My Email to Leonard Pitts

[reason]

Nationally syndicated columnist, Leonard Pitts, wrote a column in today's paper about Bill Cosby's comments. I whizzed off a quick email knowing full well it would end up in the computer trash bin. He had previously written about Nathaniel Jones, Northside's most famous 350 pound citizen to ever attack multiple police officers:

Mr. Pitts,

Yesterday, I was 2.9 miles into my 3.3 mile jog when a quick thunderstorm forced me into a picnic shelter at Cincinnati's Mount Airy Forest. I stood at the edge of a shelter as a group of about 30 African Americans - very young to very old - celebrated what appeared to be a birthday party.

During my 5 - 10 minute wait on the edge of the shelter I heard a 50-something woman say at high decibel "mother fucker" three times, "fuck" one time, and "Can you bring this bitch a brew?" once.

At one point in time the thought of running in the rain - risking getting struck by lightning - seriously seemed like a more attractive option than listening to that garbage.

No more than 20 minutes later I'm at a gas station in my neighborhood at the corner Chase and Kirby (Nathaniel Jones , by the way, lived just down the street). As I'm heading inside to pay for the gas, blaring from a car - again at ultra high decibel level - was a song with words to the effect "mother fucking" this and "bitch ho" that. In the front seat was a 20 something African American woman. In the back, two young children who could not have been older than 3 or 4 years old.

It would be merely sad if these were isolated examples, but they are not. It is a fact of life here in Cincinnati, and I suspect just about everywhere else.

In the first example, I almost turned around and screamed, "Good Lord, woman, don't you care about the little children around you? Have you no self respect? MR COSBY IS RIGHT!"

I almost said something to the woman at the gas station, but I didn't.

I didn't say anything...because I'm white. I'm automatically racist, so what I say doesn't matter. I would only dispense criticism because the offender is black, not because they are exhibiting gross antisocial behavior. I didn't say anything because I expect perfection, not because I expect the people around me to give a rat's ass.

Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

Regards,

[LanDroid]

Heh, my daughter and I were about 3 miles into a 5 mile walk at exactly the same time - i.e. we got soaked to the bone! I didn't hear any rude language at that time, but sure got an earful earlier in the day. I was walking into Krogers and overheard a black kid standing next to a car "rapping" loudly to a woman sitting in the car about how raunchy her pussy smelled! Then she screamed back "Motherfucker who do you think you're talking to!" I walked away LMAO, but trying to hide the laughter 'cause ya know, I'm a white dude too.

[reason]

Originally posted by LanDroid:
Heh, my daughter and I were about 3 miles into a 5 mile walk at exactly the same time - i.e. we got soaked to the bone! I didn't hear any rude language at that time, but sure got an earful earlier in the day. I was walking into Krogers and overheard a black kid standing next to a car "rapping" loudly to a woman sitting in the car about how raunchy her pussy smelled! Then she screamed back "Motherfucker who do you think you're talking to!" I walked away LMAO, but trying to hide the laughter 'cause ya know, I'm a white dude too.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I guess this has all worn too thin for me. If I weren't assaulted by it on such a regular basis then I might find some humor in it all. Instead I see it as symptomatic of a bigger problem.

Try living *in* the city for a while and see how funny you think it all is! After a year or two, you'll want to take them by the head and slap them all silly.

[travelinman]

Originally posted by reason:
After a year or two, you'll want to take them by the head and slap them all silly.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">More like put a bullet in their ass.

<font color="#000002" size="1">[ July 13, 2004 02:09 PM: Message edited by: travelinman ]</font>

[reason]

Originally posted by travelinman:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by reason:
After a year or two, you'll want to take them by the head and slap them all silly.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">More like put a bullet in their ass.

<font color="#000002"><font size="1">[ July 13, 2004 02:09 PM: Message edited by: travelinman ]</font></font></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That would be more effective, yes.

[gae]

Well, as all's y'alls know from a previous thread here, the cops enable the behavior.

When our dear neighbor called the cops (see the Neighborhood News thread), I'm fairly certain I would have been either restrained or arrested if I called her a bitch-ass ho.

However, when the "youths" we encounted in our yard/courtyard said the same thing to me, we were told by one of Cincinnati's finest that "they was just playin'"

My asshat ex-husband played with a black band whose name I will not drop, and more than once, I fixed dinner for the whole crew. The kids were young, and although I was always "Miss Gail", the guys had no problem with "Yo nigger!" when they wanted to get one another's attention.

I asked one of the guys why they did that. His response?

"It's a black thing. You wouldn't understand."

[Lew]

Sharp contrast to the streets of Finneytown, where I was raised. Where every morning, I'd walk to the bus and say "Hello, next door neighbor."

And then he'd say something about getting my jumbo jet out of his airport, I don't know it didn't make sense at the time....