I ask myself “Why did CNN only
show a millisecond clip of the incident in which ex-football player Ray Rice
struck his then fiancé when she was lunging to strike him? Why did they not
wait five seconds to show her striking him—for the second time?” The answer, of
course, is that CNN wanted maximum outrage for ratings. They couldn’t take a
chance on showing the entire video and what it suggested, because some people
might actually ask themselves “Wait a minute. Didn’t she
instigate the violence? Isn’t she just as guilty?”
A similar narrative is in play
with the incident involving ex-Florida State University quarterback De'Andre
Johnson. CNN has been showing a very truncated clip of Johnson striking a white
female FSU student in the face at a bar. Johnson claims that he did so only
after she tried to strike him with her fist, knee him in the groin, and shouted
racist epithets at him. Watching CNN’s clip, you obviously don’t “get” all of
that. ESPN claims that the female was
just “waiting at the bar” to order when Johnson simply barged in and shoved her
aside.
The local Tallahassee newspaper
actually show the entire surveillance video a few minutes before and a few
minutes after the incident. This is what I saw: After some rather humdrum
goings-on between the bartenders and customers, a black male and a
pudgy-looking blonde female walk up to the bar at almost the exact same time.
They bump into each other. The white female appears to take extreme exception
to it, raising her arm as if to strike the black male. He grabs her arm. She
then raises her knee as if to strike him in the groin. Words appear to be
exchanged; we don’t see the black male’s face, but the female clearly appears
to be belligerent. The black male then strikes the white female in the face and
immediately leaves. The white female hangs out for a minute or so,
commiserating with a friend or sympathetic observer before leaving. The
bartenders apparently did not even notice what happened. The white female
appeared to be in shock about what just happened, as if she expected no
consequences for her own actions.
Why would ESPN or CNN lie about
what actually happened? Why is it a “rant” to question why there is a double
standard and female suffered no consequences for instigating the incident, as
did one of Johnson’s former college teammates? Here, let me just stand here and
let you punch and shout racist insults at me, but if I respond, I’m the one who
loses everything?
FSU President John Thrasher, in
approving of the dismissal of Johnson by FSU’ football coach, said "While
it is always important to adhere to due process, having now seen the physical
altercation captured on video, there is no question in my mind that Coach
Fisher made the correct decisions. I expect all students at Florida State
University, including student-athletes, to adhere to the highest level of
conduct. I have no tolerance for the kind of behavior exhibited in this case.
Florida State University was forged from an outstanding college for women and
has a long tradition of being a caring community that demands students be
treated with dignity and respect."
The hypocrite. Obviously, if a
female is involved, “due process” apparently doesn’t exist for males.
Apparently Thrasher doesn’t really expect all
FSU students to adhere to the “highest level of conduct.” Is FSU an
“outstanding college for women” because they can do anything they want to
disrespect others, especially minority students, out of "fairness" and "sensitivity" to their victim myths? Was this white female student
treating this black male with “dignity and respect”? Does Thrasher actually
think that racist cultural and social attitudes are a thing of the past—and not
part of the dynamic that brings about frequent accusations by white females
against black males at the school, especially a Southern school?
Why are we allowing gender politics
to cloud racial reality? The recent case of three black University of Oregon
basketball players expelled from the school is a case in point. A white female student
accused the players of sexual assault, yet an investigation by both law
enforcement and prosecutors found no evidence to support her accusation. However, raving
white female gender advocates forced the school administration to ignore the
rights of the players. The truth was that the accuser thought it “cool” to go
to a “black party” where according to all witnesses she apparently had a consensual
sexual encounter with the three athletes in a bathroom; far from “coercing”
her, the three allowed her to leave to get a drink of water, and instead of just
going home, she apparently without coercion returned to the bathroom to continue
the encounter. She even admitted to having consensual sex with one of the
accused the following morning. One of her friends with her that night told investigators that she
believed the accuser did lie about being assaulted; the accuser was a “partier”
who had frequent consensual sexual encounters, but had a habit of feeling “dirty”
or “regretting” it the next day. How did feeling “dirty” turn into “sexual
assault” in this one instance? Because the accused were black? The athletes
should have filed a lawsuit against the university for violation of their civil
rights.
I have an idea. Black students at
FSU should turn this thing right around on the school. They should talk about
racism at the school—by both male and female students—and ask why the school
tolerates this, because that is essentially what the school is doing in the
Johnson case, tolerating racism by whites and denying a black male due process
and the opportunity for an education or athletic success because of the “in the
heat of the moment” way he reacted at this
racism. They may not “win” the argument, but they can make it uncomfortable for
the school administration and academic and student gender activists who use
racist stereotypes to further their agenda by forcing them to address this
issue—I mean, really get into their faces and not accept their propaganda lines
and excuses and cross-accusations.
Did the FSU student “deserve” to
be struck the way she was? No, because violence doesn’t solve anything, and in
her case she wouldn’t have “learned” anything anyways. But let’s turn this
around: If Johnson had filed charges with police or the university about this
white female student attempting to assault him and using racist epithets, what
would have happened to the accused? Not a damn thing. Or maybe just laugh at him, or accuse him of being a "woman-hater."
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