A question of perception: the deconstruction of popular myths

I wonder...

I occasionally meet Ethiopian immigrants in Seattle, and I'm almost always impressed by their gentleness the respect they show others. They seem genuinely happy and grateful to be here.

I read constantly, on the other hand, how African-Americans complain of being hassled for being black, as in being "watched" in retail stores and even worse.

How often this happens to them, I have no way of knowing, or even whether they may be either exaggerating the perceived slights or simply re-channeling what they read in the newspapers and has become practically a mantra.

I recall viewing a French television interview with a young African-American girl in Los Angeles, who laughing and dancing gleefully into view of the camera, blurted out, "I'm oppressed.  I'm black, and society oppresses me!"

I can say is that for the past 25 years I have never witnessed (or overheard) an African-American being treated disrespectfully, much less being the object of racial discrimination, by a non-black.

I have, however, witnessed African-Americans, simmering with resentment and suspicion, acting very aggressively and/or with condescension towards people of other races, mostly myself.  

Yelling in people's faces, shoving others, cutting in line, scolding others--these are behaviors I see often in lower-income African-Americans that I see much less often than in other racial/ethnic groups of the same socioeconomic level.

In fact, I would venture to say that many, if not most, African-Americans dish out way more sh-- than they receive.  They make sure of that, you can be sure.