Could. COULD!? Really? Tell me what about this picture says “could,” “might have been,” or “maaaaaaaaaybe” to you. It’s the one white kid in a sea of blackness getting his ass beaten for riding the same school bus. That’s it. If this were white kids cheering on the beating of the one black kid on the bus, this would be a national crisis, a Jena 6-level event. Instead, this is buried.
Unbelievable.
Except that I see a number of other white people on the bus. Also, you’re an idiot.
Holy shit did that poor kid get whaled on. Where the fuck was the bus driver in all of this?
I am horrified by this tape, and I assume it’s racially motivated. However, let me explain…
In most of America today, like it or not, people self-identify with a group, and isolate those outside their group. This has been the standard for most of human existance. When you’re a grown-up, your definition of “group” (hopefully) no longer is based on things like skin color, but is more about similar interests, socio-economic factors, etc. But when you’re a teenager, and have a shaky grip on self-confidence and almost no depth of personal interests, appearance is generally the de facto dividing line. You see this also in schools of predominantly one race - the “preps” beat up the “nerds” or the “scene” kids (or vice versa).
In my area of the country, social segregation is still mostly the norm. I have heard it is the same in other urban Midwestern areas like St. Louis. So you have the “whites” vs. the “blacks” but it’s really no more than self-selection of group.
In any case, I find the racial angle to be “meh”
However, I am angrily wondering where the hell the bus driver is in all of this. He or she should have pulled the bus over immediately, contained the fight, and called the police. Immediately
And I really wonder what the neighborhood must have been like. It is not unusual to see some kids cheer a fight on, but to see so many of those kids cheering and laughing and clapping - it makes me think those who cheered should also be prosecuted, a la The Accused. Somebody’s got to do something to teach those kids right and wrong…
Driving the bus. According to the link he said, “sit down, kids” or somesuch and that was about it.
Man, that kid can take a punch.
There are at least six other white kids on the bus, at least one of whom was cheering.
Definitely brutal and unprovoked, but I see no evidence it was racially motivated. There are no racial epithets or anything. It looks more like a standard, high school nerd beating to me. the assailants still need to be punished harshly, but it certainly can’t be stated as a fact that it was racially motivated.
We’re just trying to apply conservative principles here. We’re always being told that we shouldn’t assume any racial motivation exists if there’s any other possible explanation. And we’re told that the preferred response to any possibly racist incident it to refuse to comment until “all the facts are in”.
So I figured you’d be happy to see a racial attack being treated the way you’ve always wanted it to be.
Great. St. Louis.
What the fuck? Why is this national news? It’s a school bus fight. Every person on this forum MUST be aware that this kind of thing happens about a hundred times a day.
I’m sure – and I spent four years going up and down a racially mixed area on the southwest side of Chicago – but this looks particularly brutal to me. Honestly, the worst I remember is somebody spraying a can of mace into the bus. I suppose I’m lucky, but I’ve never seen a single fight where a kid took that many full-on punches to the face without putting up any sort of defense.
For one - there’s great tape of it, which makes it media friendly.
For two - while I’m sure school bus fights happen, I have a hard time believing they involve the beating going on in this one. Most fights involve a lot of pushy-shovey, with maybe a punch or two thrown. This was a beating.
Maybe you guys just didn’t have the childhood I did, but while, yes, it’s a beating, I’ve seen worse. Hell, I saw a girl open another girl’s face to the bone with a razor blade on the bus one day.
And no, it wasn’t racially motivated.
Fucking animals. And it doesn’t matter one wit to me if this was racially motivated or not, those kids should be locked up for a while.
I don’t think anyone’s disputing that.
I think the OP has it about half right.
Was THIS one racially motivated? Maybe, maybe not.
On the flip side, if it was a just a rare black dude on a nearly all white bus, Al Sharpton et all would be all over this shit, even it was the white jocks beating up on Erkle.
To continue with my OP, what drives me crazy is the state of discourse that we have, where it’s not permissible to acknowledge that there’s a serious, unacknowledged black-on-white crime problem, the likes of which would be called “hate crime” or “race crime” if it were reversed. The news media won’t acknowledge this out of PC-motivated race guilt, and average people can’t express outrage about it without being lumped in with conservatives, skinheads, and other white power groups.
I’m not that. I’m a latte-sipping, Obama-voting, recyling, sushi-eating liberal fag. And I find it completely outrageous.
Well, they *are *in school.
from the (new) article:
Belleville police spokesman now says an incident where a white student was beaten by teen black assailants on a bus “may not be racially motivated. ‘It was premature on my part,’ said Belleville Police Capt. Don Sax. ‘It was my personal and emotional comment after only seeing the video briefly.’”
I like how he apparently has to apologize for his original statement of “this beating could be racially motivated,” when his clarification says basically the same thing, just on the flipside!
I mean, if “this is just as likely to be racially motivated as not. Hell if I know. Anyone got a coin?” were a 50 on a 100 point spectrum, you’d find those two statements above on the 40 and 60 lines.
There is no such problem. You are imagining things.
This should be fun! Can we have a cite for this? Please, show me that nationwide, black people are commonly targeting white people even though there are far more white people than black in this country and black people have a much greater chance of being the victim of a crime. I’ve got the feeling your problem is “unacknowledged” because it doesn’t exist. And don’t bother with the Obama and liberal credentials. It’s entirely possible to like Barack Obama, drink coffee, and be afraid of black people all at the same time.