business while feeling relatively safe, I cannot fathom as a "white" invention. I am however amazed that anyone (I do not believe that the person I was talking to has views different from a great many others) would actually try to justify a disinterest in their own safety and future by dismissing a kinder perhaps gentler world as race specific.

BTW, I might flatter myself but, I believe that I am a rational thinker and I do not believe that any particular race either invented or controls that.