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Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 25, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I just had my bike kicked out from under me by a pedestrian while I was stopped in a cross walk. I shouldn't have been in the cross walk (and I won't in the future, at least for the next week), but I also would have happily moved if he asked, or he could have, you know, walked one foot to the right and went around me. My bike weighs about 10 pounds so I was fine, but because he was black (and I'm white) I was seething with racial animosity on the rest of my ride home. On one level I recognize that this is obviously irrational (and racist), but at the same time I have had so many negative interactions with black people in this city (Baltimore) that I'm starting to wonder if there maybe is some truth in the HBD/race realist positions.

What, your wheels were in the crosswalk zone while you were in the road? On what fucking planet is that a justification for someone kicking you off your bike?

A lot of discussion about who wins in racial fights downthread. I've probably seen more interracial fights than most. Numbers and viciousness are the biggest factors in who wins. Honestly man, this has very little to do with HBD and more to do with black people hating you. You're in a city where racial animus is a way of life. Many of your fellow Baltimoreans want an excuse to hurt you (especially if they have numbers on their side), so act accordingly.

Numbers and viciousness are the biggest factors in who wins.

It's been a long-standing trope in internet fight video communities that—not only do blacks have a relative penchant for group-based Zerg rush/swarming approaches—even in 1 on 1 fights between a black person and a white person, black bystanders will "helpfully" intervene and stop or restart the fight if the white person gets the upper-hand, if not seize the opportunity to gang-up on the white person to get some free shots in. Vice versa would generally be untrue for white bystanders when the black person gets the upper-hand.