I'm not a bigot and I embrace the inherent value of all people.

That said (fer Godssake) I'll say that when I was moving to London in 1975, a female friend there said, "Watch out for Arab men on the street, they're very aggressive." I thought, hmmm, is she prejudiced?

Several times groups of Arab-looking (fer Godsake, am I profiling?) men circled and harrassed me. It was intimidating, and it happened in daylight in crowded places.

Is it possible to accept the validity of a common-sense observation?

Why would anyone assume that some men from cultures where women are shrouded, beaten, imprisoned, and murdered for resisting male authority would NOT lack boundaries in their behavior toward women in a free society? They act out what they've been taught about their entitlement as males and the object status of women. (Please, fer godssake, note the "some").

I don't know what the answer is.

But it seems to me that fear of asking the question is all wrong.

To all those people who believe muslims are to blame for the rapes:

1) do have any statistics backing up your belief beyond an uptick in rape cases? have muslims been arrested and prosecuted for rape in higher numbers or have a greater proportion of suspected rapists who were arrested been muslim? or are you just assuming that an increase in rape is caused by muslims, since that is the way media portrays it? are you illogically linking two thing together that you don't like (rape and muslims)?

2) is the increase in rape an increase in the absolute number of rapes or an increase in the proportion of women who are raped? with immigration and a larger population it is only natural for there to be an increase in the absolute number of rapes. more people = more incidences of rape.

3) is it a sustained increase in incidences of rape corresponding to greater than normal muslim immigration? can the increase in rape be attributed to random statistical variations in incidences of rape? if rape is proportion of women who are raped is increasing, when did it begin to increase? did it begin before or after muslims began immigrating in larger numbers? does the increase in rape correspond to the increase in muslim population? by this i mean, if rape increased 5%, did the muslim population also increase 5%? if there was a significant gain in muslim population and a very small increase in rapes, then it would suggest that muslims are not the cause of rapes. actually it would suggest that muslims are less likely to rape women than non-muslims.

basically i'm asking on what basis are claiming that the increase in rape is caused by muslims? other than word of mouth, of course, as that is frequently wrong and prejudiced.

"Several times groups of Arab-looking (fer Godsake, am I profiling?) men circled and harrassed me. It was intimidating, and it happened in daylight in crowded places.

Is it possible to accept the validity of a common-sense observation?"

-posted by women wear invisible burkas

its called recall bias. your friend (intentionally or unintentionally), the media and many other sources have prejudiced you to arab men. therefore, when you think back as to who has harassed you, you are more likely to recall when an arab man harassed you than when a white person did it. in this the common sense observation would wrong and may potentially be dangerous as you are not looking out for those more likely to harass you.

recall bias is also the reason why people assume colds are caused by the cold. its not, its caused by many different viruses and can happen just as often in hot weather. when we are sick we just think "hmmm...i was cold last week so that must be why i got sick." the name "cold" has prejudiced us to connect the symptoms to being cold and that is just how we remember it.

The "bad guy" is often the one you least suspect. Don't just be wary of men of color, be wary of being in situations where you are vulnerable to strange men in general. You never know who the bad guy is.

Good guys will be understanding if you're afraid in a situation because they know just as well as we do that there are bad guys and it's hard to tell one from the other. Just do things to keep yourself safe from bad men in general and you'll be okay. Try to drop the race part. That's the irrational part.

Dear LW,

I'm not going to go into the Muslim men vs other men debate rised her, but rather focus on the fear per se.

It seems that though your fear is not irrational (rapes do of course occur, and as I live in Oslo (Norway/Scandinavia)I am also aware of the increase in number of rapes this summer),it has become so detrimental to your quality of life and your self esteem that it might not be just a "normal" fear but more of a neurotic anxiety. If that is the case, your fear for being raped might not the real problem, but just a symptom of something else troubeling you at an internal level. See a good psychologist and you might be surprised by the result. (and further more, get a "training program" for overcoming your fear) good luck!

its called recall bias. your friend (intentionally or unintentionally), the media and many other sources have prejudiced you to arab men. therefore, when you think back as to who has harassed you, you are more likely to recall when an arab man harassed you than when a white person did it.

Recall bias is real, but not nearly as pernicious as YOUR bias. You've insulted and demeaned this person based on your own prejudice, making baseless assumptions about her. In light of your prior post, I have to say that you are being quite hypocritical.

its not, its caused by many different viruses and can happen just as often in hot weather.

Um, that's highly misleading at best. Lower temperatures correlate with higher incidences of a significant number of viral respiratory infections. Obviously it's not the only factor, but it's a significant one; our mucous membranes do not defend themselves as well when they're cold, and we're more likely to breathe through our mouth, which exacerbates our vulnerability.