Ask Manny Hernandez: A Bilingual Blog
Last Sunday, a 65-year-old St. Louis man was kicked off a train by Amtrak personnel in the middle of a national forest in Arizona, mistaking his diabetic shock for drunk and disorderly behavior.
Every time I read news like this I get a twinge of fear up and down my spine. I have experienced a few lows (30s) and as a dark skinned man in a mostly white and Asian neighborhood near Princeton,NJ and I wonder how I would be treated. I can imagine a night spent in a Princeton jail cell slowing dying while my family wondered where the hell I was.
I have a medical alert bracelet but I don't feel confident that the authorities would notice.
It is a scary thought. And while unfortunate, it is probably also true that racial discrimination and stereotyping would come heavily into play. Scary.