Evil
In this complex world, one should usually be circumspect about making moral judgments ("judge not ..."), especially when it comes to categorizing something or someone as evil. But I feel no such need for circumspection in this case.
What is it with young, white Texans attacking mentally retarded black men? At least in that case, the attackers got justice, Texas-style (one got life in prison and two are scheduled for execution).
The most galling part of the case in Linden is this quote from the ex-mayor, Wilford Penny:"But I don't think there was anything racial about it. These guys were drinking, and this guy [Johnson] liked to dance. I'm not surprised when they get to drinking and use the n-word. The black boy was somewhere he shouldn't have been, although they brought him out there."
1) there's nothing racial about calling a black man the n-word? um, what?
2) the "boy" in this case is a middle-aged man, thank you very much
and 3) the victim "was somewhere he shouldn't have been." Yeah, somehow I doubt we'd hear that rationalization if a white girl was raped in inner-city Houston or something of that sort. Then, it would be "how could something horrible happen to such a nice girl?"
Anyway, I hope you find yourself in hell some day soon, Mr. Penny (your clock is ticking). You and all the nice boys from Linden, Texas who think it's funny to beat retarded black men.
7 comments:
Thanks for reminding me why I never, ever, want to go to Texas. (Not that I really needed another reason, though.)
Oh, you'd be fine ... as long as they don't know you're Jewish.
And maybe you'd get to see those neat hooded pajamas that some Southerners are so fond of.
That reminds me of driving through Northern Florida with Marisa. In a one hour drive between Gainesville and the beach, we once counted like 30 "Jesus Loves You" signs on people's lawns. And that doesn't even count all the crosses.
Marisa told me that if anybody stopped us, I was Christian and we were married. I'm not even sure if she was joking.
My biggest cultural disconnect moment was stopping with my parents at a little roadside store in Northern California. I wandered down the street a bit and noticed a couple cars and homes flying the Confederate flag - including one that had it right next to the American flag! (Message: I love America so much I wish it had been destroyed in the Civil War.) But the weirdest part was that we were in California - not Texas or Alabama or Georgia, California.
Yeah, that is weird in California. But you also see the whole US and Confederate flag thing all over the South, and I had the same reaction to it that you did. Apparently these people somehow don't understand that these two sides were ENEMIES. You can't like both! It's like the Cubs and the Sox.
And as odd as it is, you see Confederate flags up here too, of course. In fact, I think we were with you at the train station when we saw a pickup truck with a huge Confederate flag painted on the tailgate. Yay for slavery!
Yeah, people just see the Confederate flag as a fuck-authority symbol, I think, so they fly it whenever and wherever.
Whatever.
I wish that the Union had some sort of different flag during the Civil War that I could fly in protest. But instead, it's just the regular American flag. Oh well.
Well, you could fly a flag with however many stars at the time (it varied between 33-36 during the war, per Wikipedia). I presume that the symbolism would be lost on most people, though.
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