Wednesday, January 20, 2016

U of MN Alert System Change

MPR Alert System Change


I found this amusing / strange when I heard it discussed yesterday on NPR.  Apparently young black men on campus felt singled out and discriminated against when a campus warning went out specifying the race of a person who was a potential threat.  Therefore they went through the effort to lobby to get the policy changed.


Maybe the warning should go out saying "beware a person in blue jeans, a brown coat and black hair" if the threat is a 20 year old black woman...  We would hate to be too descriptive in case it might save someone.


Of course if I had jeans, a brown coat and black hair...  Maybe I would feel unfairly singled out ...


Thoughts? 

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I think the usual know it all, argumentative tone of your blog makes me not want to comment. Do you ever attempt to put yourself in another's shoes. Like imagine you are a young black student on campus who other students react to with fear and suspicion (cross the street, grip their belongings more tightly etc.)

Maybe students should just take general safety precautions at all times around all people. I don't see the need to include the race of suspects in safety alerts. or I see a bigger down side to including race in safety alerts than I see benefit.

Maybe you should choose one day I week to be agreeable and make comments like "I see your point" or "I never thought of it that way before" or ask questions about others views. To me you seem to struggle with considering other's perspectives. Do your views ever evolve based on participating in discussions? I don't think I see any evidence of it.

John said...

Will you ever choose to agree with me? The world may never know.

I could be wrong, however I assume the alerts only go out when there is a significant risk to the student population. To stick with my example, let's say that the 20 year old black woman is wandering the campus taking revenge for some perceived slight. And she is armed and dangerous.

If your child was on campus, wouldn't you want the authorities to give the most detailed description they can? (ie age, height, sex, race, clothing and even a picture if they had one)

Now I do feel for the young black women who would get a second glance due to the description, however I think the safety of the other kids is more important.

John said...

Now I am certain that the descriptions often described 20 something white males in a tee shirt and blue jeans... Yet it was apparently not that group that was concerned.

As I often say... One will usually find what they are looking for whether it is there or not. This includes racism...