Mississippi’s Clarion Ledger newspaper reported on some white frat boys who were arrested and charged with crimes. A friend who posted the story astutely remarked that those are some of the happiest mugshots he’d seen.
Indeed! These boys don’t look the least bothered for an act that, at the very least, puts their academic careers into question, and for those charged with felony, possibly their entire working careers.
But what I thought to myself was how many young girls, of any race, walking by either one of these young men late at night, on a dimly lit sidewalk, would tense up as they passed by them? Have a fleeting thought of the fear they might be attacked? Raped?
Last January, there were reports in the press about a Florida police department that was using the mugshots of Black men as targets for shooting practice.
Why are these Ole Miss thugs not thought of as dimly by American society?
After all, these white boys are thugs and all of these men were arrested. Right?
Could it be that they know something we don’t? Could it be that, in spite of their situation, they know their white privilege will win them the day? Could it be they know no woman will ever look up at them in fear?
Which reminds me of a stump speech Hillary Clinton gave at a church last July, one week after the Charleston Massacre:
We need a revolution in the way we think, operate, what we accept as writ and, especially, what we allow leaders to say without fear of fallout from the media or voters. Most of all, we need a revolution in our systems of education.
For as long as it is acceptable for some people to say and do certain things and get away with them, nothing can change. For as long as our education metes out what it does, nothing will change.
5 arrested in assault at Ole Miss fraternity house
October 21, 2015
“Five University of Mississippi students were arrested Friday in connection with an assault that left one student with multiple injuries including a concussion, ruptured eardrum and broken teeth.
The Daily Mississippian, the Ole Miss campus newspaper, reports the assault occurred Oct. 6 at the Sigma Pi house when member Jeremy Boyle heard a disturbance in the backyard and was attacked by five people when he “went outside to investigate.”
University of Mississippi spokesman Danny Blanton said he’s looking into the situation and didn’t know whether the school would issue a statement on the incident.”
Read the rest of this article on 5 arrested in assault at Ole Miss fraternity house
Florida police used mugshots of black men for target practice. Clergy responded: UseMeInstead.
Dear north Miami Beach Police #usemeinstead for target practice #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/Rkn1Qvlcsj
— Rev. Dr. Joelle Colville-Hanson (@PastorJoelle) January 17, 2015
The idea originated on a closed Facebook group for Lutheran clergy, where pastors were discussing how North Miami Beach’s police department had been caught using mugshots of actual people for target practice. Let’s send in our own photos for target practice, the pastors decided.
The target-practice story had come to light after National Guard Sgt. Valerie Deant saw bullet-riddled mugshots of black men at a police gun range. One photo was of Deant’s brother. Outrage followed in North Miami Beach and beyond as critics called for the police chief’s resignation.