2006-01-27

Our Weekly "Rare" Racist Hate Crime Story

CLEVELAND -- Two men accused of putting poisonous mercury on an interracial couple's porch have been charged with a hate crime.
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6 comments:

Paul Hue said...

Nadir: Keep these reports coming. I am open to you proving to me that I am absolutely blind. What I used to see and hear all the time as a child and young adult, but never see anymore except in occassional newspaper reports. I'm a guy who has had my ass kicked severly at least ten times for being a "nigger lover" and had my boyhood home and car vandalized about that many times, plus incessent disgusting phone calls several times a day for a few years with threats about "nigger lover", plus "KKK" flyers repeatedly left on my door. Our own Tom Philpott on this list will confirm all this. He bears a scar over his right eye from getting a broomstick poked through his bike spokes as we sped from the "Nigger Hater's Club" as children. This was all in response to the first black family moving into our Austin neighborhood in 1971, and our parents bringing them a cake.

That was 35 years ago. Am I insane to have some fear for my 20 year-old obviously "African-American" daughter living in her all-black Section 8-filled neighborhood, but zero fear for her moving into any white neighborhood? I have enough black folks coming in and out of my house (including you and your wife!) to audition a WB sitcom. Yet not one peep of a threat or a cross look. My obviously non-cracker daughter child has to get a pocket planner to keep track of all the offers of white neighbor children inviting her to family activities, including sleepovers. Next time we have a party there, and you see Debbie from accross the street (the first black family in the neighborhood, back in 1989), ask her about her experiance in our 80% cracker neighborhood. I already have. It's the same as Andrew in the even fancier and whiter neighborhood accross from ours. His negro daughter also has trouble managing all the social demands placed on her by her honky neighbors and classmates.

You live in Westland. Please tell us of your anti-black sufferings on the hands of crackers.

11:34 AM
Paul Hue said...

PS: When these things do occur, I'm as angry as anybody else. But I'm confident of the following today (which was not true in 1971):

1. 99% or there abouts of black folks today moving into, or living in, white neighborhoods never experiance any overt acts of violence, vandalism, or verbalized expressions (oral or written) of anti-black hate from crackers.

2. When such actions do occur, 90% of the white neighbors are furious at the culprits, and side proudly with the victims.

3. 99% of the time local law enforcement takes it seriously.

1:31 PM
Paul Hue said...

Thus I say that the war to get white folks to stop being racist has essentially been won. The much more important war in 2006 is drastically elevating the fraction of black kids who make the constructive choices that take advantage of that first victory.

2:39 PM
Nadir said...

The war hasn't been won. The public relations have gotten better, and the racist actions are more institutional.

Individual acts of racism still continue, though perhaps not as violent and as open as in the past.

11:17 AM
Paul Hue said...

I am very interested in learning about the individual acts of racism that you have faced in the past ten years. Do you feel safer for your person and property in honkey Westland than you would in most Detroit neighborhoods?

2:44 PM
Nadir said...

Certainly. But this is because of poverty, not because of race. We would prefer to live in a black neighborhood. I'm sure this is why the people of Ladera Heights live in a predominately black neighborhood.

Poverty is the cause of crime, not race. The primary reason we don't live in Detroit is economic - taxes in the city are too high. It exacerbates the cycle of poverty in the city, and erodes the tax base as people move out in search of a lower cost of living.

The things we like about Westland have nothing to do with honkies like you, trust me. I like you, and I don't have any problems with any of my neighbors, but frankly I don't care if I live near you or them or not.

9:26 AM

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