y first wife's mother, and many in her family, would see a Black man
coming down the sidewalk, and they would cross the street out of fear.
My neighbor had tried to sell his house for some months. Finally he
listed with a realtor who showed properties to Blacks as well as to
the White folk. My sweet neighbor on the other side of the house for
sale, came knocking at my door one early morning.
"Last night Dick and Jane(yup, that's their real names) showed their
house to some Colored folks. "Dick and Jane are asking far too much
for any sensible folks to buy it", I told her.
Sure enough, the house set empty for months, finally selling to a
White single mother with 3 young children. But my inlaws, who lived
three blocks from our house, got wind of this "invasion". "What would
you do if some big Black man jumped out in the alley and grabbed
Judy?" my mother-in-law asked me.
"Well," I said after some consideration, "I'd do the same thing as if
a Big Green Man jumped out in the alley and grabbed Judy. I'd call
for help!"
There was an unspoken fear in that neighborhood that we would be
invaded by Colored Folk. My father-in-law told me with a straight
face, "If one moves in, they come like a plague, and our property will
devalue by half.
And yet, two blocks on the other side of me lived a young couple and
their two young daughters. These folks were both school teachers.
They dressed well and kept an immaculate home and yard. Shortly after
they moved in, their two daughters passed by our house on their way to
our church, for Sunday School. They went back the next week. They
never went again. Our church family did not want Blacks included.
A middle aged Mexican fellow came into church one day and sat in the
pew at the back. No one sat next to him. The next Sunday he was
there again. Following church service, I went to him and asked if he
lived close by. He said he was in a small apartment in the
neighborhood, and was saving his money doing yard work so he could
bring his wife and two children here. I told him I could use some
yard work, and invited him to Thanksgiving dinner.
The next Sunday several concerned folks came up to me following
church. "Did you really invite that man to Thanksgiving Dinner?
Weren't you afraid he might rob you? Didn't you think about Judy and
your little daughter?" The next Spring I called on this man again,
and for the next two summers he did our lawn and flower beds. Then
one day he came by with a couple of children, and in his truck was his
wife. "You helped me bring my family together, and I just wanted you
to meet them, and to thank you for your kindness."
And all the while, my Holy neighbors tucked their Bibles under their
arms and walked piously to Church, to Praise the Lord!
How deeply ingrained is our prejudices? Just go out and walk around
for a while.
Carl Jarvis
On 11/14/18, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Deep seated prejudice and its identical to a conditioned response. The
training is centuries long education. Black man plus gun eequals criminal.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2018 11:14 AM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Deep seated prejudice?, or sloppy training?
By the time this story is spun into the official police report, it will
never answer the question, Was the Officer so conditioned that he shot the
security guard while under the influence of deep seated prejudices? So much
of our behavior is controlled by conditioned responses, of which we are
totally unaware.
Carl Jarvis
*****
EMILY SULLIVAN
Jemel Roberson and his 9-month-old son.
Avontea Boose via AP
Updated at 4 a.m. ET on Wednesday
When police arrived after reports of a shooting over the weekend at a bar
outside Chicago, witnesses say Jemel Roberson, a 26-year-old security guard
who worked there, had already subdued the alleged assailant in the parking
lot, pinning him to the ground.
Adam Harris, who was at Manny's Blue Bar in Robbins at the time of the
incident on Sunday, told WGN-TV that Roberson was holding "somebody on the
ground with his knee in his back, with his gun in his back" when officers
from neighboring Midlothian got there early Sunday.
Midlothian Police Chief Daniel Delaney said that's when one of his officers
"encountered a subject with a gun" and shot him, according to a statement
given to the media.
But the "subject" was Roberson, not the suspect in the bar shooting.
On Tuesday, Illinois State Police issued a statement saying that "a
Midlothian Police Officer encountered a subject in plain black clothing with
no markings readily identifying him as a Security Guard, armed with a gun in
the west parking lot."
advertisement empty complementary information "According to witness
statements, the Midlothian Officer gave the armed subject multiple verbal
commands to drop the gun and get on the ground before ultimately discharging
his weapon and striking the subject," the statement said.
Roberson was holding a firearm he was licensed to carry. Other witnesses,
and a lawsuit filed by Roberson's family, reportedly said he was wearing a
hat emblazoned with the word "security."
"Everybody was screaming out 'Security!' " Harris told WGN. "And they still
did their job, and saw a black man with a gun, and basically killed him."
Another witness, Jakia Woods, told member station WBEZ's Miles Bryan that
Roberson was wearing an orange vest and the hat marked "security."
She said it was "absolutely clear" that he was a security guard.
Woods said that the Midlothian officer came out of the club's back door —
weapon drawn — and ordered Roberson to "get on the ground."
"Before he says 'ground' he fires the first shot," she said, adding that she
has not been interviewed by investigators.
Roberson was declared dead shortly after arriving at a hospital. Four others
at the bar, including the shooting suspect, sustained non-life-threatening
injuries, police said.
Delaney said that the Cook County Sheriff's Office and the Robbins Police
Department were investigating the shooting.
