I suppose that means I'm back.
I've been thinking of how much I missed blogging-- surprise, surprise. Maybe I just needed a reprieve? Anyway. I thought I would start a new blog but reviving this one makes sense, too.
And here we are.
I'll give something like a recap of the past few months later. For now, I'll talk about the first news article I came across on Google News-- a police officer from Boston getting suspended because of his email.
The case is, of course, related to Henry Louis Gates. It turns out Sputnik years and years ago was, also, related to Henry Louis Gates-- EVERYTHING is related to HLG. To be honest, I was tired of the story as soon as I first heard it. I do not understand why everyone feels like talking about it-- feels like a trap, if there ever was one. Anyway, the story does not really interest me in the slightest, though I do argue for a certain interpretation usually when the issue is brought up...just to stir the pot.
Apparently, Justin Barrett, an officer from the Boston Police Department, wrote about Gates and the incident, referring to Gates as a, "jungle monkey." Whereas the Gates incident[Or Gatesgate!?] was muddled with elitism, politics, and other nonsense that makes the case really more of a distraction and waste of resources than a true front to expose[and hopefully combat] racism, this one is much more clear cut.
There are two issues. First, or the one that I first thought about, was the issue of privacy. Barrett's statement wasn't verbal-- it was via email. To be honest, this part seems fishy-- was it his hotmail account or was it the Boston PD account? Is the BPD now refitting the Patriot Act to look for emails from terrorists AND racists? I do not know. The Boston Globe also has this to say about Menino: "The mayor said he has not seen the e-mail and while the officer is not officially terminated, he might as well be. 'He’s gone - g-o-n-e. I don’t care, it’s like cancer, you don’t keep those cancers around.’"
A little early, I think, to say that type of thing without having seen the eMail.
But, it seems like Barrett hasn't denied the email itself, but has rather been going after the second issue: that it isn't racist. Wait, what? Yeah, me too.
Besides the history 'jungle monkey' has as a racial epithet used to describe Black people in this country...yeah, not going to fly. He also claims that he "didn't intend to offend anyone", which seems like a fishy statement. The words are obviously offensive. It may not have been his intent to do so, but he knew that there was reasonable likelihood that they would. In this type of case, his intentions aren't so important.
Do I think he should get fired? I don't know. I find it weird, the standard we hold policemen and policewomen to. Do they even get paid that much? Do they deserve the smearing that they get? This sort of fearmongering might not be healthy, in the long run. Probably already isn't. Might engender more discontent among the police force and further ruin relations between the Boston Black community and the BPD. And apparently Barrett has no disciplinary record in his two years being on the force. And he might get fired in the following weeks for an email?
I thought something more reasonable might have been suspension with mandatory training, or something other. Even Crowley isn't getting fired. Do we really need to add to the unemployment line?
So, no, he probably shouldn't be getting fired. Oh well.
This is Boston.
Later, folks.
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2 comments:
yeah they wasted the media hype on this one. how about the sean bell cop? that's a cop to roast, among others (Matthew Sheppard Hate Crime Act anynone, congress, A-C-L-U??). cuz i know i say whatever i wanna say about whomever i want in my personal in email, and i wouldn't want to be fired for that. let the punishment fit the crime. now this guy is really gonna hate him some niggas. republicans are making their comeback, grassroots style. dumbass democrats crying over obama's approval ratings instead of truly being PROGRESSive by exposing these medical industry lobbyists and their slick palms.
don't get me started. it's monday.
and btw. the boston professor thing with the cop? i concur. that was a class issue that the media spun into a race issue, a trap that obama so willing slid into...thinking he could speak parseltongue with that niggeracci eloquence to these snakes?
Obama come now, trynna to say something intelligent to a white person in an urgent tone is like trying to by some chitterlins at a taquerria in Union City---"que?...k...kk?" Suddenly, liberal arts college white kid/grownassman/entryleveljobemployer no speeka inglees.
not gonna work on the boston PWT crowd or the Mass' blue-blooded liberals who want so badly to be tan and have curly hair and genuine statues [stolen] from the tibukicoochi tribe on their 2 week frolic in subsaharan africa after undergrad where they soaked up culture in one of the many air conditioned, hilton owned ho(s)tels in the....african jumgle?
ugh. maybe im racist, but i dont think i am. there needs to be a new word. what do you call the condition of being sick and damn tired of white liberals and their well-intended, but oh-so patronizing and condescending, PITY for us, which is only a covering up that spikey pink elephant under the rug called...white privilege and her trusty sidekick, guilt.
stole that black kid's term paper on the "plight of inner city youth" and passed your MA comp exam with flying colors, eh? black kid's under the bus, where you threw him, trynna figure out where he went wrong. you feel bad. he was your first black friend. you scored on him that one time in basketball...even tho you know he called time out to tie his shoelaces. you told him about the first time you scored with a black chick. agreed she was good. denied she was the best.
slick bastard. banaducci or something. milano. steinberg. hell, even smith. all originating from the slums of boston, providence, brooklyn, newark, jersey city, hartford.
it's a class issue. low class become police officers (no secondary ed req'd). pull yourself by the bootstrap attached to the foot on my uncle raheem's neck?
you, you..."savior"...mr. head of the teen youth center for the development of high achieving minority students who are smarter than our privileged blanquita and more athletic than her cocky brother Todd but who will always be 5 steps behind no matter who's in office, no matter how many of our walls are covered with little coloring book cartoons of mlk jr drawn by ghetto dwelling youth who swarm your office like new-age cockroaches, running away TOWARD the white light faster than white people during white flight. theeeeey're baaaaackkk....gentri..
ah fuck it. ain't nobody listening.
signed,
black girl pain
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/feb/28/opinion/oe-goff28
In my Op-Ed workshop this past weekend, we read this piece written by a social psychologist. You should check it out -- it's research that's gradually articulating the ingrained, subtle behavior and remarks from white people that, till date, have been defended as non-racist based on the fact that the perpetrators boast a "clean" record, and have never been called "racist". It's about time, too. I'm so tired of the woe is me, I have black friends, and volunteer in the inner city defense.
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