General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAnother day, a more divided America...
A white man hits a black boy with his car (at no fault of the man that has been reported so far) and got out of his car to help, only to be beaten down by 10 - 12 other (presumably black) men. There are a lot of racial overtones to the story, to say the least, and many think it may have been a hate crime.
It may have been. An investigation is needed. But the response to the article in the comments section of this link were what you'd typically expect, bigoted in all sorts of ways. An us vs them attitude prevails. An "I told you so" of every race warrior out there. In fact, the website shut down the comments section completely, maybe embarrassed by much of their own readership.
http://www.freep.com/article/20140403/NEWS01/304030131/Driver-clings-to-life-after-beating-by-attackers-boy-expected-to-recover
Hidden in the article, and not raising any discussion at all, is the fact that the driver, now in critical condition, has a family that has started a charity to raise money for what? Why for the victim's medical bills. He had no health insurance, you see.
That's probably the saddest part of the article of all, the most damning to us as a society, that a person has to start a fucking charity to cover health costs if they are a victim of violence. That not everyone even after Obamacare and it's good intentions (even if it is not a full fix) has health insurance. But sadder still is the focus on bigotry and hate that glosses over this societal failure. It's a perfect example of divide and conquer in action. The public outrage isn't directed at the fact that our society treats healthcare as a commodity, but at reinforcing racial bigotry. The oligarchs have done their job depressingly well.
And what's ironic to me is that many of the conservative white commenters haranguing blacks and spewing bigotry are of the opinion that people with no health insurance should be left to die. But interestingly, none were shouting about how the irresponsible victim wasted their tax dollars and should have been left to die.
It gets awfully depressing in this country.
randys1
(16,286 posts)Crabby Appleton
(5,231 posts)How so?
MellowDem
(5,018 posts)If you think a source is bad, say why. I can link to other sources as well, but this is the major Detroit newspaper, and part of the point of my OP was the response to the local paper by other locals.
i thought it was free republic, my bad