Monday, December 10, 2007

Someone tell these folks it's 2007, not 1957

Watch the video below. I was going to write a raging commentary about this whole debacle and then decided against it. But I'll say a few things.

Basically the video below shows what happened when Houston activist and member of the New Black Panther Party, Quannel X, went to Pasadena to protest/investigate a situation where a white man shot two dark skinned, Latino men who he saw break into his neighbors home.

I have very mixed feelings about this because real talk, I'm an extreme pacifist, I don't want to use violence to solve much of anything, but if someone broke into my house, I would shoot the fuck out of them until they were definitely dead. I have two children, fuck all that noise. Both of my neighbors are over 90 years old, if I saw someone climbing into their house, yes I would shoot the fuck out of them too, with no remorse.

That being said, I don't necessarily think this dude should be looked at as a hero. Yes, he certainly did "beat the bad guys," but he had a lot of time to think about what he was about to do, and he did it. He killed two men, with a shot gun, at close range, IN THE BACK. It's something that I hope to never, ever, ever have to do.

I really don't want to pass judgement on the man, cuz like I said, I think personally I would have done the same thing. If the cops could get their asses in gear and respond to such things in a timely manner, we wouldn't have to do such things.

All that being said, I don't think it's too off base for Quannel to be looking into this situation. If it was a black man shooting a gun in his front yard, he'd be sitting in jail right now, hoping for a trial. It's the truth, and if you don't believe me, if you think racism does not exist, watch the video below and be disturbed, be very disturbed. This is America 2007, and this video is strong evidence that we really have not come very far.



That being said, I think that this is so shocking to me because I don't hang out with people like you see in this video. I hang out with progressive folks from all races, from all corners of the world. These type of people barely exist to me. The only time I see people like this is when I'm in a town with no other place to shop than a Walmart, then I go in and puke on myself cuz 1. I'm in a Walmart, 2. I'm surrounded by racist pieces of trash.

Anyway that's neither here nor there. I just wanted to share this video to make sure that all of you know that racism does indeed still exist and there's a lot of scumbags out there who really don't even hide it. Shit looks like 1957. If even.

Also, why were they chanting USA! USA! USA!???? That is not MY America that they are reprsenting. Excuse me while I go throw up and try to convince my wife again that we need to live in New Zealand, on a mountain, with no TV or internet. Just a stream and our dreams. Maybe a windmill.

In summary, I am not against the man who did the shooting, but I am certainly not against Quannel X for going out to seek some sort of answers. I am against the people of Pasadena who attacked Quannel and his people. This is supposed to be a free country. SUPPOSED being the action word in the previous sentence. Stop the madness.

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