Non-Racial Race Stories. Seriously.

There are a couple of disturbing stories that continue to gain steam in the media right now.  Both have wrongly been labeled as race issues, but at least in one case there aren't the usual black suspects (Al Sharpton, etc.) to wrongly attribute the incident to race.

The easiest to deal with is the congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney, who accused a Capitol Hill security guard with racism after being stopped on her way into the Capitol.  The officer made a relatively innocent mistake, not recognizing who she was.  After all, Congress has got a shitload of people in it; there's no way the guards are going to be able to recognize every single member by sight.  Apparently, members of Congress are supposed to wear pins to identify themselves -- but McKinney frequently does not wear hers.

The congresswoman should know better than to charge into the Capitol like that, and she should know better than to strike an officer of the law who grabs her.  Most black people wouldn't dare to hit a police officer, knowing that the consequences would likely be much more severe for the citizen than the officer.  Apparently, McKinney not only thought she was above the rules - she thought she was above social norms.  But she was forced to apologize after failing to receive any support whatsoever from her colleagues or from members of the black caucus.  Even they could see she was acting stupid. 

One thing did bother me, though: Tom DeLay.  Yes, he bothers a lot of people.  But he said:  "Everything is racism with her. This is incredible arrogance that sometimes hits these members of Congress, but especially Cynthia McKinney." 

These members of Congress?  Why not just say BLACK MEMBERS of Congress, Tom?  Tell us how you really feel. 

Anyway, the bigger story is about Duke lacrosse.  The team's coach resigned and the season was cancelled after allegations that a bunch of white players raped a black stripper at a house party.

To exacerbate matters, Durham, NC is a city with a large working-class population...which stands in stark contrast to the upper-class, white university called Duke located in its city limits.  And to add more fuel to the fire, an e-mail was uncovered containing a Duke lacrosse player's alleged desire to invite some strippers over to his dorm room so he could "skin" them.

This is gonna get ugly.  It already has.  But it's not really a hate crime.

Jason Whitlock's most recent column supports the notion that this is a lot more about class differences and privilege than it is about racism.  And I agree with him.  The sad fact is, incidents like this are a lot more common that we'd care to admit as a society.  White-on-white, black-on-black...it really doesn't matter.  Sometimes male strippers get treated this way by groups of women, except they usually don't end up raping the male (yes, men can be raped by women).   

Yes, it's true that the kids used racial slurs.  If the strippers had been white, they would have used other unpleasant words.  Whitlock's surprisingly feminist stance is that in a society in which omen are routinely objectified, we shouldn't be surprised. I'd actually take it a step further and say that ina society where women are objectified and children are taught absolutely nothing about love, sex or how to treat members of th opposite sex, we shouldn't be surprised when something like this happens.  It would be nice to think that if guilty, all these kids are sick freaks.  Unfortunately, there probably isn't much separating them from you or me.

I do disagree with one thing Jason says, though.  I've been around strippers once or twice thanks to bachelor parties and the like....and I've never seen -- or stopped -- anything like this.  Sorry, but I don't read stories like this and think "There but for the grace of God go I."  When I was younger, I was mortified for days when one girl I met at a party started kissing me and then pulled away.  How could I possibly grope (or yell slurs at) an exotic dancer?

No matter how drunk I ever got at any point in my lifetime, I don't really think I have the temperament to engage in the types of shenanigans these kids at Duke may be guilty of.  And I'd be hard-pressed to think of any male friends of mine who I could see getting wrapped up in this scenario.  Maybe that's just me.           

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit