White Man, White Van (Rush Discussing today)

The New York Daily News ^ | October 27, 2002 | E.R.Shipp

[RobFromGa]

White man,
white van

Who would have thunk it? Obviously none of those expert profilers who speculated that the sniper in the Washington area was a cowardly white man of somewhere between 25 and 50 years of age who may or may not have had a military and/or law enforcement background.

He was driving a white minivan, we believed. And maybe he was a member of an Al Qaeda cell! But who got caught and charged? Two black males, one in his 40s, the other still in his teens; one from Baton Rouge, La., the other from the Caribbean.

This should give us pause about how we make assumptions. As when census takers in the early 1900s listed my relatives as mulattos because they were of a slightly lighter hue than some neighbors, it comes down to what we choose to see - or believe.

No one suggested that the sniper could be a black man. And he was surely not driving a 12-year-old blue Chevy Caprice.

A friend of mine said, only half kidding, "They didn't think a black person could be smart enough" to pull off three weeks of terror, driving into very public places, hitting his mark, then eluding all the local, state and federal officers.

The surprise expressed by many in recent days that a former Army mechanic, John Allen Muhammad, was such a sharpshooter - assuming Muhammad was the sniper - calls to mind World War II, where some of the Army's best marksmen, black men from units like Harlem's Hellfighters, were not permitted to shoot. They cooked and drove trucks and bagged bodies. And harbored grudges.

That Muhammad drove an old blue car should make us wonder about the reliability of eyewitness testimony - the type being discredited by DNA evidence that's led to the release of scores of prisoners on Death Row or serving long sentences for crimes they did not commit.

In a curious way, blacks - long excluded from the all-American ideal - are now in the big leagues. A friend of mine who is Jewish indicated the same precarious tether to all-American when she said, "I'm glad his name wasn't Schwartz!"

Crime and craziness are no respecters of race, ethnicity or religion.

The fact that so many news anchors and news readers and print reporters on this sniper story are black or Latino or Asian makes this feel less like an old-fashioned lynch mob a-gatherin', what with all the yammering about whether Muhammad and his 17-year-old sidekick, Lee Boyd Malvo, should first be tried in Virginia, a death-penalty friendly state, or Maryland, which has executed only three people in the last couple of decades - or even Alabama, where Montgomery's police chief said he would "aggressively pursue the death penalty" for the two for a robbery-murder that took place there in September.

It doesn't hurt that the lead man on the law-enforcement team was black, Montgomery County, Md., Police Chief Charles Moose. We so-called minorities take pride in such accomplishments. They validate us. Like white people, we exemplify the American dream. Unlike white people, we are too often identified with the American nightmare.

In the future, it would behoove the professional profilers, as well as us amateurs, to keep that in mind.

[RobFromGa]

Here's the article rush is discussing.

[RobFromGa]

No one suggested that the sniper could be a black man. And he was surely not driving a 12-year-old blue Chevy Caprice. A friend of mine said, only half kidding, "They didn't think a black person could be smart enough" to pull off three weeks of terror, driving into very public places, hitting his mark, then eluding all the local, state and federal officers.

Yeah, that's why the media apeculated it was going to be a white, neo-Nazi, NRA-card carrying, skinhead militia type-- because they respect the superior intelligence of whites. Idiots.

[dirtboy]

What a load of tripe.

Unlike white people, we are too often identified with the American nightmare.

Is this guy kidding me? For three weeks we listened to pundit and profiler alike saying this must be the work of some white right-wing redneck nutbar. How he can subsequently make such a claim, in an article full of anecdotes to the contrary, is beyond comprehension.

[robertpaulsen]

E.R. Schipp

So, blacks are now in the big leagues (in a curious way, no less). And they're smart and sharpshooters, to boot.

What a strange way to take pride in one's race.

[Physicist]

Mrs O:	(surveying paper) Aquarius, Scorpio, Virgo, Derry and Toms. April 29th to March 22nd. Even dates only.
Mrs Trepidatious:	Well what does it presage?
Mrs O:	You have green, scaly skin, and a soft yellow underbelly with a series of fin-like ridges running down your spine and tail. Although lizardlike in shape, you can grow anything up to thirty feet in length with huge teeth that can bite off great rocks and trees. You inhabit arid sub-tropical zones and wear spectacles.
Mrs Trepidatious:	It's very good about the spectacles.
Mrs O:	It's amazing.

[Bugbear]

No one suggested that the sniper could be a black man.

I Did! The only thing that threw me was the fact that he his a "Homey". But then the bigest area of crime in the Ghetto is black against black.

the authoer is suffering from "Mickey's Syndrome" He or She can't think past his or her skin color. Typical Liberal view.

Conservatives of course don't see things this way because we know that it's not race or gender that makes a difference in how smart or worthy a person is. What makes a difference is how hard you are willing to work to get something! If you put your mind to getting an A in a Calculus class - You can do it! If you would rather go to a party instead of study - You probably won't!

These clowns for some reason wanted to prove they could do this. The fact that they put all their energy into helped them to pull it off. Then their lack of good sence did them in.

[Bugbear]

The only thing that threw me was the fact that he his a "Homey".

Gee now I'm Making as much sense as E.R. Schipp

I Did! The only thing that threw me was the fact that he did in a "Homey". But then the biggest area of crime in the Getto is black against black.

The author is suffering from "Mickey's Syndrome" She can't think past his or her skin color. Typical Liberal view. Conservatives of course don't see things this way because we know that it's not race or gender that makes a difference in how smart or worthy a person is. Skin color makes no difference in how well you can accomplish a goal.

What makes a difference is how hard you are willing to work to get something! If you put your mind to getting an A in a Calculus class - You can do it! If you would rather go to a party instead of study - You probably won't!

These clowns for some reason wanted to prove they could do this. The fact that they put all their energy into helped them to pull it off. Then their lack of good sence did them in.

[Clemenza]

Remember, only white males can be bad guys in the eyes of the media, which is made up largely of WOMEN (who I am beginning to see as the real enemy, freepers and my mom excluded) and homosexuals.

[CyberAnt]

You forgot "Christian"!