My two-cents worth and then some. An online journal by LP Brown.

Race Matters

by on ·Race Matters

Here we go again in 2010. Another white person falsely accuses a black person of committing a crime against them. How long will this keep happening? When did it all begin? 

It certainly didn’t start in 1931, when nine black Scottsboro boys who allegedly gang raped two white girls on a Southern Railroad freight train in Tennessee were convicted in Scottsboro, Alabama. It didn’t start in October 1989, when Charles Stuart of Boston, Massachusetts invented a cock-and-bull story about a black gunman who forced his way into the car in which Stuart was driving with his wife in the passenger seat. Stuart claimed that the car was stopped at a stoplight, when the man climbed inside and ordered them to drive some distant before robbing them.  The man then opened fire, allegedly shooting Charles in the stomach and his pregnant wife, Carol, in the head killing her. A couple of months later Stuart further perpetuated his lie by picking a black man named Willie Bennett out of a police lineup and claiming that he was the shooter.  It didn’t begin with the act of deceitfulness in 1994, by Susan Smith who drove her car with her two sons into a river in Union, South Carolina then claimed that a black man had taken her car and kidnapped her sons. Here we are now in 2010 and Bethany Storro disfigures her own face with acid, and then concocts a story about a nonexistent black woman who allegedly threw the acid in her face. According to media reports Storro’s story began unraveling when she allegedly pulled out of a scheduled appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” fearful of the questions that she might be asked. If Storro’s fairy-tale wasn’t so tragic it would be laughable. An accusation made against a fictitious black woman is exposed by a reportedly planned meeting with a real, and powerful African American woman.

If any records exist of blacks falsely accusing whites of crimes, they cannot be nearly as numerous as the list of false accusations by whites against blacks. When is this race-based insanity going to end?  Not only do trumped-up accusations like these fan the smoldering fires of racial tension, but as history has proven, such blatant lies have caused innocent people to be hunted, prosecuted, convicted, imprisoned and killed.

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4 comments on “Race Matters”

  • DWhite

    Well, it won’t end while we have pretty much an openly racist national network. You can bet that the coverage of the initial story on Fox was much greater than the coverage of her admission.

  • Kyle

    I’m not sure when it will end but I do believe that it can at some point. Maybe in 2050 when 50% of the US population is projected to be made up of people of color http://www.census.gov/population/www/projections/usinterimproj/natprojtab01a.pdf. Even then, the number of people of color in the US may not be a benefit if the balance of power remains the same. Actually the stereo types and negative images could actually become more severe.

    It is the constant negative portrayal of African Americans that makes these type of people feel that it is ok to blame someone black whenever something bad happens. It is consistent with everything they read in the papers and as Dr. Laura says, she sees and hears on HBO. Most of these folk have no other interaction with blacks beyond media and thats a part of the problem.

  • Janis

    Hi, Lo (and all), I am interested in perspectives on this, beyond the predictable opinions on the Op Ed page (which usually sound knee-jerk to me, one way or the other).

    In general, it looks to me (from my non-black perspective) that racism is on the decline. For many reasons, but a big one is that Obama was elected! Never imagined I would see that in my lifetime! A racist backlash to that does NOT stand out to me–mostly I see the typical anti-whoever response. Is it that I’m not tuned in? Is it that I want to believe? Is it real? Or, what?

    What will it take to get all of us past the hump of racism? I don’t mean to demean the issue. I know there is a lot of cultural distinction and economic baggage underpinning our perspectives. But tremendous progress has been made, especially in the boomers’ lifetime.

    I really want to know what a non-racist nation would look and feel like to blacks. And to whites. I’ll think on it and happy to engage in a dialogue. Anyone in?

  • DWhite

    Hi Janis! One thing that it will take is for people to be willing to have discussions on the topic and so I’m happy that you chimed in. I think that many whites are relatively unaware of the situation because they can be. When not faced with a situation constantly it becomes easy to ignore or not understand. There HAS been progress and a lot of it but in a way that just underscores how far we as a nation have to go. I agree with you that a lot of the backlash against Obama has been of the kind that would have been thrown at any Democratic president but then there is another level which Bill or Hillary Clinton would not have seen. But because “racist” has become an unsavory title even for those that know they are, racism has become much more subtle and is often only easily seen by those who have experienced it. For example, when Tea Partiers claim their motto is “Taxed Enough Already” and then Obama gives them a tax cut but they just move on to another complaint…..well, what else could it realistically be? Or when the “Oath Keepers” say it was all right for Bush to have the power to wiretap without a warrant but not Obama because “they trusted Bush to do the right thing” that could be racist as well. What it is going to take to get past it is education. It is amazing how many people can equate the hatred and ignorance of one person, like the neo black panther calling for killing babies with hundreds of years of institutionalized discrimination. But a lot of it is because it hasn’t been taught. For the most part, kids learn about black people in school in history class when it comes to the issue of slavery and then again during the civil rights movement. For many, it’s as if they disappeared for the rest of the time of the country’s history. Someone who didn’t know any better might very well wonder why haven’t black people succeeded as some other groups have. As for what a non-racist nation would feel like, for the most part look at the military. In the military, overt racism is punishable so you see very little of it and because there are no legacies, success is much more based on merit than in the civilian world. In other words, the son of a general can’t become a general just because of who his father was. He may get some help but he doesn’t have hundreds of years of privilege backing him and he has to do most of it on his own. Unlike, say, the children of Sam Walton, who, when he died, became the four richest people in America.

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