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,
