I'm not black, but if I was, I wouldn't feel safe stepping into the state of Florida

[quinnox]

today, or in the near future. Maybe some white guy, a self-styled vigilante type packing a gun, might see me walking late at night, coming back from a club, or a movie, or whatever, and walking through a neighborhood I supposedly "shouldn't be in", and confront me and treat me as a common burglar, maybe shooting me on sight even. And then who knows if the killer would be found innocent by a sympathetic Floridian jury, perhaps an all white jury at that. Just sayin'. That is the thought that comes to my mind anyway. Ah, Florida ---->

[MineralMan]

1. It's not just Florida, you know.

Not at all. Even here in Minnesota, black residents are far more likely to be beaten by police, shot in the street, or to be arrested and imprisoned when white guys doing the same things would get probation.

This is a nationwide problem, not just a problem in the Southern red states.

"Walking through a neighborhood you 'shouldn't be in'" is as likely to get you in trouble almost anywhere. That's the fact of racism and profiling in the USA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_killings_by_law_enforcement_officers_in_the_United_States

[quinnox]

2. true

[NOLALady]

3. Add Louisiana to that list.

[WestStar]

4. Oh for the cripes sakes, there are neighborhoods in this country that you "should be in" where

You can be gunned down.

Read any news coming out of Chicago lately?

What was this weekends count?

[Igel]

6. And it's a standard kind of thing to say

there are neighorhoods you shouldn't be in.

Some people find the locking of doors and rolling up of windows as you drive through them racist sometimes. Not others.

[Rex]

7. If I was a kid, I would not feel safe walking to a grocery store or gas station

and then walking home.