Richter's partner explained to the woman that it was necessary to throw her to the ground and handcuff her because black people have "violent tendencies."
After finding out that I, as a big ole white dude, have a portion of Senegalese genes (thanks Ancestry.com), I was rather surprised to hear two of my cousins (ones a cop, the other a teacher) trying to convince me that African American people are inherently more violent than white people.
I spent probably two hours trying to convince these college educated people that they were talking an obviously racist stance, but to my absolute amazement they shrilly denied any racism in that stance.
When we got together the next year, I noticed everybody was verrry nice and any discussion of race was studiously avoided. I remain amazed at their willful ignorance, but it’s clearly (and sadly) an opinion among a wide swath of people.
