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'Things racial' are ready topic
(by Dave Lange - March 04, 2009)
COUNTY LINE, BY DAVE LANGE
'Things racial' are ready topic
A couple weeks ago, Eric Holder, the new attorney general of the United States, called us cowards. In remarks to his staff regarding Black History Month, he said that, "in things racial, we have always been, and we, I believe, continue to be, in too many ways, a nation of cowards." I believe he was including himself and me when he concluded that "we, average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about things racial."
For several days after those controversial remarks were made by the chief lawyer of the federal government, I looked for a report on it in the newspaper I have read daily for 35 years. But the editors weren't talking.
On the day after Mr. Holder spoke, the paper reported that a Cleveland man was charged with making false alarms about being attacked by three African-American men. Surveillance tape discredited his story. The truth is that he slipped and fell outside a west-side club and broke his arm. The paper did not mention the race of the accuser, but we can make assumptions.
Cleveland police Lt. Thomas Stacho was quoted as saying, "We don't need to fabricate racial strife -- there is enough of it in America and in Greater Cleveland." Lt. Stacho did talk about things racial.
We, average Americans, know that racial hate crimes really do occur. Historically -- as Attorney General Holder, a black man, knows very well -- people of his color have suffered incomprehensible savagery at the hands of hateful bigots. Speaking about things racial, white men like me also know that reverse hate crimes are not always a figment of someone's imagination.
After two white men were brutally shot in the heads outside a downtown Cleveland bar in the wee hours of a recent Sunday morning, newspaper accounts avoided racial references with regards to the assailants, even after arrests were made. It was a conscious decision by the editors not to speak about things racial. But surely, many people in this "nation of cowards" were thinking about things racial.
Many of us were thinking about our next visit downtown, who we should or should not engage in conversation while we're there and who we might walk out with at closing time. Should this "nation of cowards" be talking or thinking about things racial at such times?
Newspaper editors often think about things racial. On Feb. 1, two men were charged with kidnapping and aggravated robbery and a third one was charged with complicity after an armed holdup escalated into a hostage situation at a Solon store. Following policy, the lead story in the next edition of our Solon paper did not identify the men by race. It didn't have to. Photographs of their black faces practically leapt off the page.
Two weeks later, three women were nabbed by Solon police and charged in connection with a $6,600 shoplifting spree. Again, the story gave no racial identifications. This time, there were no photos. The comparative severity of the crimes might justify the contrasting treatment. Those who wish to talk about things racial are welcome to disagree. Reported ethnic surnames and far-west-side suburban addresses for the women might be part of the conversation.
After a man approached a local teenager and asked for money last week, she pulled a can of Mace from her purse and tripped and fell into some mud as she ran in terror to the nearby police station.
For now, I've talked enough about things racial. The attorney general was right.
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