…but damn, if ever a “victim” was trolling for a bitchslap it was this idiot.
I know that technically the black student should have simply brought the shirt to the attention of a teacher or administrator but I have to confess that it’s more viscerally satisfying to know that little Jethro got something upside his mullet. I know that makes me wrong. I don’t care. I’m not saying it was right, I’m just saying it was satisfying.
The kid with the shirt was suspended but has not yet returned to the school.
Some more of the student’s articulate and thoughtful comments include the following:
It was also interesting to see this part:
I guess getting his ass beat in high school isn’t hardcore enough for him. I hope he gets a black drill sergeant.
We are a nation of laws, and I support punishment for the kids who lay the beatdown on him. That doesn’t mean I don’t cheer them on; and if their punishment is to perform community service at the local NAACP office, all the better.
Sometimes, as a parent, you have to let a child learn the consequences of their actions. I don’t know that I would be indifferent in this case. In fact, I’d probably beat my own son silly and save them the trouble if he wore a shirt like that. But I can see where the father might have wanted his son to learn a (relatively painless) lesson before he went out on his own and maybe got killed for something like that.
Sometimes you just have to let someone take their lumps.
As for the other kids, good on them. They should be punished, yes, but let’s make sure the punishment fits the offense. Beating down a racist merits community service at worst, and easy community service at that.
I have the same reaction to this as I have to foolish actions by other young black men at work: I feel obliged to point out the error in the young brother’s thinking. In particular, by striking the other person without PHYSICAL PROVOCATION, he only validated the notions of other white supremacists that we persons of the chocolate persuasion are undisciplined, foolish brutes. In other words he acted to perpetuate the attitude he was protesting against.
I don’t think so. If my friend surprises me by wearing a hate message t-shirt, I need to re-think my friendship, because I wouldn’t knowingly be friends with someone who would wear a t-shirt like that and think nothing of it.
But he’s not a racist. He just thinks t-shirts depicting violence against black people because they’re black is a hoot. But it’s okay for him to not like black people because they’re uppity. I think my brain is hurting.
You know who I really feel sorry for? The school officials who had to deal with this nonsense. I’ll bet they were wishing they could give the racist little fucker a new crack in his ass, too.
Well… I disagree with the OP. I don’t think what happened is in any way satisfying: a white kid with sad, misguided feelings towards black people got his ass kicked by a black person. The white kid is going to come out of this hating them even more, and because the attitude so many previous posters have exhibitted will probably be common, the black kid is going to come out of it thinking violence is an appropriate way to respond to an insult.
Someone should forward the details of this little incident to the Marine Corps when the redneck’s name becomes public knowledge. They’ll cancel his enlistment in a heartbeat.
My one complaint about the way it was handled was that the black student aimed for the idiot’s head. It’s solid bone, bro! You’ll hurt your hand that way. Aim for the solar plexus, then knee him in the face as he folds. Don’t you people learn anything in school?
Public schools are somewhat split on how to deal with suspensions. Even if a child (read minor) is expelled there is still the obligation for the child to be educated. Usually this will work out, AIUI, to having the child being transferred to a special school in the disctrict or in a nearby district that deals with problem cases. Sometimes, for highschool students they get sent to local community colleges. I don’t know exactly what happened here, but that’s not really a shocker to my mind.
As for the OP. Umm…
I really am sorry to say that I believe the kid who did the hitting has to be punished. It is not acceptable behavior.
Having said that, community service at the NAACP sure works for me as an appropriate punishment.
And the idiot wearing the t-shirt needs a black DI. In a mostly black boot company. I don’t know that he needs to finish his boot training, but he should start it, at least.
I don’t think that anyone is saying it was appropriate, Metacom. There’s a vast difference between admitting sympathy for a law-breaker (or alleged one, since the kid hasn’t been tried, yet.) and approving of his actions. Part of the reasoning I have, and am inferring, for the (repeated) suggestion for NAACP service is, in part, to show the kid that non-violent methods are often more effective in the long-term. It’s education as well as punishment.
As for the white kid - honestly, if he can’t see anything wrong with that t-shirt, I honestly doubt that anything would be able to open his eyes. Yes, this experience will make him feel more of a victim, for no good reason in his own view. But, how does one open the eyes of someone like that?
I don’t know, I kind of agree. As both a father and a son myself, I’ll say that sometimes you just have to let the scars of learning happen. The boy’s 18 years old. He can drive and vote and enlist in the Marine corps. He’s past daddy telling him what he can & can’t wear.
