MANSFIELD: Preventing Future ‘Accidents’

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Former Texas governor Rick Perry couldn’t make it a month into his comical campaign for the presidency before putting his foot squarely in his mouth. In a televised interview he characterized the senseless killing of nine black innocents by a white hater as an “accident.” His pseudo-Freudian slip of the tongue is revelatory in that it puts into words the feelings of many conservatives: to minimize and trivialize a horrendous act perpetrated against persons of color.

But his word choice (in spite of the fact his spokesperson quickly put out a statement that this buffoon actually meant to say “incident” not “accident”) has long historical precedence. Many southern whites have always sought to make light of the suffering of blacks, especially when such suffering is caused by one of their own.

But Perry’s attempt to clean up the pile of dog poop he stepped in only made it worse. By claiming that he meant to call the killings an “incident” rather than an “accident” (“incident” being the only word they could come up with on short notice) he still demonstrates calculating callousness while belittling a horrific act.

An “incident” is when a bunch of white college frat boys are caught on video and then outed for singing racist songs on a party bus; an “incident” is when a perhaps well-meaning, but obviously narcissistic, white woman is outed by her family for pretending to be black; an “incident” is when it’s discovered that Donald Trump actually paid movie extras $50 each to attend his press conference where he announced his candidacy for the highest office in the land to pretend to cheer him on.

The aforementioned are “incidents.” What happened in Charleston was calculated, cold-blooded, murder — and the crimes were carried out under the banner of “southern pride.”

The way Republican presidential candidates are attempting to portray the deaths in a less harsh light would indeed be laughable if the murders weren’t so tragic. One presidential hopeful characterized the killings as an attack on “Christianity,” not really an assault on black people, while another idiot actually posited that the killings were not hate crimes.

I suppose their embarrassment is somewhat understandable: As TV host Bill Maher said (and I’m paraphrasing here) why is it that the defender of the white race — and its supposed superiority — is always some slack-jawed high-school dropout that the world would have never heard of absent him committing some unspeakably atrocious act?

Nonetheless, there no doubt were sick celebrations in trailer camps and backwoods gathering places all over the South — and perhaps other parts of the country as well — where this sick puppy was hailed as some kind of conquering hero for defending the white race. It won’t be long before the cards and love letters begin pouring into the jail where he’s currently housed, and given the number of Klansmen that have been discovered on police departments all over the South of late, the killer might currently be receiving treatment fit for a concurring hero.

When evil is not confronted and called out for what it is; when the battle flag under which it’s done is not removed from the grounds of the state capitol; when politicians pander to their base by downgrading acts of violence, more sick individuals are encouraged to act out violently.

Sadly, due to the atmosphere that’s knowingly being allowed to be created and perpetuated in this country by not-so- closeted bigots, black churches all over the South have got to learn to watch their backs in order to prevent future “accidents.”

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From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com. 

 

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