ONLY WHITE PEOPLE ARE RACISTS # 2,340,962

***UPDATE***
You Tube took down the video. However, Bob at Black and Right had a copy so I took his version and replaced the dead one.

By the way, Bob is a good example of why black America is not a monolith. I hope to post on that subject later very soon since a shift is becoming more obvious. A recent essay brought more to light.

Later…



I hesitated about posting this video for several reasons. For one thing, it’s an “easy outrage” vid, as you can see in the comments that follow the main story. Most of the commenters have plenty of blame to pass around and some of it is frankly racist and repulsive. The moderator has his hands full deleting the most offensive remarks (and last time I checked, the comments under the video on You Tube are repulsive).

But many who took the time to write about the story are worried sick because their children are caught in that school system. One mother, whose son attends West Belleville, reported that before they knew about this latest incident her child told her the racial tensions are higher this year than ever. There are over eight hundred other commenters on that thread, so I’m not going to attempt to find her exact quote.

The second reason I hesitated is because bullying is complex. If you look at the video and don’t read the story, you don’t find out that the victim is someone “nobody knows” even though he rides the bus every day. That one bit of information ought to alarm both the parents of the child who was beaten and the parents of the children who participated in his pummeling. How many times have you heard that said later about kids who’ve gone on rampages: “but nobody even knew him”.

Being ignored, shunned, and bullied is a painful experience - one that I lived here on Gates of Vienna for several months at the end of 2007. Those commenters on LGF who called me names, not to mention the sneering accusations by Johnson himself, were damaging. It is cruel when people attack while others simply stand around and watch and pretend nothing is happening. But those people weren't evil either, just fearful. They taught us an important lesson: for all the ballyhoo about the "new media" it is just as poltically correct and fearful as the old media. PJM's behavior in this was a good example of my point.

That boy has learned what we did: people will attack you not because they’re inherently evil but because they’re safe in the midst of a mob and you’re a convenient target for their aggressions. And maybe they're bored.

At least the boy didn’t just take that treatment. First, he sat down without “permission”. Then, when it was safe to do so, he had someone use his cell phone camera to get pictures of his face. Smart move.

First the video, and then the “stories” of the adults involved. Those evolving “myths” about what happened are even more instructive than the video itself.


Here’s the original story that accompanied the video, along with my comments:
- - - - - - - - -

A Belleville West High School student was beaten aboard a bus on the way to school Monday, and a police spokesman said the beating could be racially motivated.

Belleville is in Ohio, a state that is unfortunately known to be racially polarized. When blacks moved North from the Delta back in the 1920s and 30s, they encountered intense privation. Not all God’s problems originate in the South.

I’m not excusing the video, just giving some context. Nowdays, the Grievance Mongers (e.g., President Obama) give these kids a free ride for their hatreds. The Justice Department’s shocking decision not to pursue the threatening racism of the New Black Panthers is just one example of this covert “permission” by a purportedly post-racial President.

The 17-year-old victim was white and the teen assailants were black. Police released a video of the beating, which shows the victim being punched repeatedly while other students on the bus gather to watch, some cheering. It doesn’t appear that the victim did anything to provoke an attack and tried only to defend himself. Police said it all unfolded in a five-minute span.

The victim was trying to find a seat and was told by two students he could not sit next to them, police said.

As he walked to the seat, someone shouted, “Beat his ass.”

When he did sit down, one teen tried to push him out of his seat then began grabbing the victim’s neck and punching him in the face.

With each punch, some in the crowd chanted, “Boom, boom, boom.”

The victim eventually returned to his seat, but another student began taunting him a few minutes later. The victim was then struck in the face.

That part was hard to watch. I think the student was wise, since he was outnumbered, to stay passive. However, I also know kids who would’ve given it their kamikaze best and gone down resisting. Of course, they would later be jailed, along with their assailants, in Juvenile Detention.

One father in the comments told of his experience when he approached school administration about a similar incident. They threatened him not to permit his son to fight back or his son might be in jail, too, along with the kids who beat him up . How’s that for learned helplessness?

Yes, I loathe government schools. They are too big, too impersonal, and too strung out on their multicultural “no-problems-here” drug to be of any real help to the children who need them. Small local schools where the parents mostly know one another work best. But they aren’t “efficient”. Current schools are inhumanely scaled: too big, too impersonal, and with a population drawn from too large an area.

Students intervened to help the victim both times.

This is an important point. It shows that not all kids are wolves, and not all of them are sheep, either. I hope the interveners are identified and that they are trained by school officials on how to do this more effectively. I won’t hold my breath, though.

“In my estimation, it’s racially motivated,” said Capt. Don Sax of the Belleville Police Department. He said one reason he had formed this opinion was that many of the students, most of whom were black, yelled their support for the beating.

“There was absolutely no justification for the beating either time,” Sax said.

That’s his initial response to watching the video several times. But wait. In the update, he’ll make tracks in the other direction real quick.

Two teens were taken into custody; authorities will apply for charges today. Both students have been suspended, said Superintendent Greg Moats.

He also said there had been no racial problems at the school and said that he wanted to talk further with police to determine why they believe race could have been a motivator in the fight. He also said the school will do everything possible to make sure students are safe, but he wouldn’t elaborate.

Either this guy is totally out to lunch or he’s playing cover-your-gluteus-maximus-school-politics. It’s probably an unwritten law that no one at any time is permitted to admit there might be problems.

This kind of patent obfuscation is the perfect petri dish for the lone kid who shows up at school and starts shooting people. Their “zero tolerance” mantra includes zero tolerance for reality, common sense, or learning from others' mistakes.

Then, there is the story change: the policeman has probably had the riot act read to him by his supervisors so he recants. New day, new story:

A Belleville police spokesman now says an incident where a white student was beaten by teen black assailants on a bus “may not be racially motivated.”

“It was premature on my part,” said Belleville Police Capt. Don Sax. “It was my personal and emotional comment after only seeing the video briefly.”

[…]

“After having reviewed the video, it doesn’t strike me nearly as racially motivated,” Sax said.

The about-face came this morning as the story made national headlines. Although, Sax said it was purely his review of the video that changed his mind.

Sure it was. “Purely” is a good adjective for this muddy mess the officer finds himself in up to his knees. And he’s swimming as fast as he can through the muck to a safer shore, one where his job is still waiting for him.

Nothing to see here, move along.

Then there is the next update, which contains a chilling interview with one of the black students who was on the bus:

D’Vante Lott, 16, said he was on the bus and witnessed the attack by the two black students.

The victim walked onto the bus, looking for an open seat, but students kept turning him down, as D’Vante said happened often with this student.

But Monday, the victim apparently tired of asking for a seat, D’Vante said, moved one student’s book-bag off a seat, and just sat down.

The student next to him then started hitting the victim for moving his bag, D’Vante said.

But the second assailant was just trying to act tough, D’Vante said. “The second guy hit him because he wanted to hit him,” he said.

D’Vante didn’t think the attacks were racially motivated.

“Nobody even knows the kid,” D’Vante said. “He’s a quiet dude.”

“They usually let him sit down,” he continued.

So the white student endures this nearly every day. Casual cruelty: “will we let you sit down or not? Maybe, maybe not. Sit there, not here. No, sit over there.” And no one even knows him; he’s an object to be pushed around, a football, something to play with on the way to school.

The reporter doesn’t say if he asks D’Vante how he knows this wasn’t racially motivated. That is the real question in this part of the story and it’s never addressed.

It’ll be interesting to see if the tensions the mother in the comments described get worse. You can tell they are not going to be addressed in any meaningful way by the school. They just want this to go away.

You know what ought to be a required class for all school administrators? They ought to be put in charge of a pressure cooker which has been turned on HIGH and without any directions, they ought to have to figure out how to operate the thing before it blows. Talking nice doesn’t do it. Zero tolerance for pressure and gravity won’t cut it, either.

One commenter on the thread of this story mentioned that some kids are sent home in cabs after school because it’s too dangerous to ride the bus. There weren’t any details as to whether it was the bullies who got the ride or the victims.

This story is an iceberg. There is a lot more under the surface than we’ll ever be permitted to see.