The approx 2% figure is interesting to me. This seems to be about the right frequency to be related to the small minority of jerks who will haze strangers for sexist and/or racist motivations.
This might be related to the differences in the perception of the prevalence of racism between minorities and mainstream members of society. If one stands out in a crowd, then one can be more easily “marked” by individuals seeking to victimize someone vulnerable. This is something that I seem to have observed over the years, though I have not taken the time to gather hard data.
Basically, if one has a noticeable and salient difference, one will tend to attract more than one’s share of attention from “jerks.” Though such events are uncommon, they will happen often enough that the possibility always lurks in the back of one’s mind. This results in a noticeable cognitive difference between minorities and mainstream persons.
The approx 2% figure is interesting to me. This seems to be about the right frequency to be related to the small minority of jerks who will haze strangers for sexist and/or racist motivations.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3736037
This might be related to the differences in the perception of the prevalence of racism between minorities and mainstream members of society. If one stands out in a crowd, then one can be more easily “marked” by individuals seeking to victimize someone vulnerable. This is something that I seem to have observed over the years, though I have not taken the time to gather hard data.
Basically, if one has a noticeable and salient difference, one will tend to attract more than one’s share of attention from “jerks.” Though such events are uncommon, they will happen often enough that the possibility always lurks in the back of one’s mind. This results in a noticeable cognitive difference between minorities and mainstream persons.