Former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, known as the "toughest sheriff in America", isn't a nice guy. Are tough guys ever nice?

Not because Obama is black? Thank you for your reply Shar. As an Arizonan are you happy that big Joe is gone or are you grieving? That is a rhetorical question because I know the answer.

That's nice.

However being a WHITE person who never would dream of voting for that pig, I can say I WAS NEVER ONCE asked to prove anything for any reason down here except my insurance and my driver's license.   If you were getting Hassled because you were WHITE, I PROMISE you that you would not take this stance.   It is an unfair argument I am handing you, since you will NEVER know what that even feels like.

I have been discriminated against.   I had cops stopping me because I had friends in the car that were men with long hair in the 60's.  We were doing absolutely NOTHING but driving.   I know how that feels and you don't have to be doing anything to be targeted.   It makes you very angry and very apt to feel paranoid all the time.  NOT FUN.  NOT LEGAL.

It was not that cops asked for ANYTHING wrong from criminals.  It was because they were stopping people BECAUSE they were dark skinned and Latino-looking and therefore, were considered suspicious.

That was the REASON, not because they were acting out of line at ALL.   But OF COURSE, Arpaio and his lackeys made it look like they were catching all kinds of bad guys and LOOKIE HERE!   They are illegal. This SURE MUST WORK, this profiling.  Only Dark SKINNED people, of course.


This post was edited by WM BARR . =ABSOLUTE TRASH at August 24, 2017 2:35 AM MDT

I have been skipped over on scholarships and jobs because I'm white. I know this because I've asked the people doing the hiring and scholarship selection. Despite the fact that affirmative action is a discriminatory practice, I approve of it because I know it's still needed, though I hope one day it won't be.

I have had men refuse to do business with me, instead demanding to talk to my husband, brother, or father. 

I've been denied jobs because I'm not Mormon.

I was told not to discuss my religion at work when I was a practicing wiccan.

I have had the police stop me because I looked too young to be out after curfew, because I was with a group who looked like they were up to no good, because my friend and I were giggling a little too much while drinking a bottle of root beer and they assumed it was alcohol, and because I made "too wide of a turn" with my vehicle and the cop was looking for drunk drivers. I honestly don't have any idea what the races of those officers were and my being white didn't stop them from questioning me. It wasn't relevant. I showed them my ID and I left. 

No, I will never know what it's like to be black, Latino, or anything other than a white woman, and I'm not saying discrimination and/or racism isn't alive and well in this country. They sadly are. But, yeah, I do know what it's like to be discriminated against and I do know what it's like to be unfairly "targeted" by law enforcement. 

Furthermore, I do have first-hand knowledge about what it's like for people to be LEGAL immigrants here and the requirements that follow. Again, I married into an immigrant family. And, yes, my ex-husband had a slew of things he had to comply with. He had to show his documentation on many occasions. We couldn't even come into the country using the same line when we took trips to Mexico. I never once heard him complain about the immigrant requirements and becoming a citizen was a major source of pride for him. 

Look at the surveys that took place surrounding Arpaio's run. Legal Latinos were not afraid for themselves. They were afraid of what would happen to their illegal family members. There are countless studies that document the impact it had on the Latino community. The legal citizens were not afraid for themselves, by and large. They worried about illegal family members being deported, about illegal family members becoming victims of crimes and not being able to report it to police, and about illegal family members not being able to get government assistance to feed their families. THESE are valid concerns and should have been addressed. Those problems needed to be fixed. Legal or not, their basic human rights should have been looked after. Joe's plan only addressed part of the problem. He came down like a ton of bricks on illegals and the collateral damage from not havng support systems in place are what caused the issues. Let's say those officers handed out literature on how to become a citizen instead of arresting and deporting. Or maybe, what if they held sessions that gave people a path to citizenship, and the officers cited them and required people to attend? Would anybody be pissed about that? I bet not. In other words, it's not the potential for profiling that bothers people, it's the collateral damage from our immigration policies that caused the problem. 

Yeah.   You were skipped over.   I'm sorry.  We all have problems.  I am not trying to be dismissive of your treatment.  That is horrible.  But I still would not trade places with you for that black person who got your scholarship. 

This affirmative action idea was not fixable at first.  It made many people hate blacks because the entitled whites had to move over and let some blacks have a chance.

It was not fair, not to us whiteys, but that is a TASTE of what black people have endured.

Maybe you'd like to be a member of a black family that got that scholarship instead.  Maybe starving does not give you enough license to have a chance some white person needed to have.  And I am not sure that the person who received your scholarship was starving.  But that, in essence was what it was originally meant for. People who had no chance to get in school.  That also allowed for people who did not DESERVE a chance, but that happens anytime aid is handed out.  People look for ways to work the system. 

I did not get to college on a scholarship.  But I did go.  Because I am white, I can get hired very easily at some crap job and keep going until I get where I need to be.  Just like the black people who get a chance to contribute as well.


When I was growing up, black people were considered garbage.  Seriously.  So, they tried programs to help catch the blacks up with the whites.

YOUR COMMENT:   I have been skipped over on scholarships and jobs because I'm white. I know this because I've asked the people doing the hiring and scholarship selection. Despite the fact that affirmative action is a discriminatory practice, I approve of it because I know it's still needed, though I hope one day it won't be.

I disagree. I don't think we should discriminate.  I don't. But having someone tell you their reasons why behind a desk may not even BE the correct reason.  Affirmative action brought about a lot of disention and resentment, but it is not the fault of the blacks or the government even, it is the fault of trying to correct something that was inevitable.  It is a product of way too little too late.  But things are better now.  We don't have that issue like we did 30 years ago. 


This post was edited by WM BARR . =ABSOLUTE TRASH at August 23, 2017 1:31 PM MDT

O_o Let's put this in perspective. When I was leaving high school and trying to attend college, I was a teen mom who had a baby as a result of rape and I was alone because my mom went for her next husband when I was 16. I had a 4.0 GPA. I worked. I took care of my son. I was alone in it though. I lived in a trailer. My well went dry, so we had no running water. My heater broke and I couldn't afford to fix it, so I just bought a space heater and my son and I slept together on the floor next to it. I worked in a restaurant, so I ate on the days I worked, but that was it. I made sure my son had food all the time, but that was all there was. I applied for every scholarship I qualified for with the hopes of becoming a dental hygienist. Only one came through, but it wasn't even close to enough, so I settled on dental assisting school instead. I planned to get a student loan to cover the second half of my classes, but, they decided they had to include my mom's income as family income because of my age even though she hadn't supported me in years. Then, they decided because she just got married, I had to include her husband's income on my paperwork, only he wouldn't even provide the info because he didn't feel I needed it. I only finished half my classes because I couldn't even get a student loan because of their selfishness/ laziness. 

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure those circumstances count as living in hardship. So, if your point was to tell me that ANY minority needed the scholarship more than me... ummm.... no. Just no. Some probably did, some probably did not. But, that's not the point. Like I said, I believe affirmative action is necessary. You only have to turn on the news to understand that minorities still get the shaft here. And, so, I fully support setting aside opportunities for minorities only. That scholarship money wasn't "mine." It was the givers to do with what he or she felt was right, and if it helped bring forth equality and lift someone up, it served its purpose, even if it didn't go to me. I have no qualms about that. I mean it sincerely. In the end, I wound up ok.  I made things work for me. I made my own opportunities. I'm sure some would say I drew upon "white privilege" when I started my business, but I'm pretty sure none of my clients know what race I am. They didn't hire me because I'm white. They hired me because I have the skills they need. Which, I might add, I picked up in public schools where whites were the minority. 

I'm only sharing to prove my point- discrimination happens across the board. People of all backgrounds suffer. If someone wants to tell me that I don't understand discrimination or hardship because of the color of my skin, that's BS. I'm not going to say that racism doesn't exist or that minorities don't have a more difficult time with things than whites generally do though. If you look at statistics, it's usually poverty that's the key indicator for both lack of education and crime. Minorities are more likely to live below the poverty level. Ergo, they're also more likely to miss out on their educations- the very thing that can break the cycle. We still need affirmative action. But, we should be doing what we can to lift everyone up- regardless of their backgrounds, color, gender, orientation, religion, etc. And, we should have better immigration policies than we do. We should be doing a lot of things differently. 

With all that said, I don't think Apraio was wrong. I don't think he used discriminatory practices. Asking people for documents and expecting them to prove they're lawful citizens is nothing. Heck, I once got a ticket for failing to provide proof of insurance. I had to go to court and show a judge I had insurance. I'm not mad at the cop for expecting me to have proof of insurance. I know it's my duty to have my card. If I had been arrested, it would have been my own dang fault for not having my stupid card. I don't even remember why he pulled me over, but I do know I wasn't cited for anything but lack of proof of insurance. Proof of lawful residency is not any different. Legal immigrants know they need that. It's their job to have it.