Folks, This is long, but I thought it was worth reading. Godspeed! Pa Mambuna ********************************************************************************** > > Subject: Interesting commentary > > "Blinded by the White: Crime, Race and Denial in America" > Tim Wise >Association for White Anti-Racist Education (AWARE) April 26, 1999 > > Imagine if you will the following: The place is a quiet, suburban > community. The kind commonly referred to by its residents as a "nice > place to live and raise children." It's a community known for civic pride, > affluent families, and schools where the students score well above the > national average on aptitude tests. It's also 93% white. > > Now imagine that at this community's high school, a handful of > black students who say they feel like outcasts begin talking openly about > how they hate everyone. They start dressing alike, perhaps wearing the > same colors, or leather jackets, or black berets, and referring to > themselves as the "dashiki posse." > > Furthermore, they show off their gun collection in a video which > they produce for a class project. In this video, they act out the murders > of dozens of their fellow students and teachers. > > In addition to all this, the students are known to operate a website which > espouses hatred and violence, and on this website they have > been known to post what amount to hit lists, letting everyone know who > they hate most, andintend to kill first. > > One of the targets of their hatred discovers the list, tells his father, > and the two of them inform police of the thinly-veiled threat. > > And let's imagine these black students are fond of a particularly > "violent" form of music, say, gangsta' rap, and are known to paint > viciously anti-white slogans and symbols on their clothing, and sing the > praises of a particular black mass murderer, say, Colin Ferguson. > > Now, let us answer the following question: How long would it take, > based on the above information, for school officials, teachers, and > parents to make sure these kids were expelled from school and perhaps even > prosecuted? How long would it take for their families to be run out of > town on a rail? > > Does anyone believe this scenario would have been met with apathy, > cautious indifference, or even amusement? Of course not. But that's > exactly what happened in the real world when at this same school, in this > same community, two white students from "good families" began dressing > alike, saying they hated everyone, calling themselves the "Trenchcoat > Mafia," listening to "shock-rock" and the sometimes violent lyrics of > white musical artists, showing off their guns and murder fantasies on > film, operating a website which praised Hitler > and advocated violence, painting swastikas on their clothes, and naming > the people they wanted to kill over the internet. Still seen as "basically > normal kids" by their families, friends and teachers, these two would be > ignored. Ignored that is until last week, when they would go on a killing > rampage reminiscent of the previous seven that have occurred at schools > around the country in the past two years. > > "No one really thought they'd do anything," said some of their classmates. > "We thought it was all talk," said others. Of course. These were white > kids, with BMW's, whose families make six figures or more. These are the > beautiful people. They never do anything wrong. > "We moved from the city to get away from things like this." The statement > rings in my ears with a burning familiarity. It's the same > thing heard after Paduchah, Pearl, Fayetteville, Jonesboro, Edinboro, and > Springfield. > > And now again, in the wake of Littleton. Some people never get it. Some > people are so caught up in their race and class stereotypes about what > "danger" looks like, they still insist "things like this just don't happen > here." > > Oh yeah? Well where do they happen? I have yet to hear of one black > or Latino kid in even one inner-city high school plotting, let alone > carrying out mass murder. Just where does an urban-dweller go to build > thirty bombs anyway? And where can they sit around sawing off shotguns > without someone noticing? Christ, if these kids had been black they would > have been followed around the hardware store for so long that they would > never have been able to buy any pipes, let alone the other ingredients > needed for the kind of explosives Messrs. Klebold and Harris concocted. > > So in light of what's happened, not only in Littleton, but in "nice, > quiet" suburbs all around the country lately, one must ask: just what > were these folks trying to get away from in the cities? Must not have been > violence. Must have been black and brown people (except, of course for the > handful that can afford to live amongst them in style), and poor folks > generally. How sad. Once again, the racialization of crime and deviance > has allowed us to let down our guard to the greatest threats to our > safety: not people of color (if we're white), but our own white children, > white parents, white neighbors, white husbands, white lovers and white > friends. > > We have been so conditioned to see deviant and destructive behavior > as a by-product of melanin or "defective" black culture, that commentators > can, without any sense of irony continue to remark about how, well, > remarkable it is when things like this happen. > > It reminds me of something James Baldwin once said about the Holocaust, a > much bigger paroxysm of white violence no doubt, but which nonetheless > resonates here, "They did not know that they could act that way. But I > doubt very much whether black people were astounded." The white American > myth of innocence, decency, morality, and the cowboys who never fired on > an "injun" unless it was self-defense, have all been laid bare for those > willing to see. That people of color always knew the myths to be bullshit, > while the dominant majority refused to listen and look at themselves only > makes the situation more tragic. But not a damn bit more shocking. Feel > free to insert the one about the chickens and the roost here. > > And of course, that the mass killers in the schoolyards have all been > white as of late has gone without mention in the media. Oh sure, we hear > about the similarities between the Columbine High tragedy and the > others, well, at least some of the similarities: all the shooters were > boys; all the shooters used guns; all the shooters talked openly about > violence; all the shooters played violent video games; all the shooters > ate Cheerios at some point in the last ten years, you get the picture. In > other words, the racial similarities between all these gun-lovin', > trash-talking, dark-clothes wearing, 'Doom'-playin,' Cheerios-eatin,' > Marilyn Manson-listenin' bundles of testosterone was irrelevant. While we > can rest assured these kids would have been "raced" had they come from > black "ghetto matriarchs" in the 'hood, it seems as though no one can see > the most obvious common characteristic among them: namely, their white > skin. > > This, I guess it what folks mean when they say they're color-blind: they > can see color all right, it's white they have a problem with. > Typical, typical, typical. White folks go off, killing wholesale > like there's a frickin' closeout on semi-automatic ammunition, and we get > fifty-eleven "explanations" from the so-called experts who are called in > by the media to make sense of it all. People of color do something > horrific or commit random acts of retail violence and the whole world > lines up to blame one of three things: their black families (particularly > their black single mommas); their black DNA (as in the rantings of the > Bell Curve); or their "defective" black culture and inverted value system. > Whatever the case, their blackness never, and I mean never, gets > overlooked. > > Gang violence in the cities heats up and we've got U.S. News and World > Report running a cover story entitled: "A Shocking Look at Blacks and > Crime," and every nighttime news program running stories asking what's > wrong with the black family (as if there's only one); what's wrong with > these people in the "ghetto underclass." But when Charles Manson, John > Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer go out and do their thing, no one > thinks to ask what it is about white folks that makes them cut babies out > of their mothers' wombs, torture young men and bury them under the house, > kill two dozen or more women for the hell of it, or consume human flesh. > > White deviants are afforded the privilege of individualization, that's > just crazy Charlie, ignore him, he's a potted plant", while those of > color get to represent the whole community and become exhibit A in David > Duke and Charles Murray's eugenic fantasy. You say 90% of modern serial > killers have been white? Well isn't that puzzling...Next question. You'll > never even hear the term "white crime" uttered in polite conversation. > White collar crime, maybe; but to suggest that the collar might not be the > only thing lacking color, would be dogma non grata in mainstream > discussion. "White-on-white violence?" What the hell is that? Never heard > of it. Even in the wake of these massacres. Even as white folks are > killing other white folks in Kosovo (and still other white folks are > bombing them to get them to stop). The media and politicians have done > such a fine job making sure everyone knows who to fear (namely the dark > and poor) that we forget how whites are disproportionately likely to > engage in all kinds of destructive behavior, from drunk driving, to drug > use as teenagers, to animal mutilation, to fratricide, to cutting corners > on occupational safety standards and pollution control, which then result > in the deaths of twice as many people as are murdered each year. > > We forget that when it comes to violent crime, whites are four > times more likely to be victimized by another white person than by a > person of color, and that only six-ten-thousandths of 1% of the white > community will be killed by a black person in a given year. > > And it all leads one to wonder: how many of the white families with > kids at Columbine would have moved away, or at least taken their kids out > of the school if, say, 50 or 100 black families had moved in and enrolled > their children there? If other suburban communities and other white folks > are any indication, the answer is quite a few. Study after study for > twenty five years has found that whites begin to leave an area and > disenroll their kids from the local schools when the community becomes as > little as 8% black. As the numbers get higher, the slow trickle becomes a > mass exodus. And why? Well, to get away from crime, of course. I'm pretty > sure this is the textbook definition of irony. > > Even more hilarious is the tendency to act as if young white people > were ever innocent, upstanding citizens compared to the rest of the > country. Even as far back as 1966, a national survey of 15-17 year old > whites found that "virtually all" had committed numerous criminal > offenses, from breaking and entering, to minor property destruction, to > armed robbery. I've decided that's why all those shows like Leave it To > Beaver, Father Knows Best, and the Brady Bunch were so popular: not > because many people actually lived like that, but because they didn't, and > could escape into this unreal fantasy life via the television. After all, > why watch a program that looks just like your daily routine? That would be > boring. So just as with westerns that allowed (mostly white) kids to > fantasize about a more exciting life, these wholesome family programs > allowed (and still allow in syndication) mostly white viewers to ignore > the dysfunction which is > really all around them, and always has been, long before the first black > kid set foot in their schools, and long before the "Godless" humanists > bounced prayer from homeroom. Unfortunately, I have no doubt this kind of > thing will happen again. > > In fact, had it not been for a few folks informing on plots they knew > about, we would already have added a Milwaukee suburb to the list of white > teen angst killing fields, and a week after Columbine would have gotten a > look at what kind of explosives Caucasians in Texas are capable of putting > together. And still, according to my morning paper, less than half of all > teens and their parents (mostly white if modern survey techniques are any > guide) think their schools are at risk for this kind of violence. > > Yeah well, just keep telling yourself that. And keep watching COPS > and Real Stories of the Highway Patrol, and America's Most Wanted, where > most of the bad guys fit the more comfortable profile to which we've grown > accustomed. Ah yes, that's better. I can hear the dialogue now: "Why look > at how menacing the large Negro is honey! My oh my, we sure are glad we > moved out here to Pleasantville. Me, my lovely wife, and our son. Speaking > of whom, honey, where is Waldo anyway? I don't think I've seen him all > week. Is he on that computer of his again? That scamp. Such a hard worker. > Oh, and honey, what was that sawing sound coming from the garage last > night?" >