A mixture of stereotypes, lifestyles that come from growing up in poor and dangerous environments, and other factors play a large role in why many fear blacks as a race. A black male is walking near a woman and crosses the street so as not to cross him, when he sees him he puts his face in neutral, with the straps of his bag tied to his chest (521), gets into his car, reaches over and locks his door.. You see this kind of thing every day, both on television and in real life. Mark Cuban, the owner of the NBA franchise Dallas Mavericks, had this to say on the topic in light of the Trayvon Martin case: "I mean, we're all prejudiced one way or another. If I see a black guy in a hoodie and it's late at night, I'm walking on the other side of the street.. And the list goes on with the stereotypes we all live by and are afraid of." Another example of this fear can be seen in the case of twenty-two-year-old black John Crawford. While he was playing with a toy gun at Walmart, a police officer shot him, claiming he thought it was a real gun. Would this have happened if the young man had been white or if he had been rich? In the early 1900s, drastic measures were taken because many feared that blacks would become too wealthy or accomplished. Even black people today hangings, lynchings, kkk violence and other violent acts would take place to prevent this from happening. Some believe that this may still be the root cause of the current oppression of blacks in this society. Conspiracy theorists even argue that the murder of Tupac Shakur, a world-famous rapper and black activist, was even a calculated step to prevent blacks from becoming too powerful. The same is believed about the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. While it cannot be proven, there are no facts to disprove these claims.