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Sept 30, 2003 I am in the newsroom on a sunny day...writing the police brief section of the newspaper.... Let's see... A purse snatching. A car theft. A drug bust... Next is....someone reported receiving mail from a bias group. On my desk is a visual aid for this one: A wanted poster of a guy with dreadlocks. It's the front page of a flyer being sent around the city and surrounding areas. The guy in the photo is black. Under his photo it says: Warning! Blacks age 13 to 24 account for 63 percent of all new cases of AIDS. Then the flyer proceeds to outlandishly allege blacks pass HIV to many females, most of them school girls. A while ago, as the detective handed me this flyer, he watched as my eye brows scrunched reading it. "What is this?" I asked him. "Hate mail. Bias flyer. Somebody found it on their doorstep, and called us. Someonen is trying to distribute this stuff. Bias crime." I scan the flyer and see that it says it's from "The National Alliance," and it points out many incredible things such as "Jewish Media Control is killing us." It says, "the day of the rope" is coming. It says, "don't have sex with blacks, avoid aids." With the flyer is an application to join the group. Geeze...join the group?? Police are investigating, is the conclusion of my police brief item for the newspaper. Long after I have spoken with the cop who is investigating and long after I have finished the briefs...I am still thinking about it. Random thoughts... At least someone who received such a thing reported it and didn't just throw it away. At least the police are horrified by it. What else? It starts me wondering what prompts someone to do such things..to spend their time sending bias mail... It starts me thinking about the book, Malcom X...and I can understand that back at the time of his youth...it would be understandable to be full of distain in natural reciprication for atrocities.... I think to what happened to him as a kid...I think about having several uncles killed by whites..I think about what it would have been like having my dad then being murdered years later too. I think about my mom being the product of a rape by a white guy....I think about a little boy growing up with being called derogratory names as a regular part of life. I think about having a mom who couldn't hold down cause eventually each employer finds out that she was married to the black guy, although she looks white. I think of how you have to tie a young plant standing tall against a stake..so that it won't grow crooked. Otherwise it becomes too late and it can't grow straight. What a shame for bad starts...lives without the stake to support them..to keep them from growing up askew. I wonder if I am guilty of unintended bias. I wonder if Malcom X had a grain of truth in saying all whites maybe having discrimination sooooo ingrained..that we fall right into certain prejudices we will never see in ourselves. Oh....wait....phone call about a double stabbing.....I have to go....What do you think about the bias flyer etc...? Click on my email below and let me know. I need to get back to writing about the murders. Tell you more tomorrow. ------------ About the author: Chrissa Falcon is a newspaper reporter in the New York Metropolitan Area. Chrissa may be reached at ChrisFalconColumn@hotmail.com Comment on this column in the forum. Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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