More on the Michigan Pissing
Update:
I hestitate to post this link with the accused's accountsince it will likely only just fragment readers along racial lines since basically it comes down to the word of the accusers versus the accused. But I guess that's the difference in my goals as opposed to the folks who want to win these racial battles rather than improve the society. So I hope you'll keep that in mine as I choose to link it. I commented on the story before, but now I have more information, so here's the new analysis.
What do you think? I think we still have the neutral witness in the parking garage. The accused's story matches up, but of course, they had a week with the facts of the case to concoct an explanation. On the other hand, the parking attendant was far away and it was difficult to see from that distance.
Instead of playing the "do you believe the drunk white guys (are they white?) or the colored folks" game, let's step out for one minute. Even if we utterly believe the accused's account, I have a few questions...
Why did they throw the stuff off the balcony? They say they didn't intend to hit anyone. That's all well and good, but that's kind of like someone shooting into the air and saying that they didn't mean for the bullet to come down (obviously the magnitude is different so spare me the polemic arguments). Once they threw it, why didn't they just apologize and forget about it? Why couldn't they understand why the Asian couple might not accept "We didn't mean to do it" as a valid excuse? How could he be "almost positive nothing hit them" if he was tossing it over a five-foot fence? Even if he didn't hit them, where the fuck is the empathy for people who probably have been harassed racial consistently?
Then the Evil Asian "gang" (dig the stereotyping) shows up and isn't willing to stand down because some neighbor goes to talk to them. Finally the police show up and they refuse to comply with the police's commands and they get a dose of what we have to deal with in law enforcement everyday minus the beating and leaving us out to dry. I think in an ideal society, the police would be thorough and careful to observe both sides of the story (maybe they did and just figured the drunken law-breakers were lying), but the pale folks hardly seem to complain when people of color are the victims of poor police work. The accused maintains that they said no racial slurs of any kind, but then he is quoted recounting saying, "You are going to have to speak English. I don’t understand you." (It's a borderline slur.)
And remember, this is accepting EVERYTHING the accused has to say. There's no logical reason to do that unless you assume that they are white and assume that whites are more trustworthy to recount racial incidents than non-whites.
If you believe some portion of the accusers' story, then it's far worse.
In a way, it's Chai Vang all over again, but this time we are lucky no one died. Some punks thought they could refrain from showing any respect to people of Asian descent and they miscalculated. In one case, the guy had a semi-automatic weapon, in another they used police force to respond to that lack of respect. I'm not saying it was right or wrong--I wasn't there so I have no idea exactly what happened. But no matter what happened, it has hurt our society. The accused are not having any fun. Aversive white America reads these stories, takes the "white" point-of-view and feels like "those coloreds are always playing the 'race card'!" What is highlighted is that we must address these racial divides or face real tragedies. The only solace I take in these incidents is that for once whites have to feel passionate and defensive on issues of race (the way we feel everyday).
The Asian American leaders and activists' responses are most on point--outside of what will happen to the two accused, it doesn't really matter what happened that night. Students of color are getting harassed constantly. When they call their assailants on the actions, they get excuses and hollow apologies. Sometimes they get ridiculed and attacked more for speaking up by a mainstream that has empathy only for their assailants. Thankfully, they are not going to just sit and take it anymore, so the ethnic majority now has a choice: collaborate to address the problem or deal with the consequences.
If you choose to focus on who was pissed on or not pissed on that September night, then you are pathologically avoiding the deeper social problem.
I hestitate to post this link with the accused's accountsince it will likely only just fragment readers along racial lines since basically it comes down to the word of the accusers versus the accused. But I guess that's the difference in my goals as opposed to the folks who want to win these racial battles rather than improve the society. So I hope you'll keep that in mine as I choose to link it. I commented on the story before, but now I have more information, so here's the new analysis.
What do you think? I think we still have the neutral witness in the parking garage. The accused's story matches up, but of course, they had a week with the facts of the case to concoct an explanation. On the other hand, the parking attendant was far away and it was difficult to see from that distance.
Instead of playing the "do you believe the drunk white guys (are they white?) or the colored folks" game, let's step out for one minute. Even if we utterly believe the accused's account, I have a few questions...
Why did they throw the stuff off the balcony? They say they didn't intend to hit anyone. That's all well and good, but that's kind of like someone shooting into the air and saying that they didn't mean for the bullet to come down (obviously the magnitude is different so spare me the polemic arguments). Once they threw it, why didn't they just apologize and forget about it? Why couldn't they understand why the Asian couple might not accept "We didn't mean to do it" as a valid excuse? How could he be "almost positive nothing hit them" if he was tossing it over a five-foot fence? Even if he didn't hit them, where the fuck is the empathy for people who probably have been harassed racial consistently?
Then the Evil Asian "gang" (dig the stereotyping) shows up and isn't willing to stand down because some neighbor goes to talk to them. Finally the police show up and they refuse to comply with the police's commands and they get a dose of what we have to deal with in law enforcement everyday minus the beating and leaving us out to dry. I think in an ideal society, the police would be thorough and careful to observe both sides of the story (maybe they did and just figured the drunken law-breakers were lying), but the pale folks hardly seem to complain when people of color are the victims of poor police work. The accused maintains that they said no racial slurs of any kind, but then he is quoted recounting saying, "You are going to have to speak English. I don’t understand you." (It's a borderline slur.)
And remember, this is accepting EVERYTHING the accused has to say. There's no logical reason to do that unless you assume that they are white and assume that whites are more trustworthy to recount racial incidents than non-whites.
If you believe some portion of the accusers' story, then it's far worse.
In a way, it's Chai Vang all over again, but this time we are lucky no one died. Some punks thought they could refrain from showing any respect to people of Asian descent and they miscalculated. In one case, the guy had a semi-automatic weapon, in another they used police force to respond to that lack of respect. I'm not saying it was right or wrong--I wasn't there so I have no idea exactly what happened. But no matter what happened, it has hurt our society. The accused are not having any fun. Aversive white America reads these stories, takes the "white" point-of-view and feels like "those coloreds are always playing the 'race card'!" What is highlighted is that we must address these racial divides or face real tragedies. The only solace I take in these incidents is that for once whites have to feel passionate and defensive on issues of race (the way we feel everyday).
The Asian American leaders and activists' responses are most on point--outside of what will happen to the two accused, it doesn't really matter what happened that night. Students of color are getting harassed constantly. When they call their assailants on the actions, they get excuses and hollow apologies. Sometimes they get ridiculed and attacked more for speaking up by a mainstream that has empathy only for their assailants. Thankfully, they are not going to just sit and take it anymore, so the ethnic majority now has a choice: collaborate to address the problem or deal with the consequences.
If you choose to focus on who was pissed on or not pissed on that September night, then you are pathologically avoiding the deeper social problem.
posted by Xian Franzinger Barrett at 1:17 PM
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