Knee-Jerk
Not exactly about PC, more about prejudices.

I was heading up the stairs in Kings Cross to catch my train. Just ahead of me were 4 black guys, in hoodies, chattering away to themselves. At the top of the stairs was a woman from East Europe who had a baby in her arms, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and she was shoving this in the faces commuters obviously begging for money. It used to be a fairly common sight in London.

As the black guys cleared the top of the stairs, the woman shoved the baby into their faces and..... A black guy snatched it from her, threw it into the air and then wellied it so it spun across the floor.

I was shocked - for a split second I couldn't breath and then the red mist descended and I charged up the stairs ready to do battle. Those bastards! And they were fucking laughing! (the central scrutiniser part of my brain was going "oh shit - we're gonna die"). Then, just as I was about to launch my suicidal attack I noticed something odd. The baby's head had come off when the guy kicked it.

And then the penny dropped. It was a fucking doll. It was a bloody scam. And the black guys had spotted this and I hadn't.

It's odd how the prejudices that I claim not have can take over the higher brain functions. A part of me didn't even question what I thought I saw. A bunch of black thugs attacking a defenceless woman with a baby.

So I went to the bar and drank whiskey until I stopped shaking. Adrenaline does that to me.

Cheers
( Legless Mister Stabby - shanks for the memory, Sat 24 Nov 2007, 3:46, 7 replies)

prejudiced? nah.
as far as you saw, someone had just kicked a baby. i think your reaction would have been the same if the guys were white.
(stapleface, Sat 24 Nov 2007, 10:53, closed)

I remember them...
Now if it had been one of them accordian players...

Where did they all go btw? There used to be loads all the time on the tube "Please, money for baby..."

Haven't seen one in years, where did they all go?
(Wascally Weasel now with 100% fewer jokes., Sat 24 Nov 2007, 11:17, closed)

I read the book "BLINK"
... it suggested taking an online test...

I hunted the specific test doen and here they are is..

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/selectatest.html

very VERY interesting
( Humpty Dumpty was Pushed Is unaware of having any limits., Sat 24 Nov 2007, 11:22, closed)

What stapleface said
I think I would have reacted the same had I seen someone punt a baby and laugh...
(jizzools, Sat 24 Nov 2007, 12:01, closed)

totally agree with stapleface
think about it, if it had been a bunch of (white) chavs (are there any other kind? what about black kids in essentially the same clothes*) you would have done the same.
*and I'm black. So what I said about black chavs isn't racist. It's classist. Which isn't non-pc... or is it?
(housetits is channelling Natalie Cassidy - then, Sat 24 Nov 2007, 20:19, closed)

@Wascally Weasel
Perhaps they all went the same way as one I saw on the Northern Line last year...

Clad in rags and dirty of face, she made her way up the carriage looking forlorn, hands cupped around a knackered-looking paper cup containing a few coins, with a 'baby' in a pouch on her back. Tourists took pity on her and dug around in their pockets. I scowled at her as she shambled past, slowly shaking my head. A chap at the far end of the carriage had been observing proceedings and managed to get her attention by rooting around in his own pockets. She produced a sudden turn of pace towards the stranger, detecting financial reward. However, when she arrived, what actually materialised from his pockets was a police warrant card. "British Transport Police madam... come with me"

I grinned and clapped, and a couple of like-minded fellow tube-goers joined me. The unfortunate tourists looked as though the police officer had just pissed on their chips.
( chart cat has an itch, Mon 26 Nov 2007, 9:48, closed)

Wascally weasel
"Where did they all go btw?"

Paris!
(MrC. Having the most boring username on b3ta since 2004, Mon 26 Nov 2007, 10:43, closed)