I am totally floored to read about the attack against Tasha Hill, an African-American woman in Morrow, Georgia, which occurred last week in a Cracker Barrel -- all in front of her 7-year old daughter. My heart goes out to her as she pursues justice. But it seems she might have two fights on her hands: trial by law and trial by media.
CNN's coverage of this event by Rick Sanchez on Thursday was on the shady side. To be totally honest, I really don't watch him that much to know whether he is an ally or an enemy. My suspicion first rose, though, when he framed this piece of news as something that he had been twittered, blogged and e-mailed about.
I wasn't sure if this was simply standard protocol, an innocent appeal to plug CNN's new media. But given that the event happened a week ago and he was just reporting it now, it felt like the media had to be lobbied by readership that demonstrated that there was a growing demand for this news story. And only after this demand was quantified was this black woman's story important enough to cover.
Then, I almost dropped my Miso soup when he started the interview
asking the survivor if she "provoked this incident." This man called
her the N-word and the B-word, punched and kicked her several times and
she can be asked if the crime was provoked??!!!?? I made a second
attempt to assume best intent. Perhaps, this was also a protocol
Sanchez was upholding to frame the event from both sides. But because
of this framing, Tasha Hill's lawyer, Kip Jones, remained on the
defensive throughout the interview clarifying more than once that she
did not provoke this attack. Not once did anyone state that attacks of
this nature cannot be provoked. That there is no justification for
racism and sexism and certainly none for the violence that historically
and increasingly accompany these isms.
So I ask, are these simply protocols? Or is there some
underlying truth about these protocols that coincide with the reality
that a Black woman has survived this crime?
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Not that this has anything to do with this specific incident, which is as racist as it is (hopefully) random, but the Cracker Barrel chain itself has a terrible history of racism -- from customers and employees -- and has had to settle several lawsuits over the last decade and a half or so.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050618/news_1b18cracker.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/09/national/main642287.shtml
http://gothamist.com/2005/02/23/cracker_barrelin_brooklyn.php
I think it actually DOES have something to do with this specific incident. I've been to Cracker Barrel twice and its gimmick is that it's a good ol' fashioned chain restaurant with crappy food...
They're trying to recreate an image of the Old South and in doing so they're targeting a very specific demographic of customers. In short, I would not be surprised if some of these customers considered racism as a part of reconnecting with their Southern roots.
Well, they actually put the word "Cracker" in the name - so it's kind of obvious what kind of customer they are targeting!
I do think their racist, sexist, and homophobic history are very important and need to be brought up when considering this case. Cracker Barrel has been known to attract a certain clientele and employee base. I know several black people (myself and my family included) that no longer patronize Cracker Barrel because of discriminatory and hostile treatment experienced on their premises and from their employees.
Did she do anything to provoke her attack? What...the...fuck? I hate questions like this. Is there actually an answer he was expecting along the lines of "Yes, actually this is exactly what I did that provoked this vicious racist and sexist assault..." I'm sure he was looking more for did she call him any names or were they arguing, but implying that this attack could at all be justified? That's messed up.
It sounds like all she did was ask him to be careful with the swinging door so her child didn't get hit. I don't think there's any evidence she yelled or provoked him beyond that (not that that would justify the beating, obviously.)
Yes that is all that happened. What I'm saying is that those type of questions are striving to see if the victim could be at all to "blame" for their own attack. Regardless of if she said "Hey you fucking asswipe, I hate your face," he has no reason to start beating her to the ground.
Remember Robert Lynn Asprin's old standup routine about the Klingon Diplomatic Corps? They considered the equivalent to a declaration of war if a Federation vessel shot BACK. Maybe that's what this woman did: she provoked the incident by defending herself.
To a racist white man, that would be considered being "uppity." African-Americans were supposed to "grin and bear it" when it came to the abuse they were given. The woman defended herself and her child, and to that racist, that meant she was overstepping her bounds. There is an undercurrent of racism that seeks to blame the victims for daring to challenge the old guard, and this is no different. Sanchez should be ashamed of himself for asking if she "provoked" the incident. He should know his history about how rape and lynching were used to keep a community powerless and frightened for their lives. This is like asking a rape victim if she was "asking for it."
yes, of course the question was racist....if it had been a white woman, the reporter would have asked "what happened?", not "what did YOU do to MAKE HIM react that way?"
The reporter realizes that the media has to make some sort of excuse for the man, otherwise they are left with marginalizing him, which is the last resort for white folks' portrayal in the media...
1. blame the victim
2. if that's impossible, blame the situation or say that the situation is too complicated
3. if you can't blame the situation OR the victim, the perpetrator must have been temporarily insane (you know, this is something that sweet man is NOT EVEN CAPABLE OF, so he
must have just flipped out that one day).
4. if all of these fail, and we are absolutely forced to admit he is a racist dick, go all the way with it. marginalize him, make him look like the klan's grand wizard, an absolute nutjob who needs to be put away. There is not a worse villain than someone who shows the truth about normal white people and the level of racism that still exists.
Not to mention that the racist probably accused her of spitting in order to sway any possible jury and the police. This harkens back to the day when the testimony of African-Americans in court meant nothing to the hearts and minds of a jury who was going to rule against them anyway. There are some potential jurors who are so prejudiced against the group that they would vote against them any day no matter what the evidence.
What did the woman do? Well obviously it has to be provoked, else someone isn't violent , DUH!
She must have done something! RIght?!
WTF, i'm so sick of this. I blog about it weekly, because it always happens.
My ex husband choked me half to passing out and the COP'S QUESTIONS EVEN INCLUDED
"Did you do anything to anger him?"
Rich Sanchez Fail.
Cnn Fail
-Sophia
"Did you do anything to anger him?"
My response is "I was born." That's apparently what made my abuser so fucking angry because no matter what I was always "making him angry." Fucking assholes.
I've seen Rick Sanchez quite a few times now on CNN, my conclusion is that he is not an ally. When Tila Tequlia first said she was strangled he talked about it as if there was no way in hell it could be true. He flashed a photo of her and really played up how ridiculous the accusation was.
He seems very oblivious and it's strange CNN is giving him so much airtime. But I guess I'm not surprised, Lou Dobbs is on every night.
That's the problem with so-called "objectivity". Sometimes you normalize what are unacceptable point of view like racism or sexism under the pretense of being "fair".
But yes, Cracker Barrel isn't just guilty of frequent racism, it's also an extremely sexist organization too, based on the report of friends of mine who worked there and found themselves treated like absolute crap by management.
being female or afroamerican is considered as provocation, you don't need any other action to "provoke" assaults against you other than being that.
with this, they can get away with anything. sick world, sick people, sick mentalities.
i wonder, when planet earth or the ufos will terminate us as harmful species... or the evolution.
The story didn't make the local news here in the Atlanta area until the perp was arrested. The story broke on CNN just about simultaneously with it breaking locally.
I'm not sure why the story didn't get covered locally earlier than that. I work for a police department (not the one involved in this incident) in the area and I can tell you that all kinds of crazy stuff goes on (up to and including murders) that never makes the news. It often has more to do with whether local news reporters are able to scan that particular department's radio traffic, whether they have an "in" at the department with a media officer to contact, and whether the police department provided much or any information to any media queries that may have popped up. It's also possible that the story was deliberately kept low profile until the arrest was made to avoid letting the suspect know that he had been identified.
That said, it was a jaw-dropping situation. It's true that Cracker Barrel has had a reputation as having problems with racism and homophobia against both clients and employees (I boycotted them for many years) but in recent years that has improved and they have a more diverse clientele than in the past. When discussing the incident at work, several African American co-workers expressed shock at the incident and specifically said that they eat at that particular store regularly--one said he is there every week--and never saw or heard of anything like that.
The "blame the victim" mentality was going strong in some local outlets as well. When I googled to find out more on the story I ran across a locally based forum that had something to do with guns and gun ownership, and the comments there were hair-raising, as were some of the comments on local talk radio. But I've heard expressed much more among people I actually know shock, disbelief, and sympathy for the victim and her traumatized child.
One factor that could be at work is that the suspect is from very rural southern Georgia where in many areas the ugly old culture of expected African American deference to whites prevails to a much greater extent than it does in the metropolitan Atlanta area.
The news stories most recently have been about the possibility that the FBI could pursue federal level charges for the incident as a hate crime. I hope so. The silence of the usual shouters has been rather deafening. Imagine if the races were reversed in the incident and it was a white US Army member who had been beaten while protesting that she is a soldier. That would be front and center in the framing of the stories, yet other than the mention of that during the incident, I've seen very little discussion of that aspect of the story. The cretin didn't just beat a woman, a mother and a person of color, but someone who (almost certainly unlike him) has stepped up and volunteered to serve her country, putting her life on the line in the process. I'm pretty sure she didn't think a simple dinner out in a very diverse suburb of a major city would be where her well being was endangered. And every time I think of that child witnessing all of it, I want a few shots at that lowlife myself.
Speaking as someone who grew up with him on her local TV station, Prick Sanchez is not an ally. He is a sensationalist idiot.
A classmate of mine said that he was there at the time. According to him, the whole thing came out of nowhere... one second the place was quiet, the next Ms. Hill was being attacked. He made no mention of anything the victim had done to warrant such an attack.
Between this story and the Wal-Mart man-hitting-child incident, my state is just raking in the news coverage. We're not all this nutsy... I promise!
This is white privilege and exceptionalism at work. Speaking as a white male, I'm outraged that the first supposition by mostly white male commentators that the recent schoolbus incident was racially motivated but there seems to be a double standard when it comes to other things like police brutality and altercations or attacks between individuals where the violence is clearly unprovoked white-on-black crime. I am sick of arguing with my parents and everyone else too blinded by white privilege with how sick and wrong this is. We need more critical reviews and media analysis about race in the press. That some TEA Party protestors are making references to Obama's ethnicity and nationality and also calling him a racist is just beyond belief to me. Racism is very much alive.
So people saw this happening and no one did anything to intervene?
Sick.
He needs to go to general population in prison.
So people saw this happening and no one did anything to intervene?
Sick.
He needs to go to general population in prison.