The reality of the manner
Remember how some of the folks at Peach Pundit were claiming it was racist of the NAACP to, you know, urge the public to follow the rule of law?
Turns out the only racism emerging right now is on the other end as court officials in Surry County are receiving racist hate mail ...
Gail Clayton was talking to yet another reporter about the Michael Vick dogfighting case when a co-worker handed her a letter that had just arrived at the Surry County courthouse.
"Blacks - no matter how much money and education will always be of a jungle race!" read the handwritten, unsigned letter, postmarked Richmond and addressed to courthouse "Managers."
"Why dont the White Race in Surry take back their town from the ones that cant act civilized and obey the White laws as we do?"
..........
The letter shocked the county Circuit Court clerk, who said it "crossed the line" with its racism.
"I feel the letter had to be from someone who had knowledge of me being a black clerk in this office," Clayton said. "Whoever this (writer) is, I'm not planning on going anywhere."
Also, both the sheriff, Harold Brown, and the prosecutor, Gerald Poindexter, are African-American.
Turns out the only racism emerging right now is on the other end as court officials in Surry County are receiving racist hate mail ...
Gail Clayton was talking to yet another reporter about the Michael Vick dogfighting case when a co-worker handed her a letter that had just arrived at the Surry County courthouse.
"Blacks - no matter how much money and education will always be of a jungle race!" read the handwritten, unsigned letter, postmarked Richmond and addressed to courthouse "Managers."
"Why dont the White Race in Surry take back their town from the ones that cant act civilized and obey the White laws as we do?"
..........
The letter shocked the county Circuit Court clerk, who said it "crossed the line" with its racism.
"I feel the letter had to be from someone who had knowledge of me being a black clerk in this office," Clayton said. "Whoever this (writer) is, I'm not planning on going anywhere."
Also, both the sheriff, Harold Brown, and the prosecutor, Gerald Poindexter, are African-American.
posted by Jmac at 12:34 PM
2 Comments:
The rule of law governs when a person has to go to jail, not when his reputation is allowed to suffer. So, while I don't see any need to play the 'racist card' here, I do agree with Peach Pundit that the NAACP is out to lunch on this a bit.
"Innocent until proven guilty." Sure, and he won't be downsizing his living quarters to an 8 x 10 until proven guilty in a court of law. (In theory, acc. to our justice system anyway). But the NFL has every right to protect its image as it thinks best, the Falcons have the right to do the same, and NFL fans and American citizens have the right to 'judge' Vick as a scumbag, whether or not he actually gets convicted.
Of course, Christian virtue says we should not make personal, not-legally-bingding judgments without evidence, either. But I don't think that's really happening in this case. There is plenty of evidence that Vick is not a good character in this. And so the public may act accordingly.
What? As far as I'm concerned the NAACP is acting responsibly here. They're concerned about a tendency that we have to assess legal situations according to our ideas about a person's character, their race, their gender, etc., and they're counseling us to withold judgment until it's evident that we need to judge. Good for them.
Meanwhile, I'm a tad bit irritated at this case being treated as a racial one, in general, because a) I think some news outlets are being irresponsible in portraying it thus and b) The crime does have racial overtones -- and if we're to address it we need to recognize all the facets of it. So, while the crime may have racial characteristics, it's not racist to note it and to work to educate the population responsible for it.
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