The Article I (Almost) Could've Written...
... but didn't, because Black people would be mad at me.
Now I do have to add the caveat that I find the "maybe"s and the "possibly"s on the racism question quite ridiculous. And I'm at least half sure the author was just being overly cautious. Still, the article raises some interesting points, most notably that the defendants actually did what they're charged with doing. Then there's Mike Nifong's trading the lives of three young white men for black votes in Durham County, and Black people being more than a little okay with it.
Supposedly, when the organizers of the original Civil Rights Movement were looking for a cause, they intentionally ignored quite a few injustices as rallying points because the particular circumstances weren't ideal to serve as the basis of a movement. So they waited for the unimpeachable Miss Parks to sit down on a bus and there was the spark. Not that I don't completely understand why those young people did what they did; I just think the circumstances raise a lot of interesting questions.
One of my favorite authors wrote that what worried him most about white racism wasn't its effects on black people's property, but on their integrity. He was afraid that when Black people got to heaven and God asked them why they had become so vengeful on earth, He wouldn't think "They started it" was a good excuse. I don't doubt that six black teenagers fifty years ago might have reacted exactly as they did in this case. But I doubt that it would have been universally condoned. I believe that somebody in the black community would've at least suggested that they could've reacted differently, and that they should have. I believe that somebody would've said that out loud and that even if they were wrong, we would've had the conversation, and we would've been better for it.
As it is...
The Wrong Poster Children
Now I do have to add the caveat that I find the "maybe"s and the "possibly"s on the racism question quite ridiculous. And I'm at least half sure the author was just being overly cautious. Still, the article raises some interesting points, most notably that the defendants actually did what they're charged with doing. Then there's Mike Nifong's trading the lives of three young white men for black votes in Durham County, and Black people being more than a little okay with it.
Supposedly, when the organizers of the original Civil Rights Movement were looking for a cause, they intentionally ignored quite a few injustices as rallying points because the particular circumstances weren't ideal to serve as the basis of a movement. So they waited for the unimpeachable Miss Parks to sit down on a bus and there was the spark. Not that I don't completely understand why those young people did what they did; I just think the circumstances raise a lot of interesting questions.
One of my favorite authors wrote that what worried him most about white racism wasn't its effects on black people's property, but on their integrity. He was afraid that when Black people got to heaven and God asked them why they had become so vengeful on earth, He wouldn't think "They started it" was a good excuse. I don't doubt that six black teenagers fifty years ago might have reacted exactly as they did in this case. But I doubt that it would have been universally condoned. I believe that somebody in the black community would've at least suggested that they could've reacted differently, and that they should have. I believe that somebody would've said that out loud and that even if they were wrong, we would've had the conversation, and we would've been better for it.
As it is...
The Wrong Poster Children
posted by Puff at 1:27 PM
2 Comments:
I'm surprised. There's been a long thread of "you've got to act right to get rights" present in black writing and organizing, and in non-black writing and organizing around racism. This plays into it. One of the things we've got to wrap our heads around is the idea that we don't need to act right to get rights. And we shouldn't be expected to act like saints to either get support in the face of racism, or to simply be treated as if we're citizens. In this case the children were well within their rights to respond the way they did, particularly given the fact that every symbolic, verbal, and physical threat they received went unpunished.
We don't need anymore poster children.
While I am glad you have seemingly single-handedly kept this blog alive until your co-cons arise from hibercrastination, I am more impressed at the fact that you have attracted one - Dr. Lester Spence - (who I agree with to a great extent although I have to leave room for some disagreement bc there can be no growth w/o tension) into the respected annals of those who have visited "The Musings"
- Godspeed Puff - Oh and your first entry back was High-larious
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