Bigotry Vs Experience

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Anyone else find that there's a thin line between the two? To give one well known example, I've worked as a delivery driver for the last few years, and a pervasive sentiment is that black customers tip poorly, if at all. Sadly, it is a true sentiment in most cases. I'd modify it a little bit, to; "most people that don't tip are black", since that is more accurate. When I worked at a buffalo wing place, blacks made up maybe 15% of my customers, but 75% of my stiffs, and they were rude about it too. After several years of this, if the customer on the phone sounded black, I'd brace myself for the stiff, and I was usually right. Every now and then, there would be an exception, but they were just that, exceptions. Would you call that bigotry, or experience?

It made me re-examine my feelings towards racial profiling by the police, why would they do it if they weren't conditioned in some way? Since profiling was carried out by both black and white cops, I'd have to guess that it was also learned behavior. Maybe in their situation, it went "most blacks are not criminals, but criminals are often black". Again, bigotry or experience? I'd say the same about airport security, they go out of their way to appear unbiased by searching 8 year old kids and old white people, but they damn well search every vaguely middle eastern looking person they see. Are they wrong to do this? again, not all middle easterners are terrorists, but terrorists have tended to be middle eastern. Are they wrong to do this?

I'm curious to see what others think, since I'm rather conflicted myself. Ignore experience in order to be absolutely fair, or push fairness to the side to be more effective?

Your experiences with tipping are about culture, not race.

There is no genetic disposition to generosity in any race.

Most cultures do not share our unusual tipping etiquette.

It is important to know the difference between culture race and socio-economic differences.

To expect members of a certain culture not to tip is no different from expect members of a different certain culture to use chop-sticks. Same with socio-economic groups.
To expect members of a certain race not to tip is bigoted.
There is no genetic disposition to generosity in any race.

My parents did not raise me to be a bigot. They taught me that a person should be judged on their personal merit or as an individual, without color being used as a way to stereotype certain groups, and better yet not to judge other people at all.

It wasnt until I grew older and experienced things for myself that I learned the hard way (that every other race on the planet held a grudge against white people due to things in the past beyond my control) that I began to see things differently.

Regarding the police racial profiling, it is in fact rational - violent and petty crimes are generally done by those with poor socio-economic backgrounds, and a disproportionate number of blacks have poor socio-economic backgrounds. From a policeman’s point of view, it makes sense to be more suspicious of a black man then a white one, all other things being equal.

The reason why police are encouraged to avoid doing this is that people generally tend to live down to one’s expectations. If a black kid is always treated like a criminal, regardless of his actual behaviour, he has lost a big incentive for following the law. If it’s impossible to get respect or trust, why try? At least by being in a gang, you can get some respect.

It becomes a chicken and the egg thing – are kids becoming criminals because that’s how they are treated? If that’s the case, then it would be best to give them the benefit of the doubt, regardless of how many black criminals there are.

The tendency to be poor might also explain the lack tipping. If you are poor, you might be less likely to tip; 5 dollars is worth a lot more to someone who makes 8 dollars and hour then to someone who makes 20.

I think you have to imagine being on the other side of that -- being your same self, but with a superficial difference like skin color. You live life trying to do the right thing, but you still get selected out for 'special attention'/special suspicion. That doing the right thing becomes a bit irrelevant in terms of social respect. And what corrosive effect that might have on someone's reciprocal sense of obligation back towards society.

so are you saying that not all black people tip poorly, only the ones who identify with urban culture?

The OP smacks as having a sense of entitlement. The status quo/culture of tipping in the US is actually extremely unusual. In the UK they don't tip nearly as much. it is pretty unheard of to tip a door man or a taxi driver. In other cultures they don't really tip strangers at all, but might give gift to people who regally help them. Pull your socks up.