What do you think would happen if a young white man in the city of Portland, son of a prominent politician, would receive racially inflammatory and life-threatening text messages using racial epithets, racially charged words, and sexually gross threatening innuendos?
What do you think a young white lady in a local high school would do and feel if she were to receive some sexually explicit text messages containing threats on her life, threats on her family's life, and absolutely abhorrent language explaining in detail what was going to be done to her by a Black man?
What would happen if a white female principal in a local school would have received threatening text messages from a Black man making statements to the effect that they would not live another day to see the light?
This morning, Sept. 27, 2010, I witnessed such threats on the cell phone of a decent, upstanding, diligent, kind, and God-fearing young Black man who unfortunately has now been exposed to the vitriolic and vehement active racist attitudes which are still live and well in the City of Portland. Regardless of any young man's academic standing and character, these threats are evil and need to be called out for what they are and for what they represent.
Let it also be known, and this is in honor of our N and NE Community, a local member of the community instantly got on the phone, contacted the number used, and let them know that somebody, perhaps they themselves, had used that phone for such evil intentions and activities. This noble person stood up to the wickedness being perpetrated by such human roaches and did so fearlessly.
Let it be known that we, the upstanding and active members of our local community and of the global community at large, will not stand for such nastiness. You evil people shall be caught and prosecuted. Your poison will eventually stop. You wicked racists shall pay the price for the illegal, immoral, ignorant, and non-human mentality you so avidly support. We will not stop teaching, preaching, and fighting for the truth. You shall lose. Truth shall prevail.
One last thought, and it's primarily addressed to the White community: yes, we live in a more tolerant society, one in which by the way, tolerance means agreement although tolerance is actually inextricably linked to mutual human respect and not to agreement of opinions. Having said and recognized the great strides toward a more civil and human-respecting society, it still stands to fact, and this morning's threats prove this, that anti-Black racism is still live and well. Don't be lulled into thinking that it's "all good in the Hood" and some of the perpetrators of such hate crimes could very well be some of your neighbors who have recently discovered the "coolness" of being in a traditionally Black neighborhood.
Change always comes at a price. It costs those who must and who will speak up, it costs those who suffer, like this young man, and it will cost those who choose to make a difference. We embrace the cost, we shall pay the price, and we boldly stand against any racist attitudes that try to raise their ugly head. Let's never forget that the only way to get cockroaches to scatter and disappear is to turn on the light and use the tools necessary to eradicate their nests so they can't reproduce.
The pen and our voices are such tools. Let's not shirk our responsibility to speak up and to do all we can to make sure that every milligram of racist poison is eliminated from our society. Societies thrive or fall directly in proportion to what we, their members, do. We know what type of world we want, right? It's up to us to speak up and do what it takes to eliminate evil when we see it.
