Cross-Burnings in Durham
I haven't commented on the recent cross-burnings in Durham, primarily because (a) I figured that everybody knew about them and (b) I didn't think there was anything interesting to be said about them. But then I realized that I wasn't even sure that they'd made the national news.
The reaction around these parts was fairly predictable to anyone familiar with the area. There was plenty of outrage, manifested in large part at candle-light vigils and suchlike. (Although we're really talking about Durham here, let me just mention that you shouldn't move to Chapel Hill if you don't like candle-light vigils. They're the all-purpose response to just about everything.)
A relatively wide variety of responses to something like this are reasonable, of course, so one doesn't want to be too critical; but, for what it's worth, the responses were often a bit teary for my taste. Sometimes it seemed like the consensus response went something like this:
Oh, this is an unimaginable tragedy! (sob) Let us join hands and weep together. We shun hatred here! Hey, hey, ho, ho, racial insensitivity's got to go!
Whereas my preferred response was a little more like:
Jesus Christ, what kind of fucking idiot would do something that damn stupid? These morons need a good ass-kicking.
Don't get me wrong, I love living in a liberal area. The thought of having to go back to living in the conservative hinterlands fills me with dread. But liberals can sometimes just be so wimpy and whiny. You know what I'm talkin' about. They go out of their way to show how sensitive they are, how easily they are offended, how delicate are their sensibilities. Sometimes that's merely annoying, but other times it's actually harmful. In this case, I worry that it was harmful. If the cross-burners wanted to rattle people, then hyperbolic emotionalism plays right into their hands.
As always, I could be wrong about this. Just my $0.02.
I haven't commented on the recent cross-burnings in Durham, primarily because (a) I figured that everybody knew about them and (b) I didn't think there was anything interesting to be said about them. But then I realized that I wasn't even sure that they'd made the national news.
The reaction around these parts was fairly predictable to anyone familiar with the area. There was plenty of outrage, manifested in large part at candle-light vigils and suchlike. (Although we're really talking about Durham here, let me just mention that you shouldn't move to Chapel Hill if you don't like candle-light vigils. They're the all-purpose response to just about everything.)
A relatively wide variety of responses to something like this are reasonable, of course, so one doesn't want to be too critical; but, for what it's worth, the responses were often a bit teary for my taste. Sometimes it seemed like the consensus response went something like this:
Oh, this is an unimaginable tragedy! (sob) Let us join hands and weep together. We shun hatred here! Hey, hey, ho, ho, racial insensitivity's got to go!
Whereas my preferred response was a little more like:
Jesus Christ, what kind of fucking idiot would do something that damn stupid? These morons need a good ass-kicking.
Don't get me wrong, I love living in a liberal area. The thought of having to go back to living in the conservative hinterlands fills me with dread. But liberals can sometimes just be so wimpy and whiny. You know what I'm talkin' about. They go out of their way to show how sensitive they are, how easily they are offended, how delicate are their sensibilities. Sometimes that's merely annoying, but other times it's actually harmful. In this case, I worry that it was harmful. If the cross-burners wanted to rattle people, then hyperbolic emotionalism plays right into their hands.
As always, I could be wrong about this. Just my $0.02.
posted by Winston Smith at
7:11 AM
4 Comments:
"The thought of having to go back to living in the conservative hinterlands fills me with dread. But liberals can sometimes just be so wimpy and whiny. You know what I'm talkin' about."
Amen. These comments are, in a nutshell, the reason why I read this blog.
I get the willies when I see people so filled with moral self-admiration, especially when indulging it carries so little risk. Protesting racism these days hardly requires the heroism of 60s civil rights workers in the south.
Still, silence equals acceptance, and I think not being silent about such things is necessary. I'm happy to see them, just as I'm crestfallen at only 50 American Muslims showing up at an anti-terrorism rally.
Actually, I was listening to The State of Things the other day, and the reactions seemed better to me. One guy said something like "why are we getting all bent out of shape about some a**hole with $1.50 worth of kerosene and some 2x4s?" Another guy (you could tell by his voice he was black) said something like "After everything blacks have been through in this country, they expect THIS to scare me?"
"Moral self-admiration"--excellent phrase.
online, free of charge! It doesn’t matter if your enterprise is a purely online or offline venture,
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home