The podcast titled “The Fat Blue Line,” raises awareness to an issue that is common practice yet it is not commonly discussed. The podcast reflects over an instance in which Richard Price, a screenwriter, partook in a ride along with cops and came across an impactful situation. He essentially witnessed racial profiling committed by the cops in which they assumed a black man, Cleveland Carter, was up to no good because he was riding his bike with a white child, Noah Rosenberg. This instance relates to issues regarding diversity or lack thereof. There are three aspects of diversity that can be applied to this specific scenario such as stereotypes regarding race and age. Race played the most critical factor in the event described in the podcast.
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Age is often a quality that gets overlooked in regards to diversity but in this case, I believe it was a leading factor to some of the accusations brought forward by the cops. In the story, when the cop is interrogating Noah he asks the boy, “Do you ever do anything else with [Cleveland]?” (). He continues to ask and it becomes clear the cop is insinuating the likelihood of sexual abuse occurring. I feel that this was not only suggested because of race but because of the age difference between the two friends. Cleveland was described by Price as a 30-year-old man and Noah as a 9 or 10-year-old boy. The cop probably thinks it is strange for a man of a significant age difference to be hanging with a young boy especially because he doesn’t look like he could be the father (based on race). This leads to the idea that this boy should not only be spending time with people of his own race but also with people of his own age. Their differences in age created a misunderstanding for the officers and led to Noah’s heightened anxiety. Nonetheless, age should not be used to define who can be friends or not because friendships can blossom within different ages, races, and class …show more content…
They used stereotypes regarding race and age to suggest that the nature of their friendship was wrong. The cops did not embrace diversity in this scenario and instead questioned it and made negative assumptions. After this entire experience, the cops still did not grasp the negative impact stereotypes have on our cultures. They continued to play into their suspicions and kept a closed mindset towards their experiences with the interracial friendship. This will ultimately hinder their interpersonal communication skills as they will never be able to understand the worldview’s of others and will always hold prejudices against a marginalized group of
Age is often a quality that gets overlooked in regards to diversity but in this case, I believe it was a leading factor to some of the accusations brought forward by the cops. In the story, when the cop is interrogating Noah he asks the boy, “Do you ever do anything else with [Cleveland]?” (). He continues to ask and it becomes clear the cop is insinuating the likelihood of sexual abuse occurring. I feel that this was not only suggested because of race but because of the age difference between the two friends. Cleveland was described by Price as a 30-year-old man and Noah as a 9 or 10-year-old boy. The cop probably thinks it is strange for a man of a significant age difference to be hanging with a young boy especially because he doesn’t look like he could be the father (based on race). This leads to the idea that this boy should not only be spending time with people of his own race but also with people of his own age. Their differences in age created a misunderstanding for the officers and led to Noah’s heightened anxiety. Nonetheless, age should not be used to define who can be friends or not because friendships can blossom within different ages, races, and class …show more content…
They used stereotypes regarding race and age to suggest that the nature of their friendship was wrong. The cops did not embrace diversity in this scenario and instead questioned it and made negative assumptions. After this entire experience, the cops still did not grasp the negative impact stereotypes have on our cultures. They continued to play into their suspicions and kept a closed mindset towards their experiences with the interracial friendship. This will ultimately hinder their interpersonal communication skills as they will never be able to understand the worldview’s of others and will always hold prejudices against a marginalized group of