Originally Posted by signupdamnit

It's amazing how many confrontations occur mainly because of a combination of having a bad day and posturing or misunderstandings based on things like appearance. If you're black and you think "old whitey" is out to get you, you might start acting very defensively around whites who seem to fit a certain profile. OTOH, if you're white and you think "those darn black people do whatever they want and need to be kept in line", you're probably going to jump the gun a bit when you're dealing with black people. It's tough for many people but it's much better to throw out all the prejudices and treat everyone as an individual separate from appearances, if you can.