I saw a darkie breaking into the house across the street...Follow

Hey Smash, while you're here, what's the best way to learn to play poker?

Study enough probability to understand the relative equities of a given situation, ie: be able to know instantly how much you'll win and what your chances of winning are if you take a given action.

This is trivially easy.

Study enough psychology to understand why and when other people might make irrational decisions, and how you can exploit this.

This is easy.

Study enough systems theory to understand how you react to feedback loops and develop enough self discipline to make the correct decision based on the situational equities in play instead of how your brain is telling you to react.

The studying part is easy, the pushing through your brains pattern recognition engine to make the correct play even after doing so has resulted in a loss for you the last 4 times in a row is the exceedingly difficult part and why most people can't play for a living. That and the statistical variance involved in making thousands and thousands of slightly +EV decisions where you might do everything right and lose money for a month. The variance will eat your soul.

Or even about the eyewitness in the case? Please, CBD, stop trying so hard to be right. Also, you didn't get the point Smash was making. And I suspect many other people's, including mine. You should reread the post. It's okay, CBD. I assume everyone under the age of 25 is functionally retarded.

Edited, Jul 27th 2009 9:27pm by Annabella

You're missing a key element though: How many of them berated the cop who came to verify that the home was not being burglarized by calling them racists, making remarks about their mothers, and then continued to do so after being warned that they were being disruptive and might be arrested if they continue?

We can dance around the questions about motives for everyone else involved in this, but it's abundantly clear that Professor Gates acted like a complete idiot here. We can speculate about racial motivations on the part of the police officers, the caller, and the woman who brought the situation to the attention of the caller, but we can absolutely say the Professor Gates acted in a racist manner. He assumed that because he was black, and the officer was white, that this meant that the officer must be racist. He made a judgment based solely on the color of the skin of those involved. That's racism.


I also love how as more facts come out about this, the goalposts keep getting moved by those who seem unusually insistent to defend Professor Gates on this. First, it's a group of white police officers who arrested him for being black. Oopps! Well, only one was white, another hispanic, and another black, but the white guy was still racist. Ok. Well... He may not have been, and maybe we got it wrong about why and when he was arrested, but clearly the caller was racist when she chose to report two black men breaking into the home. Oppsie! She didn't know their skin color either. Hmmm... Well... Maybe we can guess that the older women who told the caller about it did so because she knew they were black! Um... Yeah!


Do you guys really have to stretch this far to continue to twist this story around so that it is the white guys fault? At what point will you realize your own bias here? President Obama said one thing that was true. This is a "teachable moment". What we should be learning is that black people can be racist too, and that it's just as wrong to assume that the white person interacting with you is doing so because of your own skin color as it is for any other example of white racism out there.

It does not matter how often you think white people are racist towards black people, or even how often it actually happens. None of that excuses this behavior on the part of both Professor Gates, and President Obama, and neither does it do so for posters on this forum. In this particular case the officer did nothing wrong. The caller did nothing wrong. The person who reacted in a racist manner was Professor Gates, and everyone who assumed he must have been the victim here. You all did that because he was black and for no other reason. Each situation should be judged on it's own merits. Making assumptions about the events which occurred based on the skin colors of those involved makes *you* a racist.


A whole lot of people really ought to be ashamed of themselves in this case...

Edited, Jul 27th 2009 8:14pm by gbaji

Gbaji is hunch-backed with the weight of the white man's burden.

You should stop trying to bring your client base down to your level.

I said it was stupid to claim the woman would never have the call if the people were white, simply because no one knows her POV from that day. You replied by acting as though I was claiming racial profiling doesn't exist. It does! Everywhere! Great! That's still not reason to assume the woman making the damn call did it because they were black.

Are you just off in some theoretical world where she could have done so just because people do so? I'm sure it's fun there, but I prefer to discuss reality.



That's ********* One person abused their power that day, and it wasn't Dr. Gates.

Edited, Jul 28th 2009 1:45am by CBD

I'm just going to add that this:



is utterly silly. Racism is an important issue, sure, but doesn't the leader of the free world have better things to do than play nanny to an easily offended black man and a cop with (perhaps) a temper problem?

Edited, Jul 28th 2009 12:57am by BrownDuck

Wow, it's an entirely opposite white man's burden!

Ageist.

My theoretical world is Cambridge, MA where I've worked on hundreds of court cases but hey! who am I to compete with some random college student with internet access. Dude, I'm out of this discussion. CBD, you used to be cool. Now you are just like Brownduck.

You should understand the concept of healthy skepticism.

Edited, Jul 28th 2009 8:00am by Annabella

Don't worry your beta-male self too much about Anna, CBD. She's just goruchy that your generation is going to kill her generation when they become old and useless. Or maybe she's grouchy because she's going to a Welsh school soon and she knows what utter bastards the Welsh are, every last one of them. Or maybe she hates racism in all its forms and sees your denial as helping it on its merry way. Maybe she just thinks you're a bit of a cretin. Personally, I suspect it's a volatile mixture of all of these things. Anyway, the point is, no matter who people perceive as having won this little exchange, you're still the one with white privilege, and Gates is still the one getting arrested on his own porch. And hell, if you went in to Anna's line of work, for some odd reason, you'd likely end up being paid more than her by the end of your career based solely on your ******** status.

I guess what I'm saying is this: society is on your side here. Don't sweat it.

Edited, Jul 28th 2009 12:59pm by Kavekk

Oh, afternoon delight.

You people are still discussing this racist elitist professor? He's a racist, you know he's a racist. Just admit it to yourself and we can move on.