Black revulsion at Black violence

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Jamieson, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

-- (Paracelsus@Pb.Au), March 15, 2001

Answers


No mincing words over a month of crimes

Photo
Thursday, March 15, 2001

By ROBERT L. JAMIESON Jr.
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST

MARCH HAS BEEN a cruel month.

Images of young black men, connected to some of the more heinous crimes to hit the region in some time, have been seared into our minds in the past two weeks.

Charles Champion Jr., 18, is suspected of killing a Des Moines police officer March 7.

Two days later, Leemah Carneh, 19, allegedly entered a home south of Seattle and killed two teens and an elderly couple.

Then this.

Police now say the men whom they believe killed Kristopher Kime were all black.

Kime was trying to help a young woman being assaulted in Pioneer Square during Mardi Gras when he was beaten.

A pathetic roll call.

It makes me mad. Makes me sad. Makes me want to shake these young men and holler, "What the hell were you thinking?"

Others feel the same way.

"I've been expecting this call," James Kelly, head of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, said somberly yesterday. "We are going to have to come together and look at the images we are seeing. What is going on?"

So what to do?

"We all have a responsibility to begin some sort of dialogue about this," said a weary Kelly.

"And the African American community will have to sit down and acknowledge and hold accountable the elements in our own community that are engaging in this senseless violence."

Talks are taking place, from informal chats among church, civic and business leaders to water-cooler conversations among workers in downtown offices and people on buses.

On Tuesday evening, Kelly, along with other religious and civic leaders, met with Mayor Paul Schell to look ahead.

Kelly will soon hold conversations with black church leaders to get the community's "house in order." Then, he will reach out to others who are eager to tackle a complex crime problem with roots in economic deprivation, personal irresponsibility and the breakdown of families.

Kelly also plans to convene a Youth Congress next month. The congress would allow young people, between the age of 12 and 18, to connect with professional mentors, attend camps and learn alternatives to violence. Other leaders are taking action, including the Rev. Tony Robinson of Plymouth Congregational Church, who wants to hold a youth forum.

These gestures are much needed.

If it all feels like déjà vu -- it is.

Flash back to what happened after Seattle youths erupted in a violent rampage following the Rodney King verdict in 1992. Beleaguered city leaders pulled out their book of urban bromides and pledged money for summer jobs and other lofty programs to inspire young dreamers.

Today, many of those efforts have withered on the vine.

Any new efforts must be sustained beyond the immediacy of the recent painful crises that have smacked us between the eyes.

Discussions also must be honest.

After Mardi Gras, Seattle city officials were loath to mention the R-word, so smug were they in their cozy cloak of political correctness.

Yes, race was an element in Pioneer Square's melee, but so too were other powerful forces -- youthful debauchery, unbridled misogyny and drunkenness fueled by the very taverns that drew thousands of people to the neighborhood.

Let us not forget the Seattle police. Hundreds of officers, specially trained to handle moblike situations, were on order to hold back. They wanted to step in "more than anything in the world," one officer told me, but could not.

So much blame to go around that people could line up for second helpings.

But healing solutions are what we need, not butt covering.

When people, from police Chief Gil Kerlikowske to Schell to community leaders, sit down they must show all of their cards.

If they don't, others are ready to step up.

Groups that support "European Rights" -- hate groups, some would say -- have turned Mardi Mayhem into their version of Paul Revere's ride.

"The sort of spineless passivity displayed by most of the young white men in Seattle in the face of black violence is far more disturbing than the drunken vandalism I saw some whites engaged in," Dr. William Pierce of the National Alliance, said in a radio address. "White people who are surprised that blacks behaved the way they did in the Fat Tuesday riot clearly aren't prepared to fight."

But Eric Ward, of the Northwest Coalition for Human Dignity, countered by saying: "We should be appalled if we allow people to exploit bigotry that already exists. And the bigots will get away with it if we do not sit down and honestly discuss the complex realities of racism, white supremacy and sexism. All of these are real issues that won't get cloaked in shallow slogans -- 'Tolerate diversity,' 'Can't we all get along?'"

Kelly worries the recent events will make the vast majority of hard-working, law-abiding black people the victims of a community's fears about black crime.

Such fears would be irrational. After the rash of school shootings involving alienated, white teens, did we avoid sending our kids to school?

Now is the time for rational discussions -- not pandering to irrational stereotypes.


P-I columnist Robert Jamieson can be reached at 206-448-8125 or robertjamieson@seattle-pi. com



-- Cherri (jessam5@home.com), March 15, 2001.


S eattleWeekly.com

-- (Seattle@coffee.break), March 15, 2001.

OK. Let's say a group of Blacks has met to socialize or convene at an event- say the First Methodist AME Picnic. A gang of Whites invades, terrorizes, attacks, and physically harms several of the participants. No provocation, no forewarning.

Or, let's take the local Man Boy Love Society Gay Pride Carnival,and non-gay youths attack and beat.

Or a YMHA event. Or etc...

The press and governments treat such an event as: 1) A clear hate crime, and typical of its type, hearkening back to lynchings, etc. 2) "Hard to know what really happened. Unclear. Don't condemn our boys..."

Best things for "Black Leaders" to do: Say, whether or not this was racial, just as we will not tolerate white racism, so we abhor even the appearance of black racism and violence. We in community condemn it, and will turn all perpetrators to the police, not as understandably abused victims, but as brutal criminals with no place in society."

With the acceptance of responsibility comes respect. With the evasion and covering up of guilt comes mistrust, and, to some, justification for bigotry.

Really, isn't this stuff just simple human nature?

-- dunno (lets@get.quizzical), March 16, 2001.


Marcus Garvey was right.

-- Porky (Porky@in.cellblockD), March 16, 2001.

You disappoint, Porky. Garvey's theme of racial purity and separation would hardly fly today. Good poetry though.

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), March 17, 2001.


The attitude of the black leaders sucks big time. The double standard they live by and want people to accept is just as bad as the white double standard that existed 30 years ago. That's one of the major problems that has evolved over the years in racial situations. If a white person or people do something to a black person or people it is blown all out of proportion as racially motivated, if is black on white, even when the blacks use racial slurs and indicate this is their motive, it is not considered "socially correct" to mention it.

This attitude has done more to cause white against black prejudice in today's world then is caused by upbringing. (At least out of the old south)

There is no rational reason why black bigotry should be tolerated any more then bigotry towards blacks is. It's about time people started speaking out about how we are expected to turn a blind eye to the truth.

At least here in Seattle we aren't afraid of offending people with the truth. Now we just have to make sure the black leaders get the message that we aren't going to let them get away with playing their games here. When they are so biased and two faced in a situation like this, it takes way their credibility and they will not be listened to when they speak on legitimate problems.

Thank you very much for your letter to the editor. We will be printing it in our March 22 issue.

Best,
Bethany Jean Clement
Letters Editor
Seattle Weekly

I sent a copy of this to the paper (Seattle Weekly) at the same time I posted it here, they are going to print it.

-- Cherri (jessam5@home.com), March 21, 2001.


Forgot to close another tag!

-- Cherri (jessam5@home.com), March 21, 2001.


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