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Re: Masters as Aliens

Oct 07, 1997 07:42 PM
by Bart Lidofsky


A. Safron wrote:
> 
> ----------
> > From: Bart Lidofsky <bartl@sprynet.com>
> > Subject: Re: Masters as Aliens
> > Date: Monday, October 06, 1997 8:12 PM
> >
> > > Is there a lot of racism in New York?
> >
> >       Compared to what?
> >
> >       Bart Lidofsky
> 
> I hear there's a lot more tolerance in San Francisco, while Chicago is
> one of the racist cities in the country.  I've never heard anything about
> New York, so I thought I'd ask you.

	New York is a city of neighborhoods. Some are very friendly, some are
highly racist (in many directions). For example, in Harlem, a business
was burned down solely because it was owned by whites, and recently, a
black man was beaten because he wandered into a lower-echelon Mafia
neighborhood. 

	There are a number of people in New York City who, unfortunately, owe
their livings to racism, and will do everything in their power to keep
it going. Lawyers Vernon Mason and Alton Maddox (the former has been
disbarred, I believe), have traded heavily on it. There was a case of a
man who had a model's face slashed; M&M defended the people who did the
actual slashing, who happened to be black. The defense? The model
deserved to have her face slashed, because she was a racist. Joined with
the self-styled "Reverend" Al Sharpton, they created a scandal with one
Tawana Brawley, who, one night after partying without her parent's
permission, took off her clothes, smeared herself with dog excrement and
covered herself with a sheet bearing the word, "nigger". She claimed
that a gang of whites had done it. Mason, Maddox, and Sharpton were her
"advisors", telling her not to cooperate in any way, shape, or form with
the police. Among their antics was, when her mother was subpoenaed to
testify in the investigation, they had her stay in a church, claiming
"sanctuary". At one point, they accused the Attorney General of New York
State of being a participant in the original "attack".

	Since then, Al Sharpton has been a fixture in New York City politics.
Whenever a jury verdict in a black/white case does not go his way, he
holds a "no justice, no peace" rally, usually involving blocking workers
from going home during rush hour (including not letting people into the
subway station). He has a coterie of unemployed followers who will wreak
havoc on his command. He has run for public office several times, always
getting about 125,000 votes. In the latest Democratic Primary for mayor,
there was so little interest in the election that he almost succeeded in
forcing a runoff (there was quite a bit of publicity when the initial
count called for a runoff, then, a week later, it turned out that when a
more careful count including paper ballots was made, the other
candidate, Ruth Messinger, got the nomination after all.

	Al Sharpton calls any white person who disagrees with anything he says
a "racist", and any black person who disagrees an "Uncle Tom". Since
many black politicians are supporting Rudy Guliani for mayor, there are
a lot of "Tom's" around these days. 

	A few years back, there was a major racial problem, in an area called
Crown Heights in Brooklyn. The leader of the Lubavitcher Hasidim (a
remarkably Theosophical gentleman, by the way) was in a motorcade after
visiting the grave of his late wife. One car was lagging behind when the
light turned red. It ran the red light, was cut off by another car,
swerved, and ran into the sidewalk, hitting and killing a black child. A
crowd formed. A Hasidic ambulance service came, and was told by the cops
to take the driver of the car, as the mob was about to kill him. This
further incensed the community, who was told that the ambulance took the
driver rather than the child because he was a Jew.

	The rabble rousers (which did NOT, for once, include Al Sharpton)
spread the word that the driver ran down the black child on purpose, and
there were gangs who gathered that night, with the chant, "kill the
Jews". One unfortunate Australian graduate student was out, and was
killed by a mob. There were riots over the next few days, and many
police officers claim they were under specific orders to not act against
the rioters, which is why many Jews called the riots a "pogrom" (a
Russian word for a government sanctioned anti-Jewish riot). It was
probably a major factor in Guliani's victory over David Dinkins for
mayor (David Dinkins previously had reasonably strong support in New
York's large Jewish community). Epilogue: The driver was found not
guilty of criminal actions in the case, and moved to Israel, ostensibly
to avoid retaliation by the black community. Many in the black community
feel that he should be charged criminally, but New York State requires
that a driver be breaking 3 traffic laws to be charged criminally; there
is still a belief that he ran down the child on purpose, however. Also
note that, while he is in Israel, the family cannot sue him. It is my
personal belief that the driver, or the Lubavticher community should
voluntarily pay the civil damages to the family of the child, but that's
just me. One person was identified and arrested for the murder of the
graduate student, but, because it could not be determined if the stab
wound he made with his knife was the fatal blow, he was found not guilty
(it is rumored in the Jewish community that the prosecution threw the
trial on purpose). After much lobbying by the Jewish community, Janet
Reno filed civil rights charges against the stabber (a move with which I
disagree; smacks too much of thought crime). As far as I know, it has
not yet come to trial.

	On the bright side, in the aftermath a lot of groups formed to promote
racial harmony in New York City, with heavy participation by several
branches of the Hasidic Jewish community.

	Bart Lidofsky


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