Hello, Joe, very good article...  This reminds me of an experience I had
when I was about 14.  I was talking with my uncle, and for some reason, we
got on the subject of violence, and how it was a problem and needed to be
addressed.  And he told me that I was being too pecimistic.  Actually, I
think the topic was school violence or gang violence or something like
that...  I'm not sure now.
     And I think I also mentioned that no one cared until it was their
neighborhood or school or family.  And to me he just played the classic
white attitude of oh don't talk about it, it doesn't happen here, bury your
head int he sand...
     Anyway, it just so happened that a few days later, some boys shot into
a school bus full of kids, and a 13 year old girl was shot.  It just so
happened that my cousin's bus was a few buses down the line of buses that
was going to take the kids home.
     It was qutie upsetting because it was my cousin's school and could have
been my cousin's bus...
     Funny that the same uncle who just a few days earlier had told me I was
being too pecimistic, the same uncle who seemed to bury his head in the
sand, now wanted to take his daughter out of John Marshall Junior High in
Indianapolis where they were living at the time.  And he most definitely
didn't want her going to Arlington High School, which she would be attending
in a couple of years time.
     I didn't say anything, I just kind of laughed to myself.  Because I
wasn't surprised.  Not surprised at all...  It was the classic reaction that
when violence hits too close to home, to so-called white Aermcia, they try
to move away from it...  It kind of reminds me of what happens when
minorities start moving into a certain neighborhod that was once all white.
What happens usually?  All the white people seem to get scared and move out.
And in their minds, they are scared that because minorities are moving into
their neighborhood, that their neighborhood is going to turn in to that
terrible neighborhood across town or that neighborhood that they saw on
Nightly News last night...  And this very thing was discussed on WLS in
Chicago a few nights ago.  And the point of the talk show was that if this
was in the inner-city, no one would have been reporting on it, because it is
"expected" of that area.  It is all quite sad and unfortunate, really, I
think...  Anyway, I am going to end this by saying that I am in complete
agreement with what this writer is saying...  And he is right by saying that
this latest shooting is not going to do anything to wake anyone up.  They're
just going to say, Oh, it's another anomaly in a "nice town".  And they'll
go back to doing what they were doing until the next shooting happens in a
place no one expected it to.
Ginny

Ginny

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe Sambou" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2001 10:57 AM
Subject: School Shooting


> Folks, I received this from an associate and thought I share it with
you'll.
>   I hope it adds value to what you already know.
>
> Chi Jaama
>
> Joe Sambou
> ______________________________ Forward Header
> __________________________________ Subject: Fwd: Interesting Article on
> school shooting
> Author:  [log in to unmask] at PO_EXTERNET Date:    3/13/01 3:59 PM
>
>
> Subject: [Fwd: Interesting Article on school shooting]
>
> This recent article was sent to me, and I thought I'd share it with you.
> What struck me as interesting is that it's
> written by a white journalist that seems to have his head on straight.
Hope
> is alive and well.  Enjoy!
>
> It's long but worth a read.
>
> School Shootings and White Denial
> >
> >Tim Wise, AlterNet
> >
> >March 6, 2001
> >
> >I can think of no other way to say this, so here goes: > white people
need
> >to pull our heads out of our
> >collective ass.
> >
> >Two more white children are dead and thirteen are
> >injured, and another "nice" community is scratching its > blonde head,
> >utterly perplexed at how a school shooting > the likes of the one
yesterday
> >in Santee, California
> >could happen. After all, as the Mayor of the town said > in an interview
> >with CNN: "We're a solid town, a good > town, with good kids, a good
> >church-going town.an
> >All-American town." Yeah, well maybe that's the problem. >
> >I said this after Columbine and no one listened so I'll > say it again:
> >white people live in an utter state of
> >self-delusion. We think danger is black, brown and poor, > and if we can
> >just move far enough away from "those
> >people" in the cities we'll be safe. If we can just find > an
> >"all-American" town, life will be better, because
> >"things like this just don't happen here." >
> >
> >Well bullshit on that. In case you hadn't noticed,
> >"here" is about the only place these kinds of things do > happen. Oh
sure,
> >there is plenty of violence in urban
> >communities and schools. But mass murder; wholesale > slaughter;
> >take-a-gun-and-see-how-many-you-can-kill
> >kinda craziness seems made for those safe places: the > white suburbs or
> >rural communities.
> >
> >
> >And yet once again, we hear the FBI insist there is no > "profile" of a
> >school shooter. Come again? White boy
> >after white boy after white boy, with very few
> >exceptions to that rule (and none in the mass shooting > category),
decides
> >to use their classmates for target > practice, and yet there is no
profile?
> >Imagine if all
> >these killers had been black: would we still hesitate to > put a racial
> >face on the perpetrators? Doubtful.
> >
> >
> >Indeed, if any black child in America-especially in
> >the mostly white suburbs of Littleton, or Santee-were
> >to openly discuss their plans to murder fellow students, > as happened
both
> >at Columbine and now Santana High, you > can bet your ass that somebody
> >would have turned them
> >in, and the cops would have beat a path to their > doorstep. But when
> >whites discuss their murderous
> >intentions, our stereotypes of what danger looks like > cause us to
ignore
> >it-they're just "talking" and
> >won't really do anything. How many kids have to die > before we rethink
> >that nonsense? How many dazed and > confused parents, Mayors and Sheriffs
> >do we have to > listen to, describing how "normal" and safe their
> >community is, and how they just can't understand what > went wrong?
> >
> >
> >I'll tell you what went wrong and it's not TV, rap
> >music, video games or a lack of prayer in school. What > went wrong is
that
> >white Americans decided to ignore
> >dysfunction and violence when it only affected other > communities, and
> >thereby blinded themselves to the
> >inevitable creeping of chaos which never remains
> >isolated too long. What affects the urban "ghetto" today > will be coming
> >to a Wall-Mart near you tomorrow, and
> >unless you address the emptiness, pain, isolation and > lack of hope felt
> >by children of color and the poor, > then don't be shocked when the
support
> >systems aren't > there for your kids either.
> >
> >
> >What went wrong is that we allowed ourselves to be > lulled into a false
> >sense of security by media
> >representations of crime and violence that portray both > as the province
> >of those who are anything but white like > us. We ignore the warning
signs,
> >because in our minds
> >the warning signs don't live in our neighborhood, but > across town, in
> >that place where we lock our car doors
> >on the rare occasion we have to drive there. That false > sense of
> >security-the result of racist and classist
> >stereotypes-then gets people killed. And still we act > amazed.
> >
> >
> >But listen up my fellow white Americans: your children > are no better,
no
> >nicer, no more moral, no more decent
> >than anyone else. Dysfunction is all around you, whether > you choose to
> >recognize it or not.
> >
> >
> >According to the Centers for Disease Control, and
> >Department of Health and Human Services, it is your > children, and not
> >those of the urban ghetto, who are > most likely to use drugs. That's
> >right: white high
> >school students are seven times more likely than blacks > to have used
> >cocaine; eight times more likely to have
> >smoked crack; ten times more likely to have used LSD and > seven times
more
> >likely to have used heroin. In fact,
> >there are more white high school students who have used > crystal
> >methamphetamine (the most addictive drug on the > streets) than there are
> >black students who smoke
> >cigarettes.
> >
> >
> >What's more, white youth ages 12-17 are more likely to > sell drugs: 34%
> >more likely, in fact than their black > counterparts. And it is white
youth
> >who are twice as
> >likely to binge drink, and nearly twice as likely as > blacks to drive
> >drunk. And white males are twice as
> >likely to bring a weapon to school as are black males. >
> >
> >And yet I would bet a valued body part that there aren't > 100 white
people
> >in Santee, California, or most any
> >other "nice" community who have ever heard a single one > of the
statistics
> >above. Even though they were collected > by government agencies using
these
> >folks' tax money for > the purpose. Because the media doesn't report on
> >white
> >dysfunction
> >
> >
> >A few years ago, U.S. News ran a story entitled: "A
> >Shocking look at blacks and crime." Yet never have they > or any other
news
> >outlet discussed the "shocking"
> >whiteness of these shoot-em-ups. Indeed, every time > media commentators
> >discuss the similarities in these
> >crimes they mention that the shooters were boys, they
> >were loners, they got picked on, but never do they seem > to notice a
> >certain highly visible melanin deficiency. > Color-blind, I guess.
> >
> >
> >White-blind is more like it, as I figure these folks > would spot color
> >mighty damn quick were some of it to > stroll into their community.
> >Santee's whiteness is so > taken for granted by its residents that the
> >Mayor, in
> >that CNN interview, thought nothing of saying on the one > hand that the
> >town was 82 percent white, but on the
> >other hand that "this is America." >
> >Well that isn't America, and it especially isn't > California, where
whites
> >are only half of the
> >population. This is a town that is removed from America, > and yet its
> >Mayor thinks they are the normal ones-so
> >much so that when asked about racial diversity, he > replied that there
> >weren't many of different
> >"ethni-tis-tities." Not a word. Not even close. >
> >
> >I'd like to think that after this one, people would wake > up. Take note.
> >Rethink their stereotypes of who the
> >dangerous ones are. But deep down, I know better. The
> >folks hitting the snooze button on this none-too-subtle > alarm are my
own
> >people, after all, and I know their
> >blindness like the back of my hand. >
> >***
> >Tim Wise is a Nashville-based writer and activist and > can be reached at
> >[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>
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