Maybe the idea of unknown terrorist cells plotting murderous acts of violence is a chilling thought for you. For many who live in the central city, that's nothing compared with all the knuckleheads with guns who can pop up on any corner. [...] You say you're afraid to ride a plane since Sept. 11? For many young men and boys in the central city, it's more dangerous to step outside their front door. [...] Just as many middle-class Americans fear the very real possibility of future terrorist attacks, low-income Americans trapped in bad neighborhoods have been going to sleep with one eye open for decades.
... how can black people ignore that the same leaders who through welfare reform took bread out of the mouths of American children because their parents were poor, uneducated and too dependent upon the government for their survival, would now drop millions of dollars of food into the mouths of a people who live in the country ruled by a sworn enemy? [...] When black people think of terrorists, they don't immediately think of the Taliban or Osama bin Laden. They think of the Ku Klux Klan, the Ayran [sic] Nation, Southern slaveholders and the first settlers, including Christopher Columbus, who is honored as the discoverer of America, a land that already was occupied by an indigenous people.
Regarding the second piece ... interesting article, although I think Mr Scott's actions are quite foolish. I don't think it would occur to most people that American blacks are in general less patriotic than any other Americans.
But between them, these articles do point out a certain ... ambiguity in those things that America is willing to tolerate and those that it will not.
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
[Archives: 2001 and after]
Archives before February 5, 2001
Search entries:
12/19/2001: vive la france
12/19/2001: princess, redux
12/19/2001: yemen and rumsfeld
12/18/2001: you're NOT in the army now
12/18/2001: interesting donation
12/18/2001: shame on winn dixie, indeed
12/18/2001: saudi princess
12/17/2001: new resolve
12/17/2001: a victim of the attack ... yeah, right
12/17/2001: polluters ho!