Mon, 06/01/2009 - 9:23pm — vastleft
Yet another crime committed by a fictitious black man. I'm not prejudiced, but fictitious black men do seem to get into a lot of trouble.
"Common sense or racism?" asks the linked AP article, of the evident heightened credulity when a supposed assailant is described as black.
That's pretty enlightened framing, as is this quote from Bucks County District Attorney Michelle Henry:
"It's a terrifying thing," she said, "for a community to hear that two black men in a black Cadillac grabbed a woman and her daughter."
No doubt, it would be most reassuring to hear that it was, say, two white guys in a Camry. Heck, call off the Amber Alert if it was just a coupla caucasians.
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Personal experience
I've delt with this personally. A few years back, an white sheriff's deputy shot himself in leg (he had a breakdown, long story) in nearby suburb where I live. Of course, he instantly calls in that he's been shot, and then gives a vague description of a young black man, so they shut down the entire thoroughfare (which, is a local highway, BTW) for hours looking for this fictitous black man. I had just got through driving home from this area and realized how close I was to potentially getting caught up in the hysteria given that the description could have been me. It was the first time it had really hit home for me (since it was literally so closed to home) the social destruction these false accusations can produce.
But, we've always been at war with Eastasia...
If there's anything the last few years have taught us
it's that hysteria is alive and well in America. Good thing we're in the post-racial era, though....