This is why I became extremely worried when my neighbors, an elderly white couple, told me they watch Fox News "all the time."
Fox News host John Gibson was discussing the school shooting in Cleveland and because the school is majority black, Gibson wrongly assumed the perpetrator was African American. In fact, Gibson went so far as to label the shooting -- four kids were shot -- a "classic hip-hop shooting."
Ding, ding, ding! John Gibson doesn't know black people AND he's a racist.
Before even addressing the blatant racism associated with Gibson's remarks, can we have a lighthearted, keep it real moment about black people, crime and school shootings?
If Gibson knew anything about how WE DO, he should have known from jump white people were somehow involved in the Cleveland situation because it was a national news story. Black kids get shot at school all the time. Black kids are perpetrators in school shootings almost as much. But rarely does it ever generate the discussion, headlines or media onslaught that happens when whites are either victim or predator. Bands of psychologists don't appear on CNN trying to figure out what's wrong with the kids when LaRonda catches a bullet. They just figure we're animals and that's how WE DO.
It's always funny when these things happen because white folks always act in disbelief when one their own does something outside of the white success model. It's like, "No way could Little Johnnie snap and kill 34 people. I don't care how many diaries he had that said, 'I'm gonna shoot 34 people.'"
Black kids rarely shoot in spree form, anyway. Well, not like that. We might shoot up the club, but shooting up the school in this fashion just isn't how it goes down. Not to be ignorant, but we know how to target who we want to shoot. More than likely, if we shoot multiple people, all those people were the intended targets OR it's a situation where a stray bullet found some unlucky soul. Besides, much of the killing we commit is strictly a bread and meat issue. As in we have neither, so we turn to street life to get it. The constant pressure of being black far supercedes us having any psychological meltdown because we're not popular at school and kids are mean to us.
Anyway, as you might have figured out by now, the Cleveland kid who shot up the high school was white. But instead of just capsizing his ignorance for the day, Gibbons continued to spread more racist venom once he was told the shooter was white.
"Hip-hoppers do not kill themselves," Gibson said on his radio show. "They walk away. Now, I didn't need to hear the kid was white with blond hair. Once he'd shot himself in the head, no hip-hopper."
It gets better, though. Then the new Professor of Negro-ology stated:
"I know the shooter was white," Gibson said. "I knew it as soon as he shot himself. Hip-hoppers don't do that. They shoot and move on to shoot again. I know there's a few of you who want to call me racist. But when you do, remind -- let me remind you, African-Americans are dying in major cities because people won't face this problem."
Racist? Why on Earth would we ever think that you, John Gibson, noted Negro Social Scientist and Keen Observist, are a racist?
The way Gibson made it sound, it's as if packs of black folks carrying Jay Z, Nas and Fidee CDs were roving the streets and shooting people as soon as they stepped outside of their doors. Certainly black-on-black crime is an issue, but it's got more to do with the fact that fools is hungry, not because of the new Kanye cut. And before Gibson airs anymore of his views on black life, maybe he should also realize the no. 1 consumer of hip hop -- and therefore the highest number of hip hoppers -- are white kids, who like their mommies and daddies, limit their view of black people to entertainment.
Hey, but at least Gibson gave hip hop some credit. It's the downfall of America, but at least "hip hoppers" don't commit suicide. What a positive.
By the way, WTF is a "hip hopper?" And why is that when white folks have little knowledge of something associated with black culture, they come up with some cornball ass description of it?
At Fox News, it's always a treat to see white people who likely have nothing more than surface relationships with black people chime in on our issues. They are almost always wrong and almost always racist.
John Gibson is one of those "big dummies" Fred Sanford used to rail about. Whenever something like this happens, it makes me think of Ice Cube's classic CD, "America's Most Wanted," specifically that song that begins: "A message to the Oreo cookie: Here's what they think about chu..."
No comments:
Post a Comment