04 June, 2014

Racist Woman Repeatedly Calls Man an N-Word in Front of Kids, Is Confused Why He Is Recording Her : nottheonion

Racist Woman Repeatedly Calls Man an N-Word in Front of Kids, Is Confused Why He Is Recording Her : nottheonion: This dude handled this situation about as well as he could. Unfortunately these recordings and the ensuing rush to convene the court of public opinion distract from the actual insidious nature of racism. The conversation over racism so often gets into "If they get to say 'X' how come I don't get to say 'Y?'" If your kids came up to you to ask that, the reasonable answer would be that neither of them get to call each other names. But reasonable isn't fun.

It's very popular right now to take a moment of racism, put it online, make fun of it, have some trolls do their thing, and then move on to the next one. It's not news. It's not progress. Hell, it's barely even justice. A very fucked up woman with an obviously very fucked up life said some extremely fucked up things. Her life is going to continue to be pitiful and fucked up with or without this being plastered all over the Internet. Hopefully she doesn't get to keep custody of her kids not to punish her but to give them a chance at some stability. Hopefully she can get some help somehow so her life can quit being so shitty. It doesn't take a team of psychiatrists to see that she's imbalanced.

The thing is her rant doesn't defund schools. It doesn't deny this guy a job, a loan, or a place to live. It doesn't buy up all the houses in a neighborhood to tear them down for a parking lot forcing people to relocate. It doesn't make sure his business isn't welcome. It doesn't expand services in a city away from his neighborhood. It doesn't make sure that he stays in his neighborhood with people who look like him. And so on.

It's important that we don't take our eye off the real problem. This woman's racism sucks, but capital-R-Racism is where we really need to be pointing our cameras.