Black Youths ”Seen” As More Mature, And Dangerous—Because They Are | Blog Posts

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Black Youths ”Seen” As More Mature, And Dangerous—Because They Are

James Fulford

04/23/2024

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Cracked.com has one of their listicles about stuff they can blame on white racism.

5 Surreal Realities Black Children Face
Sometimes we focus so much on the way adults are treated, we forget to look after the children.
January 22, 2018

The five ”realities” are

A Lack Of Black Educators Leads To Worse Performance In Black Students
Black Children Are More Inundated With Tobacco Ads, And Have Easier Access To Cigarettes
Black Children Are Perceived To Be Older Than They Are, And Are Punished More Harshly
School Dress Codes Ban Any Reasonable Black Hairstyle
Young Adult Book Covers Only Show White Characters

Let’s talk about number three:

Research shows that we perceive black girls as older, and therefore needing less nurturing and protection, than white girls their age. They were also perceived as more independent and knowledgeable about sex. Surely nothing bad could come of that ...

Applying adult standards to unprepared children has a few dire side effects, one of which is that schools are more likely to punish their black students. Another study showed that black girls were 3.6 times more likely to receive out-of-school suspension. Black boys are also perceived as older, are more likely to be thought of as guilty, and more frequently face police violence. A good example is Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old whom police opened fire on two seconds after arriving on the scene after a gun threat was called in.

The police officer stated that he thought Tamir was at least 18 years old, and further saw him as a physical threat. We would take this opportunity to mock that cop for being so instantly and mortally terrified of a 12-year-old boy, but that boy is now dead.

The late Tamir Rice, who died after pointing a realistic gun at (a) random people in a park, which led to the police being called, and (b) apparently trying to draw it on an armed policeman responding to the call, was 5’7” and weighed 195 lbs. (Whenever you hear that the police have shot a 14-year-old or whatever, what you really need to know is what height and weight he was.)

Rice was pointing this gun at people:

As manufactured, this comes with an orange tip, so it won’t be mistaken for a real gun, but that had been removed, to make it easier to frighten people.

Blacks are perceived as older because they actually mature faster biologically, and they also act older because of growing up under ghetto conditions. The Washington Post’s Stacy Patton In America, black children don’t get to be children [November 26, 2014], talking about Michael Brown, who died attacking a white policeman who was trying to arrest him for robbery with violence, wrote:

Note officer Darren Wilson’s description of his confrontation with Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, in Ferguson, Mo. In his grand jury testimony, Wilson described Brown as a ”demon,” ”aggressive,” and said that Brown had taunted him by saying, ”You are too much of a p---y to shoot me.” (Similarly, George Zimmerman told police that teenager Trayvon Martin threatened him during their fight: ”You’re gonna die tonight.”)

At the time of his attack on policeman Darren Wilson, Brown, right, was 6 feet 4 inches tall, and weighed 292 pounds.

And every day, or so it seems, we see cases like this:

14-year-old Brian Wellington has been arrested and charged with the January 2024 murder of Kay Johnson. The 38-year-old mother was pulling her car into the garage at her St. Louis home when Wellington with two others pulled up behind her in a stolen Nissan sedan. Wellington,… https://t.co/XqeqwwCLxb pic.twitter.com/qyyd5CVzJz
— The Sentinel (@sentinelpatrol) April 18, 2024