Posted by ironi, a resident of the Charleston Gardens neighborhood, on Sep 21, 2007 at 3:16 pm

interesting, even if youre ''black'', and have a work badge, you will still be stopped by police and asked ''where you work'', even if you have work ID !! it has happened to many.america has racial problem among all its problems,just dont blame all african or latinos for all your problems...

Posted by Tim, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Sep 21, 2007 at 4:06 pm

So ironi if you were rob by a white person- would you NOT describe your robber as being white?? The story did NOT say that companies were going to just ask black people for their ID. Also, who is blaming who??

Posted by Joanna, a resident of the Adobe-Meadows neighborhood, on Sep 22, 2007 at 7:49 am

Q: Does racism exist here?

A: It is alive and well. Yes sir.

Q: Is it racist to list "black" as a description?

A: No, not really. They should use the term African American though. Descriptions in general include height and hair. We should know what they look like and race, unfortunately, is a description.

Q: Does racism come into play when writing about crimes in general?

A: Yes. Caucasians need to be described as such when written about.

Posted by Tim, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Sep 22, 2007 at 9:24 am

To Joanna,

Is racism alive and well? Yes it is and it always will be unfortunately.

The term African American went out a long time ago. And yes, whites or Caucasians (your term) are described the same when talking about a possible criminal at large.

You seem to have a problem if someone uses race as a description for a possible criminal.

Posted by Resident, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Sep 22, 2007 at 11:17 am

We have many Kenyans, Nigerians, and other nationals from African countries round here. How should they be described?

Posted by Joanna, a resident of the Adobe-Meadows neighborhood, on Sep 22, 2007 at 4:18 pm

You know this is a complicated topic, right? Are you ready to discuss this here?

What would you call albino black people? What would you call a black person with a really light complexion? Would "black" be an appropriate description for a neighborhood out on the watch? These are hypothetical questions and we really shouldn't get off topic. I'm just saying that journalists should choose their words carefully and that they should report an even amount of crimes from all kinds of people.

I know first hand of a regular city paper in the Midwest (northern part) that suppressed "white" crimes while featuring crimes of others. Thankfully, we don't see too much of that stuff around this area.

Anyway, like I said, it is not necessarily racist to use the word black.

I think racism is disgusting. Uneducated people pick up on existing racism and carry on the tradition. The description of the robber was not necessarily racist.

Back to the story... the building should get cameras and biometric access points.

Posted by Choco, a member of the Egan Middle School (Los Altos) community, on Oct 8, 2007 at 4:10 pm

I'm just gonna chime in and leave a question to be nit-picked over :) : is calling a dark-complected man "African-American" instead of simply "Black" considered racist if the man is actually an immigrant from, say, Jamaica or some other Caribbean area where people are typically dark-skinned? What about European born Blacks that move to America but aren't actually American citizens yet?

Personally, I prefer to use the term "Black" simply because not every dark-skinned person in American is of "African" descent (disregarding the notion of Africa being the birthplace of the human race which would make everyone in America "African-Americans").

Back to writing this paper...