A woman crossed the street to not walk on the sidewalk where he was waiting for a bus. […] But then he asked how different would that be if he crossed to street if a black person was waiting for the bus? I’ll be honest I didn’t have an answer for him. […] What’s different?
I have a difference right here: a rather sizable fraction of women experience violence at the hands of men. A very small fraction of people in the USA experience violence at the hands of black people.
A study performed by Statistics Canada put the number of women over the age of 16 who’ve experience violence at the hands of men at 50%. Now this study had some very deep flaws in the interpretation so take that number with a huge grain of salt. Statistics Canada being, however, a respected organization for statistical information (until Unka Steve gutted it about a decade and a half ago at lest) had its questionnaire, its methodology, and its raw data available for acquisition.
And me being the obsessed lunatic that I am acquired it all. And went over the numbers and methodology with a fine-toothed spork. Once I found the biggest flaw (conflating everything from a single shove once in their life after the age of 16 to aggravated and repeated sexual violence as “violence against women” and being put into the pool), I recalculated the number with just the violence that was any kind of assault, sexual or otherwise, that resulted in bodily harm.
And even there that number was shockingly high. It was just a hair under 24%. One woman in four, basically, had experienced some form of violence from men that could have been a court case with a jail sentence.
One. In four.
Look around you, wherever you are right now. Count the number of women in sight. Divide that by four. In Canada at least that’s how many of them have experienced violence from men. (Actionable violence, note, punishable by detention in a penitentiary.) Count the number of women in this community. Divide that by four. That’s how many of us here in this community have done so. (And the rest who weren’t so unlucky as to have experienced the violence almost certainly know several who have.)
Now I personally don’t have access to any studies’ raw data for acts of violence committed by blacks against non-blacks, but I have a very deep suspicion that this number is nowhere near 25% of white people, or even just white guys.
That’s the difference right there. Most women have either been assaulted by a man or know someone who has. Most white guys do not have similar experiences, direct or vicarious, with black guys. That’s why it’s racist to cross the street when a white guys sees a strange black guy, but not necessarily sexist to cross the street when a woman sees a strange man. (And also why it’s the bear, duh.)
If there were channels available to, my money would be going to them annually in a subscription. So no argument here.