I was horrified reading this week's Stranger.
Publishing things like the following is not a good way of celebrating Black History Month
"On Feb 1, a 60-ish white man boarded the southbound Link light rail at Stadium Station after a young black woman accused him of touching her ass. The man denied it and didn't apologize. An argument ensued, with the woman's friend, a black woman who was considerably larger in stature, also getting involved. Things escalated quickly. The larger black woman started punching the white man's forehead. The smaller woman knocked his glasses his off. When the man punched the bigger woman, a young white guy stepped between them, and with some help, forced the aggressive geezer off the train at Sodo Station. After the train took off, with the racist man fuming on the platform, the woman he'd touch said, "I Bird Boxed that n*gga," and everyone around her burst out laughing. All in all, this was not a great to kick off Black History Month."
The Stranger, I.C.Y.M.I., February 13, 2019 (only in the print version)
*****
As a person of color, I need to state that I am shocked at the meanness and lack of impartiality. I was not there at the scene. But neither was The Stranger. There was no mention of witnesses.
In Metro buses or on Link Rail, especially when it is crowded, it is easy to accidentally bump someone or brush them with one's belongings. (I've had people accidentally bump me with their bags while I was sitting down and they were holding on to a pole while the bus was moving).
Were there actually any independent witnesses to what she alleged happened?
Maybe the young woman was "just playing with him." (From the wisecrack she told everyone at the end, it sounds like it was).
It sounds like it was the young woman's word against the elderly man's.
In the end the old man was thrown off the train.
And everyone then on the train had a good laugh after the large woman cracked a joke about having beaten the old man up.
In fact, it sounds to me like a hyper-violent ASSAULT. What the two women did can hardly be considered self-defense.
(This is, emphatically, not to deny the violence that many women now and in the past have suffered at the hands of men).
The women beat the old man up, hitting him over and over again, in the face, so hard that his eyeglasses fell to the ground. It was they who began to hit him and not vice versa.
It was two people much younger and, in all likelihood, much stronger punching one much older. I fail to see the humanity, fairness, social justice, and/or compassion in this story.
The two women were not being aggressive ???
Was the old white man mentally ill? Homeless? How badly was he hurt? Did he go to the hospital?
*****
If the old man had been black and his two aggressors/accusers white, would The Stranger be applauding their actions?
What racism and ageism ("geezer") on the part of The Stranger.
They'll be geezers, too, and most of them white, like the old man.
We'll then call these Strangers "white geezers" just to allow them to continue to sit in their huge fetid pond of white self-loathing. Ha-ha.
*****
A person of color myself, I had an African-American in the Federal Building on 2nd Avenue a few months accuse me of hitting him with my backpack. It was an excuse to tell me to my face to go back to my own country and say that my mother should have brought me up better. The federal security agents, mostly white, witnessed this and said nothing. In fact, they "talked the man up" when he went through the security checkpoint.
I know what it is like to be falsely accused and for a black person use a pretext to beat me up, verbally.
*****
This is not journalism.
It is, however, unapologetic, naked, unadulterated malice.
Repeatedly punching in the face and HUMILIATING an old man, whatever his race, is not funny at all.
It could have been my father, your father, or someone's father or friend. read more
