reverse profiling

People who rush to judge, unconditionally, the police sergeant who arrested Gates, without even hearing his side of the story first (and why Gates' own NEIGHBORS called in a burglary report) -- how is this sort of "factual" prejudice any different from actual racial profiling? Like the shaving cream commercial says ... before you criticize others, look in the mirror first.

I'm not saying Gates' story or Crowleys' story is more credible or closer to the truth. I'm just saying, there ARE two versions of what happened. Summarily dismissing one based on, for example, the fact that it comes from the white guy ... thats a pretty appalling manifestation of willful ignorance to suit one's own prejudices.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090723/ap_on_re_us/us_harvard_scholar_disorderly

= = = = =

incestuous amplification n. The reinforcement of set beliefs among like-minded people, leading to miscalculations and errors in judgment.

http://www.wordspy.com/words/incestuousamplification.asp

--------

. . . The most insidious part of any confidence game is not its outrageous claims but its appeal to the needs of its potential victims. Lustig's con was typical of many famous swindles, in which the victim ends up so humiliated — so complicit — that the crime is never reported. Once the scrap dealer let his greed overcome him and committed to paying the bribe, it became, in his mind, his very own confidence game. The dealer deceived himself.

Like any magic trick, it sounds ridiculously simple and preposterously unimpressive — but that's because the real art of deception lies in understanding how subtle touches and preconceptions can be twisted in the minds of victim or viewer.

Professional magicians are the only honest deceivers. They tell you that you're going to be fooled and then deliver on that promise. I've worked with professional magicians for years, developing deceptions for them and researching the art's lost secrets. This has led me to consider deception as a larger subject. I can assure you, any successful deception requires a cooperative audience.

It's not as simple as finding stupid people who are willing to accept what they're told or happy to overlook obvious clues. The key is finding smart people who bring a lot to the table — cultural experience, shared expectations, preconceptions. The more they bring, the more there is to work with, and the easier it is to get the audience to make allowances — to reach the "right" conclusion and unwittingly participate in the deception.

Jim Steinmeyer,"What's Up Their Sleeve? Our Eagerness to Be Gulled: Magicians, con artists and politicians enlist public's cooperation", Commentary, The Los Angeles Times, 11 April 2004.