When I was a teenager I got caught stealing

[sufrommich]

a tube of mascara from a drug store.I lived to tell the tale.How about you?

[Depaysement]

1. Nice of you to come back from the dead . . .

. . . oh, wait . . .

Candy for me. I'm still here to tell the tale.

[JustAnotherGen]

2. I've never stolen anything

So I've never been caught.

But see - I've shopped while black.

So - it's just the same as if I HAD stolen something.

See how that works in America?

Ahhhh - I know YOU do.

[cyberswede]

7. Devastating point

I don't know whether to laugh (at your amusing delivery) or cry about the injustice of it all. Very sorry you have to experience this.

[JustAnotherGen]

11. I don't know either cyber

All I know is - this country is NOT post racial. It's not.

[hamsterjill]

17. No, it's not post racial.

And it sickens me. As a child of the sixties, I'm seeing the same sights that I saw then.

All I can say to you is to remind you that there are racists of all shapes, sizes, types, colors, genders, etc. We've all got to get beyond color. We've got to see and respect and every living human as the individual that they are.

It is my hope that this generation will be more successful at doing that than perhaps my own generation has been.

[JustAnotherGen]

21. See - I'm a black person

With a white biological mother.

I want who I am acknowledged. It's how I have experience the world, America, the playground, the shopping mall.

Acknowledge, bless, move on.

Then when we can accept these nuances of difference and embrace them as a country - we will move forward.

I'm 41 - it's not going to happen in my lifetime.

My hope is for the kids born right around 2006. They will truly see black folks/minorities in authority as par for the course.. . no big deal. I truly believe that the folks born in the first ten years of this century are the future and the hope.

[hamsterjill]

23. Okay, I understand you, I believe. And I acknowledge that you have a right to that.

Then I want who I am acknowledged, as well.

I am a white female in my fifties, who, to the best of my knowledge and belief, has never discriminated against another person because of their color. Now, I'm sure that I'm not perfect enough that I've never had an impure thought about someone because of a sterotype that I've imagined. And I doubt you would be that perfect either.

But I've never acted on it. And if I had some impure thought based on stereotype, I've been ashamed of myself. We all should be. But we are all, to some degree, victims of our upbringings and the cultures we've been raised by. We have to see past that. All of us do.

I believe that all people...let me say that again...ALL people...are equal and deserving of respect and deserving of the same things that any other person would be awarded.

And in all honesty, I get very offended when I hear discussions about "white privilege", etc. Do I acknowledge that it exists? Of course.

But there should be a caveat along with each of those discussions that not all white people are like that, have benefitted from any such "white privilege" or have desired any type of "white privilege".

I echo your sentiment that I truly and genuinely hope you're correct about the children born in the first ten years of this century being the future and the hope. I'd love to see it become reality. I'd like it if this issue was so inconsequential that you and I were never having this conversation.

[JustAnotherGen]

30. My husband

A white guy - explained it to an IndieTeaPublican that was at our house on Sunday like this -

And in all honesty, I get very offended when I hear discussions about "white privilege", etc. Do I acknowledge that it exists? Of course.

But there should be a caveat along with each of those discussions that not all white people are like that, have benefitted from any such "white privilege" or have desired any type of "white privilege".

He said it sort of like this: I don't have to be a bigot to not see how much easier it is for me as a white guy from Italy than it is for a latino guy from central America. Or for me than my wife.

I think he was able to get Doc to 'see it' - ie. I'm not a bigot - but there is a bigoted system of mores and values in place that I - the 45 year old white christian male immigrant from a European country benefited from.

His experience is unique as he lived here (in the Bronx) from about age 4 to 12 - then went back home to Italy. He saw things as a kid here that colored his perspective of America and how some people are more equal than others.

And that's something he said to Doc too - some people are more equal than others. And that's not right.

[hamsterjill]

36. No, that's not right that some are more equal than others.

But white people experience discrimination, too.

Let me tell you a little bit about me. I grew up in a very conservative small, Texas town. I never fit. I was either the top student or the second or third ranked throughout my entire education.

But I dated a Hispanic boy. And I suffered for it. For example: I wasn't very athletic, but because I was reasonably smart, the basketball team wanted me as their scorekeeper. The coach took me aside one day and asked me if I wanted to do that and travel with the team on its away games. I did. I was excited.

But then she found out I who I was dating. She never said anything until the day of the first meeting about the first game. I showed up with my little tablet to keep score. She looked at me and said, "What are YOU doing in here?". She didn't have to explain. I knew what she was talking about, and I was too mortified to say anything back to her. There was no one to stick up for me because, well, that's just the way the town was.

Now, I know that probably sounds quite trivial and very small compared to others who have experienced discrimination. But that wasn't all of it. That's just one small incident that I'm willing to discuss here. And that was at least 38 years ago, and I still remember it as if it were yesterday. So I can certainly understand that others who have been treated badly would be affected. So I can understand the anger of the residents of Ferguson.

I didn't stop dating my Hispanic boyfriend, and I wouldn't hide. And the town didn't like it.

I guess the point that I am trying to make is that I've experienced the "back side" of "white privilege". And it's no more my fault that I was born white than it is someone else's fault for being born whatever color they were born.

All I ask for as a white person is the same, exact treatment that any other person, white or otherwise, would be afforded.

No, it's not right that some are more equal than others. And while I know that's still practiced in America, it's not something that I believe. In my mind...everyone is equal. And I will not apologize, then, now or forever, for the fact that I am or was enlightened enough to know that.

It's been nice to talk with you, and I wish you well. And I hope your (our) hopes for the future generations become reality.

[JustAnotherGen]

45. You really want to see my husband get angry

Start talking about 'male privilege'. He's the first to say that his home country is not perfect in regards to women - but they've had an equal rights amendment for a long time. It's shameful that we even need one - because for him - its not just race.

It's gender, sexuality, and religion too.

[hamsterjill]

48. I totally agree!

There's a lot of work that needs to be done!

[sufrommich]

9. But there is no such thing a white privilege.

It's all in your head.

[JustAnotherGen]

10. Exactly

Because see - even saying those words give some people the need for the vapors. :facebump: We musn't make people uncomfy now!

[1StrongBlackMan]

28. Well, not LITERAL white privilege! eom.

[1StrongBlackMan]

27. Neither have I ...

and so have I and yes it is.

[JustAnotherGen]

31. My husband explained it brilliantly to a friend of his this weekend

A true IndieTeaPublican type - this is why I wish you had been at my house on Sunday. See my second response to Jill upthread.

He doesn't get offended by white privilege - because he knows in the most important way - as an employer -

He gives people a fair shake.

And generally does. He's much less judgmental and quick to make assumptions about people than I am. Oh shoot - he's just a better person than I am all the way around.

[H2O Man]

3. As a pre-teen,

I did get caught once. Never in my teens, though. My skills had been honed to a much higher level.

[JustAnotherGen]

12. I think I love you for this response!

I needed a laugh at DU today!

Now - ask me about my cigarette business in college. Bought em at the reservation fair and square. But sold them on the quiet over the border in Canada (the exchange rate was way flipped then) and on campus since they stopped selling cigs after freshman year on campus.

Now - that said . . . I kind of robbed people if they were jonesing for a butt at 4 a.m. on a Sunday morning and wanted to buy a pack of Marlboro Reds.

Knock knock - how much?

Me - How much you got?

[H2O Man]

16. I had read your

response before I posted mine; it reminded me of the experiences that a couple of my extended family members had. I'll share one: A black man and white woman entered a store one night, to purchase three items (food). As they were leaving the store, an undercover security man bum-rushed the man, for suspected shoplifting. Without saying a word, he attempted to tackled the man; the force of the contact literally knocked the man through a large glass window.

Police and emergency medical services were called. The man had not shoplifted anything. In fact, he was an attorney. Ooops!

I believe that, if I wanted to, that I could easily tell a hundred similar stories. And while some folks here might think, "100? That's hard to believe," lots of other folks here understand exactly what I'm talking about. I believe it can be best summed up by Minister Malcolm X's question: "What do they call a black man with a Ph.D?"

[1StrongBlackMan]

29. Yep! eom

[ecstatic]

4. I did some things I regret. I can't imagine

getting gunned down over it.

[MohRokTah]

5. I stole some cigarettes from a grocery store as a teenager.

The clerk let me go when I apologized.

Scared me away from ever trying again.

[hamsterjill]

19. But you didn't grab the store clerk and push her around, did you?

I didn't think so.

I'm glad that the clerk, in your case, gave you a second chance and that you were smart enough to benefit from that chance.

[Iggo]

6. Me, too. But I ain't black.

[valerief]

8. I tried it once, too, but I got away with it. I just wanted to see if I could do it.

Everyone else stole. I knew it was wrong and didn't really want to steal. However, we all did what everyone else did to fit in. So I could finally say I stole something as a teenager.

I was, and still am, white. Plus, our military, I mean POLICE, weren't militarized. They were regular police, people we were told we could trust. Then again, although I was poor, I was still white, so even if they were militarized way back then, I might not have been shot and killed over a tube of mascara.

[BuelahWitch]

13. I once walked away from a mall shoe store with a shoe in my hand

I was several feet away before I realized I was still holding this shoe. I said "Oh shit!" and hurried to get it back to the store. But no one came running after me to accuse me of stealing the shoe.

[conservaphobe]

14. When I was a teenager I committed various felonies... now beyond the statute of limitations...

Even had all of my electronic equipment confiscated by the state police once.

And lived to tell the tale.

P.S. I'm white.

[loyalsister]

15. Me too

Got caught trying to steal a cassette tape wen I was 14. I was crying and the security guard felt really bad. He said "I really don't like this job when I catch "someone like you" (which I now understand to be a white girl from the suburbs).

He called my parents and offered me some candy while I was crying it out and we waited for them to pick me up. I think he almost felt guilty.

He was quick to correctly assume it was an isolated incident. It's a very stark contrast when the opposite incorrect assumption is consistently made about people of color without question.

[justiceischeap]

18. I stole several packs of cigarettes and got caught by the store manager

who knew my Dad and threatened to tell him. I begged him to call the police instead and never stole again. I too lived to tell the tale.

[redqueen]

20. I stole some makeup. I was 10.

I was with a 9 year old friend. We got caught and hauled downtown - fingerprinted and everything. My friend's mom said they were trying to scare us, my mom was pissed as hell.

[sufrommich]

22. Wow. Hauled downtown seems a little extreme.

My parents were pissed too,I was grounded for 2 weeks. However,I didn't spend the rest of my life being labeled a thug and I bet you didn't either.I did,however,spend the rest of my life holding anything I was going to purchase in painfully obvious full view for everyone to see lest they think I was trying to steal something.

[WinkyDink]

24. Never had the urge.

[gollygee]

25. I have never stolen anything but I have jaywalked

and I've never gotten so much as a stern lecture.

[LordGlenconner]

26. I used to steal gas and cold cuts in college

And I lived to tell about it.

[PowerToThePeople]

32. In high school I shoplifted sometimes

I had money to buy the stuff, it was the adrenaline rush that I did it for.

I wish I could give my younger self a good talking to.

But I am white, I had no fear of anything other than a wrist slap and maybe cleaning some trash on the weekends for a month.

[sorechasm]

33. I stole the US economy....

...placed millions in despair, and nobody shot me.

Instead I was punished with interest free loans and unimaginably record profits. What is this white privilege you speak of?

- Banksters

[sufrommich]

38. Reminds me of this:

[Throd]

56. Sad how that works.

[AgingAmerican]

34. My sister

...and most of her friends got caught shoplifting makeup or beauty supplies at around age 13 - 14. Same with my daughters friends. It's pretty common with girls around that age I would surmise.

[sufrommich]

35. How many of them were shot dead for it? nt

[AgingAmerican]

37. Dorky question

nt

[sufrommich]

39. Dumb answer. nt

[AgingAmerican]

40. Please tell us

What an 'intelligent answer' would be to your question?

Thanks in advance!

[sufrommich]

42. Suburban white kids don't get killed for shoplifting. It's

really not that complicated.

[AgingAmerican]

43. Thanks for that

...out of left field. How many of your friends were shot dead for shoplifting mascara?

[Cali_Democrat]

46. It's not out of left field...obviously the point of the OP and the replies went right over your head

[Capt. Obvious]

41. I've been caught stealing once

when I was 5

[RebelOne]

50. Me too when I was 14.

Luckily, the police just called my parents and I got off with a warning.

[Capt. Obvious]

51. I enjoy stealing

It's as simple as that

[nolabear]

44. Having done therapy with adolescents (and very average ones)

I can tell you that it's very, very, very common. It's wrong yaddayadda, but it has virtually nothing to do with whether they're good kids and how they will turn out. How many stories are told back through history of petty thefts by kids, whether it's a cigar or apples off a tree or the pie in the window or robbing the change jar at home or sneaking that burger at your fast food job? I don't think anyone would advocate execution for any of those thefts.

Seems there was a link where the police officer knew there had been a theft and rousted Brown, and for some unfathomable reason got into a physical struggle with him. That means nothing vis a vis the alleged robbery, and the fact that Wilson shot that young man is not connected in any way with anything he may have done. It was connected with something going on in Wilson's head, just as with George Zimmerman.

[sufrommich]

47. Thank you,nolabear.Well said. nt

[sadoldgirl]

49. Every morning I walk with my dogs

at 6 am in the middle of the street. Our sidewalks are too narrow for all of us. There have been police cars passing us, but not one tried to tell me anything. Naturally I stop at the curb when any car drives by, but no one has ever hollered at me. And yes, I am white.

[Baclava]

52. Did you grab the shopkeeper by the throat and shove them up against a wall? You might be a felon.

Good thing you didn't get shot.

[Starboard Tack]

54. Where's the wall?

Not good behavior for sure. Definite but of bullying and larceny. Technically robbery. If we kill everyone who misbehaves to this degree, we've got a huge problem.
Not to mention the clairvoyant cop.

[Baclava]

55. 'Strong-arm robbery' is a term used where the offender used any degree of force, it's a felony

It doesn't justify any shooting - but it is what it is

[Throd]

53. When I was 15 I smashed a stolen car while being pursued by the CHP.

Legally, there were no consequences.

I was a white boy from suburban Citrus Heights. If I had been a black boy from South Sac the outcome probably would have been different.

Even at 15, I realized that justice is situational.

[Liberal_from_va34]

57. I used to shoplift numerous times during my years at high school.

Back then, things were tough, and my family could barely afford to feed me or my siblings. I remember just walking into the grocery store, snatching a food item, hiding it under my shirt, and calmly strolling out. I did this numerous times until one day, the manager of a recently opened store caught me stealing. At that point, I thought I was dead meat, and that I'd go to jail. Instead, the manager gave a calm and reasoned lecture on how shoplifting is harmful to society in general, and let me go without alerting the authorities. From then on, I stopped shoplifting completely.

Anyway, it's sad how the powers that be in this country will use violence in response to such petty crimes.

[JEB]

58. I would not be surprised to find the killer cop stole something

one time or another.