Just some thoughts since the issue of profiling hangs heavy in the air these days. Did you ever, especially when you were young, pretend to be something you were not for the sake of impressing others?
I must confess, as a 14 year old, I reported to an out-of town acquaintance (thus they could not verify), that I had a big "dovetail joint." waiting for me. It was actually a cigarette that I fashioned into a joint, and yes, ripped it off straight out of the Glass Onion lyrics. I was desperately trying to portray myself as some edgy hipster.
Once, at the home of a couple who lived in a wealthy--read white-suburban area, I observed their 4 year old watching MTV? and swaying to "Gangster's Paradise." In his jammies. And this 4 year old grew up to be someone in his late teens who would reverse the baseball cap, do pants on the ground, get busted for illegal possession of alcohol, smoked dope, got his girlfriend pregnant "before marriage." But somehow came out of all of that to be a respectable employed citizen. And I know that is due to "white privilege."
I have been very distressed at the commentary I read on articles published about the Zimmerman trial. There is so much absolutist hate on "both sides." In the public arena, it appears the question asked is "Who was really the monster?" "Cop wanna-be" vs. "Gangster wanna-be."
Mourning the death of complexity....