Leigh Anne “That Nice Woman Sandra Bullock Played In The Blind Side” Tuohy recently posted the following picture and caption on her Facebook and Instagram accounts:
“We see what we want! It’s the gospel truth! These two were literally huddled over in a corner table nose to nose and the person with me said “I bet they are up to no good” well you know me… I walked over, told them to scoot over. After 10 seconds of dead silence I said so whats happening at this table? I get nothing.. I then explained it was my store and they should spill it… They showed me their phones and they were texting friends trying to scrape up $3.00 each for the high school basketball game! Well they left with smiles, money for popcorn and bus fare. We have to STOP judging people and assuming and pigeon holing people! Don’t judge a book by its cover or however you’d like to express the sentiment! Accept others and stoping seeing what you want to see!!!”
The comments on both posts are full of people praising her – telling her how awesome she is, how open-minded, how kind. Reading these responses is completely baffling – like, did these people and I all read the same words?
Let’s break down what happened here:
1. Two teenagers were sitting alone and completely minding their own business.
2. A white woman decides that based on the fact that they are “huddled” in corner “nose to nose,” they must be “up to no good.” Because obviously whenever Black people (especially Black men) gather in public, it’s bad news for the rest of us!
3. Another white woman, one Leigh Anne “I Adopted A Black Boy So I Can’t Possibly Be Racist” Tuohy, decides that White Lady #1 is wrong. Which is actually the correct assumption for Ms. Tuohy to make, so I guess this is where some people are getting confused because we see that her intent is good, and that makes us want to believe that the action that follows will also be good. She’s at a crossroad here – two roads diverged, etc. Had she taken the road less travelled, Ms. Tuohy might have said to her friend, “Wow, you’re being really racist right now! I’m not comfortable with how this conversation is going.” Instead, she decided to confront the teenagers who, as a reminder, have done absolutely nothing wrong.
4. Leigh Anne Tuohy walks over to the two boys and sits there in silence. I’m sure that wasn’t scary for two Black teenagers at all, especially given recent events.
5. After what was certainly the most awkward ten seconds of those boys’ lives, Ms. Tuohy asks what’s “happening” at the table. Like, other than two teenagers sitting there talking like anyone sitting at a table might do? Some kids are hanging out and chatting. That is what’s happening.
Unsure of the correct answer to this question – other than “we are two friends sitting together and not causing any trouble,” which probably seemed too obvious for them to point out – the boys remain silent.
6. Leigh Anne tells them that this is her store and they need to “spill.” Again, these kids have done nothing except be in public and be Black.
7. After being interrogated by this woman, and probably afraid that at the very least she’s about the call the cops, the boys show her their phones. This part just breaks my brain, like, these two kids had to show this woman evidence that they are doing exactly what they seem to be doing: sitting at a table and having a conversation.
8. Apparently satisfied with the evidence the boys have presented her with, Leigh Anne Tuohy gives them bus fare and money for popcorn, but not before she has White Lady #1 take her picture with them.
9. Ms. Tuohy then posts this picture to social media and receives thousands of responses lauding her for being such a good person.
Leigh Anne Tuohy profiled two Black kids, invaded their privacy and interrogated them, but somehow people are behaving as if this is some kind of wonderful social justice moment. No. Not even a little. This is some fucked up racial profiling combined with white saviourism, and it is racist as hell. Assuming that those kids were doing something bad was racist. Assuming that she could take up space at their table was racist. Insisting that they talk to her was disrespectful and racist. Wanting evidence that they weren’t up to no good was racist. Treating those boys as props to make her look good and then posting this picture publicly (and honestly, I wonder if the boys consented to that) is incredibly racist.
Also, can we talk about how problematic using the phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” is when it comes to talking about race? First of all, it begins with the assumption that the “cover” (or in this case, skin) tells you something unappealing about the contents of the book or person. It also implies that there is something unattractive or bad about the “cover” (or, again, skin). I can’t believe that I have to say this, but: there is nothing wrong or bad about Black skin. Black skin is not unpleasant or ugly, and to imply that dark skin might devalue someone is really, really fucked up.
Black people aren’t things. They don’t exist just so that white people can make a point about themselves. These are two real kids who not only had to endure this woman’s microaggressions but have now had their image splashed all over social media – the Facebook picture alone has 150,000 likes and over 12,000 shares. Step away for a hot second from this white woman’s narrative, and think about how those teenagers must feel – having their privacy invaded, having assumptions made about them based on their race, and now having a white woman use their images to get praise for herself.
Now tell me again about how Leigh Anne Tuohy did a good thing.
UPDATE:
One of the two teens involved has responded on Instagram (his name has been blurred out for privacy):
Person One aka Teen Leigh Anne Tuohy approached at KFC:
Yeah people don’t know what really happened because I actually had money I have a job and have had one for over a year I was gonna pay for my brother the other guy in the picture but he was insisting on waiting on his uncle but his phone was dying so we were charging it which is the reason we were in KFC in the first place.and the game was only a 3 min walk up the street I don’t see why she said bus fare that kinda ticked me off a little but the way she worded it is making us sound less fortunate and that isn’t the case at all & when she came over to us she never mentioned her initial reason was because of her friends comment im just now finding that out
Person Two:
May I ask how she asked for the photo?
Person One:
Yeah she never actually asked for it as she was handing us the money she was like “hey you know what I think this would be a great picture” and everyone with her was yeah totally so we just kinda went along with the situation like sure why not your Michael Oher’s mom but the whole time I was thinking you know why’d she come up to us in the first place I was still clueless up until she posted the picture on social media and stated “the person with me said I bet they’re up to no good.”
The Belle Jar 
People keep saying she didn’t mention race, but she didn’t have to she took a picture to show it. And may I add they look uneasy taking this picture. .
You are aware that your post/blog has the same picture that she posted, right? Using those boys all over again.
Reblogged this on leighhandler and commented:
I’ll just ask this straight up: When did it actually become such a heinous crime to do something that YOU believed would make a positive statement to the world?
We should be ashamed that we are actually condoning and supporting such criticism like that given to Leigh Anne Tuohy. Unlike most of you, this woman has the balls to stand up for herself as well as others in way that courageously supports equality of all races. In reference to my very first blog post, if you do not have complete knowledge of a situation, then why the hell are you trying to bash someone for their positive and influential attempt in making a statement? If you people are sooo concerned with gaining equality for all races, then quit picking at all the people actually trying to make a difference just because they are white, or rich, or whatever the hell you pick on them for. I can almost promise that you will be more successful in achieving equality if you quit taking every action that a “white” person does, and turn it into racism. Nothing about what this woman did was racist. If you take a look at some of the things you assumed, you might find a little bit of racism in yourself. YOU look racist for assuming her friend was white. YOU look racist in believing that all people think that when “black people (especially black men) gather in public, it’s bad news for the rest of us”. YOU are absolutely disgusting for categorizing this woman as someone who claims herself to be a, “White woman who adopted a black boy so she can’t possibly be racist”….Are you serious? Get a damn life. Preferably one that doesn’t entitle you to believe bashing people’s good deeds makes you superior or “not racist” and “seeking equality”. You want to see racism in people so badly that you are willing to take ANY situation involving a white person and a black person and label it as white on black crime. If you haven’t thought about this…it’s probably not helping your cause, like at all. It’s actually making it worse because you’re giving others a reason to believe that you are in deed pulling the “race card”. And yes, it is true that you can pull the race card even if you are white! Wow! Shocker!
Another point i’d like to make: If I owned part of a franchise and had a store of my own just like this woman does, and I wanted to walk up to two teenagers (regardless of color) just to see what they were up to, in order to put my friend’s racist comment to shame, I would walk my happy ass over, sit down, and ask what the hell is up, just like Mrs. Tuohy did. It’s her store, these boys are in her store, and she is an elder. Maybe it’s just a southern thing but you learn to accept authority and respect your elders and it seems that if these boys had an issue with what Mrs. Tuohy was doing, they would not have taken a picture with her and would not have been polite when answering her questions. Yeah they might have been intimated by her up front nature, but that’s no reason to bash her or involve her with your “White Saviour Complex”. If she wants to make a point and be forceful about it (and her point was accurate and not racist, sorry not sorry) then gosh dern, let the woman do it. Y’all need to focus on issues that are actually racist, instead of the ones that are not. Look at the bigger picture. Assess the situations that cause harm and inequality, not the ones that (whether you like it or not) promote others to open their hearts and make a change themselves in order to help the world become a better place.
This is so good! Thank you. The fact is that we are in the south, and it is part of our culture for our elders to expect respect no matter what color you are! The fact that elders are actually given a little bit of power is something people from other areas of the country are not able to understand!!
Errr… Have you ever actually lived anywhere other than the SE?
Reblogged this on Necaras Thoughts.
Well, well, well. What do we have here?
At first I was going to consider the opposing options to this post in order to not judge this situation just because I myself am black but…
Perhaps it’s better they just went along with it so the cops wouldn’t have been called on them and trigger happy police officers opening fire because they look like they’re “up to no good”. And perhaps we wouldn’t then have to put up with comments like “maybe they should have stayed at home”, “maybe if he wasn’t wearing a hoodie and looking threatening”, “maybe if they didn’t have their phones out, they look like guns”, “good police officers just working hard to try and enforce the law”.
So true..especially the part about judging a book by its cover and the implication that that has on black people! Also you said it – we are not just here so white people can feel good about themselves 🙌
Well articulated, deechiteve… now that you have stated why black people are not here, how about giving some thought to why you are here? Is it merely to play the victim of well-meaning white people who want to feel good about themselves?? Here’s a newsflash… most people (white or black or yellow or any other color) donate many hours of time and/or a good chunk of change to charity (any and all charities) in order to feel good about themselves and to feel like they have/are making a difference in some way. If it were not so, there would be no charitable giving and more people in the world starve, go without clean water, medical help, etc… so, should charities stop accepting help and money because people want to feel good about themselves?? Time to face reality– white folk will and can never know what it is like to be black. Nothing you can say or do will change that. Isn’t the mark of maturity and civility taking the high-road and accepting the fact that a good many are trying in their own ways, to understand and to empathize and make a difference, even if they don’t and cannot possibly truly understand?? The narrative that all white folks are racist monsters no matter what they do, merely leaves them damned if they do and damned if they don’t according to people of your mindset. I get that you’re angry, but the ‘damned if they do and damned if they don’t’ give a damn narrative will never bring about any real progress.
First of all, if you are charitable because you want to feel good about yourself,then you have a problem! Charity isn’t about you, it’s about realizing that there is a problem and doing something to better a situation, not because it feels good, but because you realize and respect the fact that the people deserve better,regardless of who notices. Having said that, I think you are confusing charity and patronizing, because from where I stand, she wasn’t being charitable,just patronizing. “Oh look black people, they must be poor,let me go harass them then give them money to make them feel like I actually care and then take a photo for everyone else to see that I care!” This is what I’m getting from This story. Now I’m not saying that all white people are racist, I have more white friends than I do black! But please don’t excuse yourself with “white people will never understand what it’s like to black” because guess what, black people will never understand what it’s like to be white, and we do not patronize you for that! So please return the favor and stop acting like we need your understanding and charity, we demand respect,just like every other human being on this planet. No matter what their color!
http://okay2disagree.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/racism-or-oversensitivity.html?m=1
Leighhandler nothing you have said has not been said before. If the world was so ideal and straightforward then you would be 70% correct. However although you have a different opinion to the author do not negate or attempt to trivialise the experience some black people are going through or have experienced. The reason why you are so mystified by the expression you can not know how it feels like to be black facing racism unless you are black and have experienced what that individual has, as that individual. As a black person. This is logical.
I like your passion and drive though if not a little defensive at times. If you have expressed this much passion after reading this article imagine if you have gone through some of the things some black people have been throug? You would come out blazing.
As for the article. Again I reserve judgement cause I dont know the full facts.
.http://okay2disagree.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/racism-or-oversensitivity.html?m=1
Reblogged this on Zera Today Blog.
If the one of the teens had a job and they were discussing him paying his brother’s way in, why did the teens accept the money? That just feeds into the stereotype and feeds the self-aggrandizing of the woman who believed she had good intentions. If the working teen had said, “thanks, but no thanks, I have a job and I was offering to pay my brother’s way in just now…oh, and by the way, you may think you mean well, and we really do appreciate your effort, but isn’t assuming we’re poor black boys who need a hand-out a tad stereotypical or racist of you? Do we really look poor to you?” Their dress in no way reflects “ghetto” or the stereotypical poor black kid. Have some self-respect, if you don’t need the help, then proudly refuse. That way, you won’t feel ‘obligated’ to have a pic made with the ‘nice white do-gooder’. Also, in this day and age it’s naive to not expect pics taken to wind up on someone’s facebook page.
All teenagers with a cell phone and/or an Internet connection know that much.
Seriously, you can’t have it both ways–you can’t rag on white ‘do-gooder’ folk for doing good and empathizing with your plight and movement on one hand and then blasting them for being ‘racist’ merely because they do not share your opinion or disagree with your logic or argument which, is quite often born of various fallacies. Many Empathetic white folk may be uniformed at what it means to be continually stereotyped, maybe, but not, necessarily, racist in their very nature. (not to say that racism doesn’t exist–it always will, if not with one race or tribe then another who the dominant race deems inferior, because that’s the animal pack mentality.
Even so, let’s face it, without the white ‘do-gooder’ empathizers black folk would never have won the right to vote and numerous other civil rights in the last century. Does that mean you owe them anything? The only real thing you owe them is the benefit of the doubt when it comes to intentions. Non-racist white folk (yes, believe it or not they do exist, despite all assertions by some to the contrary) don’t have to be ‘colorblind’-yet the two are often portrayed as the same thing by black folk.
So we now have an author who, has, essentially, poisoned the mind of at least one of the two kids in the story by asserting the ‘do-gooder’ isn’t really a ‘do-gooder’ at all and is actually not only self-aggrandizing but ‘racist’ because his perception of what happened fits the ‘white privilege/white supremacy’ narrative.
You know, when I see a kid behind me in a line who is asking for something his Mom/Dad/Grandad says they can’t afford to get right then and I have the cash on me, I often ask if I can treat the boy or girl, regardless of race. Sometimes they graciously accept and sometimes they refuse. I understand both responses, as I have been on the receiving end of these kindnesses in my lifetime, (which is why I pass it on or pay-it-forward when I can) and would never think twice about it but for this narrative put out there by the author of this blog. So…to many of the points made here thus far… does that make me a self-aggrandizing, narcissistic, do-gooder because I simply want to bring a smile to some kid’s face and, possibly, make some parent’s/Grandparents day to know that humanity is alive and well in the world?? Yes, I’m white and privileged (although ‘privileged’ wasn’t always the case) and do what I can to pass it (privilege) along when possible, which begs the question: How do we, as a society, move past the stereotypes, mistrust, and discrimination if our narrative is always to assume the worst because someone doesn’t respond the way WE think he/she should in a given situation? Taking offense and trying to dictating to others (of any race) the ‘how of’ they should think, feel, empathize and speak will Never produce any Real positive change in the world, but will, surely, bring about embitterment and deepen the racial divide–not to mention, eventually, bring to pass the lack of hope in the humanity of the Human race, as a whole.
I love how you write a whole article about a picture someone took after trying to make a small difference in someone else’s life about how racist they are. What I’m surprised I don’t see is anyone calling all of the black celebrities and non-famous people who are protesting, demonstrating, or writing these stupid articles what they are: RACIST.
In today’s America, it is perfectly acceptable for someone who is a minority to call white people racist, but by looking for reasons to protest, demonstrate, or write these mundane articles, the only thing you do is show how racist you are. My question is this: Why is it ok for you to be racist, but if I were racist, everyone would have a problem with it?
Race will only stop being an issue when EVERYONE, especially the minorities stop making everything about race.
Because everything IS about race, you stupid fuck. It’s easy to tell everyone to simmer down when you’re the one in power.
I got to third third point of deconstruction, before i wanted to throttle the author. Suffocating political correctness, which blasts well intentioned allies has become its own ‘issue’. Sure Touhy is somewhat racist. As we all are. Those who pretend to be color blind are highly annoying, but at least they are TRYING, even if it strikes a sour note.
and “the nice white lady Sandra Bullock played” was actually an interesting character because SHE WAN’T ALL THAT NICE. The character, and most likely the real Touhy, are brassy, in your face types, who rub many people the wrong way. THAT was the point. That too, strikes me as the point in Touhy’s account of what happened. There is a ‘it’s just me being ME” type of bravura to her approach, which smacks far more of Narcissism than or racism.
Perhaps you have persuaded some people with your writing. You sure as hell have not persuaded me of anything more than that you are overly reactionary and a little bit drunk on the power you have over those who suffer from white guilt. Shame on YOU.
Oh, fuck off, Mark.
You make a good point jezzerat. But then again, eat shit and die.
Amen, Mark.
Listen Mark, the bottom line here is that this invasion of two strangers’ privacy wouldn’t have happened with two White teenagers. It just wouldn’t have. No “demands” to know their personal business. No peering at their cell phones. No tacky Facebook post plastering these young men’s faces all over the friggin’ world, no smarmy, inane comments like “don’t judge a book by its cover” (what relevance did that comment have anyway? They’re simply two young Black men existing in public). Just plain, good old-fashioned American minding your own business. That’s the courtesy and respect many White Americans take for granted as a largely unquestioned right, and which many Black Americans still have to remind people is theirs also. It’s not hard, so very hard, to grasp that one should be treated the same as the other. That’s not political correctness. It’s common sense. My parents taught me that, thank goodness.
” the bottom line here is that this invasion of two strangers’ privacy wouldn’t have happened with two White teenagers. It just wouldn’t have. ” pure nonsense. You merely ASSERT something and expect it won’t be questioned. Perhaps any teenagers ‘huddled’, as if they were keeping a secret, might rouse the attention of any adult who worries that they might be getting themselves into trouble.
Are you suggesting that white adults haven’t always asked white minors “what are you kids up to?”
I do it myself.
She clearly stated that their huddled body language is what caught their attention. But beyond that, even if their race played a part in it, big deal. In your objecting to the invocation of ‘not judging a book by its cover’ are you suggesting that we pretend that groups do not often have recognizable characteristics?
There is a ludicrous prohibition on acknowledging cultural differences which often have a racial component. Certainly, not ALL black people act alike, but demographics are somewhat predictive. black people of similar socio-economic, geographic profile will certainly be more alike than members of another group (whose members too, will often have recognizable traits) Just like many white women from Orange County have similar, recognizable traits, values, mannerisms, etc which might distinguish them from women of similar age from Czech Republic. The same is true for thirty-something white men living in Tennessee, or old Asian men living in Taiwan. That is one of the side effects of living. We often adopt the traits of the group we are most exposed to.
As I see it, the bottom line (and the reason the author fails to persuade the reader) has to do with motivation and intention. As an egocentric type, i expect everything Touhy does has a self-serving undercurrent, but certainly her intention was not to do harm. By nit-picking and attacking well intentioned (if self-congratulatory) actions, the effect is to neuter an attempt at compassion.
“Judging” has gotten an unfairly bad reputation. there is nothing wrong with judging someone you don’t know, based on their appearance, as a preliminary way of evaluation, until you get to explore further. If you saw a man with ratty hair, wild eyes and a blood stained T-shirt, would you not think twice about approaching him for directions?
We are, all of us, always making judgements and assumptions about others, based on appearances. Most of us, living in large metropolises are required to make immediate assessments of those with whom we interact. What else are we supposed to base those assumptions on? Indeed, our very survival can depend on making sound character assessments and GOOD JUDGMENT
None of the verbal gymnastics you’ve just written explains or rationalizes what Tuohy did with these two innocent young Black men. I’m not interested in hearing a commentary on cultural traits of groups from throughout the world. This has to do with common courtesy (remember that?), basic manners and civility (remember that?) and respect and non-exploitation. Since I wrote my first reply to you, I’ve read additional updates about this incident. There was an Instagram post where one of the young Black men wrote that they were simply in this KFC to briefly charge their phones before heading down to the said ball game…down the STREET. He also wrote that he had been employed for a year and had money of his own, rendering her bit about them not being able to scratch together three bucks, a lie.
This was an exploitative photo op that in the process, exposed two average, innocent, random young Black men’s faces to the world, opening them up to needless commentary from people like you. She did this for herself, for publicity, most likely. If you hadn’t been so damn busy writing your treatise, rushing to defend her behavior, you could’ve easily scrolled up on this same page and read the rebuttal from one of the young men in the Instagram post. Of course whether you choose to actually believe him or continue to defend Tuohy’s actions is another matter, altogether.
In conclusion, give me a break. Please gain some crucially needed knowledge on the history of race relations; You don’t know what you’re talking about. Not even close.
Here’s a video interview with one of the young Black men her ass cornered.
The whole things reeks of exploitation. Not only did she demand and extract personal information from two random strangers, she spun the situation around by LYING about the circumstances, and publicly embarrassing them on an international platform.
If you will listen, the young man’s mother was outraged about what Tuohy did.
Anyone who can defend what she did, well…it’s quite disturbing to me.
Try and defend that.
Sorry if my arrangements of nouns, verbs and adjectives caused you to sprain your Cerebral Cortex, but maybe you should have stretched first. Since you can take everything I have written and dismiss it with “I’m not interested in hearing a commentary on cultural traits of groups from throughout the world”, I see no reason to offer polite responses. In my ‘treatise’ I used blonde women from Orange County and Old Asian men in Taiwan, to illustrate my point. I might just was well have used YOU, with your apparent mixed race heritage, which is always a close traveling partner of the militant political correctness that makes enemies out of allies (can’t quite tell if you’re malato, or high yellow, or maybe an octoroon…maybe people should be labeled with ingredients..like Ritz Crackers) I’m sorry, did I go off on another tangent…what is it I was trying to say? OH, yeah, now I remember: Go fuck yourself. (I knew it would come to me)
As for your video link: you REALLY see what you want to see. There’s little point in trying to have a reasonable conversation with a true believer. Your mind is already made up and so you cherry pick pieces of the story to create your own narrative of exploitation. Jesus Christ bitch, she gave the little free loaders $20 each, offered them a ride and even the kid took a photo on his phone to commemorate the meeting. In the video YOU offer as evidence of their exploitation, the ‘victim’ says he never viewed it that way, but now that everyone is pointing it out to him, he can see their point. Yeah, he seems really injured by her callous actions.
As for her initially approaching the huddled boys: Since they were using HER electricity to charge their phones, she certainly had the right to ask what they were up to. She’s selling heart attack inducing chicken, NOT electricity (So suck on that for a while).
At around the 3 minute mark, after she ‘AXED’ the boys if they’d heard of the film about her, and after he had the revelation “Yo. This bitch really IS her” he goes on to say (in his mangled English) “I thought I was being punked or something for AT LEAST 15 MINUTES” (for the mathematically challenged, that would be 15 ADDITIONAL MINUTES) How long were they camped out in her ‘fast food’ joint, helping themselves to her electricity?
Does it seem too hard to believe that in HER mind, she had made a special connection with these boys and was a little high on the endorphins that many people get from feeling good about an interaction with another human being and took to social media to share her happiness? (as opposed to the copious amounts of cortisol created by my interaction with your dumb ass).
In summation: Bye Felicia
How delightful and revealing. I touched a nerve. Nowhere in any of my replies did I call you slurs or make attacks upon your racial heritage but in your frenzy, you saw fit to do both to me. Thank you for exposing who you really are. Thank you for exposing your true feelings. Nobody had to do it you except yourself.
Just like Ms. Leigh Anne…she was so busy attempting to create a false situation and make two young Black men look bad, she made herself look worse.
People who behave like you and her are woefully ignorant.
Pathetic in how stubbornly oblivious you are to your own ignorance.
Pathetic in how you lash out at others in order to maintain a consistent denial of your own ignorance.
And in the process, extremely pathetic in how during the process, you make yourselves look utterly horrible.
As for my racial heritage, I proudly descend from former slaves and Sicilian immigrants; hard-working, proudly patriotic folks who served in all three wars, owned homes, contributed to their nation in the fields of everything from business to music, raised beautiful families, and who had more integrity and quality in the tips of their fingers than you have in your entire venomous, irrelevant being.
Bye, now. It’s been ever so real, Mark.
“As for my racial heritage, I proudly descend from former slaves and Sicilian immigrants” CALLED IT!
You are a walking, typing, (but sadly, not ‘thinking’) cliche.
“Just like Ms. Leigh Anne…she was so busy attempting to create a false situation and make two young Black men look bad, she made herself look worse”
…uh…”Mr Kettle, you have a call on line one from a Miss Pot”
always remember when you point one finger at someone else, there are 3 fingers pointing back at you…4 if you live near a nuclear power plant.
“And in the process, extremely pathetic in how during the process, you make yourselves look utterly horrible.”
…DAMN. I thought the lighting was bad in here. High resolution cameras are no ones friend.
I’m sorry..does it seem like i am not taking your scathing character assessment with the proper gravitas? That might be, in part, because i wrote you off as a mental midget after your first reply. Your paint by numbers world view would be ‘cute’ if it weren’t so venomously hypocritical.
“Nowhere in any of my replies did I call you slurs or make attacks upon your racial heritage”
No Glenda, you did something far worse: You insulted my logic, as well as my writing style, and failed to engage my comments, while opting, instead, to regurgitate worn out platitudes. Insult my race all you want. My race is not of my own creation, and therefore no attack on it could or should be taken personally. You think that you can be patronizing, condescending and dismissive, but no offense should be taken because you didn’t actually call names. Sorry, but I don’t play my game by YOUR rules.
“Just like Ms. Leigh Anne…she was so busy attempting to create a false situation and make two young Black men look bad, she made herself look worse”
Even though you’re an imbecile and nothing you “think” should be taken seriously, i am going to take you to task on this point, because it gets to the heart of the smear campaign you and this author have set out to create.
In fact, not even this lousy author attempts to portray Touhy’s motives as nefariously as you have.
In her attempt to help out two kids who needed to use her outlet to charge their phone while they tried to beg family members for money, you have somehow divined her motive as trying to “make two young Black men look bad”.
Such a vile piece of work you are. You are…what’s the word? begins with a “C” and ends with a “T”? Can’t quite recall…
I don’t care about your opinions. About me, my race, those young men, Leigh Anne Tuohy or the man on the moon. Your opinions mean nothing.
Cliche’?
You are one of them.
An angry, spiteful man picking a fight, calling a woman slurs, and pretending as if he is an authority on other people’s lives.
I’ve seen a thousand of your kind. You follow a pattern. You’re wholly unoriginal.
I will say one thing for it, though. It’s excellent entertainment.
Keep being entertainment, Mark. I look forward to your next vile, rabid, frothy-mouthed rant calling me a ‘bitch’ and a ‘cunt’.
Oh, please keep doing so.
I enjoy watching people like you implode.
Well, as long as you were entertained, then it was ALL worth it. We are, all of us, just here for your amusement. Perhaps everything is an illusion and nothing really exists. Perhaps we are all just Fig Newtons of your imagination. In that case, we’re delicious when dunked in milk.
BTW: I NEVER called you a cunt.
I thought it, though.
I notice you’re big on critiquing style, but rarely address content. Could it be that you have splinters in the Windmills of Your Mind?
I hope you don’t mind waiting, but I’m probably not going to implode until after New Year’s Eve (I already paid for dinner and it cost a small fortune)
You’re boring me. Because you have nothing of value or interest to say.
Piss off already.
btw: you do realize that attacking my on originality AFTER i called you a cliche, makes you seem sorta…un…unor….unorin….unoriginal
…dontcha?
uh oh…Glenda the Good Witch is getting cranky.
must be feeding time.
btw 2: that’s the third time you’ve changed your profile picture in 3 days. Narcissist much?
I like the first one best…you know…the one with the horns.
You really are making yourself look like a damn fool and pulling down the entire discourse here. What exactly did you think you were going to accomplish coming on here calling me slurs, and making nasty-ass cracks about my race? You think I was gonna be nice and gentle with your fool ass?
Fool, stop being such a fool, fool. Stop replying back at me with your foolishness. Stop wasting my time with your foolishness. You’re embarrassing yourself.
be careful dearest. You’re revealing who you really are.
I can see where you’re going with the repetitive use of the word fool, but you probably should have stopped with
“Fool. Stop being such a fool, fool” That was actually pretty good. But when you use ‘foolishness’ in the very next sentence, it starts to seem like, maybe, that’s the only word you know, and I’m wondering if I should buy you a Thesaurus for Christmas…or Kwanzaa (hey, do you get two gifts? One for each race? If so, I’m gonna call ‘foul’)
Not only are you a fool, you are an utter scumbucket. It must be tiring carrying around all that ignorant darkness inside you.
OK…I’m throwing in the towel. I gotta run now, but there’s no reason to end on such a hostile note. We’re really playing for the same team. You’re a smart girl, but i think if you try to see the point i was initially making, our interaction pretty much is a good example of it. Taking people who are actually sympathetic to your plight, whether it’s race, gender, police brutality, or income disparity, and demonizing them for failing to be perfect is not a winning strategy for any of us.
If the goal is to live more harmoniously, then a little flexibility and compassion would go a long way.
If the goal is simply to be ‘right’, then no one wins.
…but if that is the goal, then i was right and you were wrong. 😉
Take care
Are you kidding me? After all of the insulting, offensive, venomous, attacks you made against me, throwing my racial background in my face, calling me a “bitch”, and ranting against me for a solid hour, and you are going to behave as if you are “on my side” after all?
No, you are not on my side. No, you are not on my team. You will never be.
You’re nothing and nobody but a spiteful provocateur who doesn’t know how to handle disagreement with your views in a mature and responsible manner.
Save it. Spare me. And take your contemptible delusions somewhere else.
kitty has claws.
you have taken the words “We’re really playing for the same team”
and recast them as “on my side”.
I never said i was on YOUR side. What this entire interaction reveals is that i’m far nicer than i might initially appear, and you…well…you should work on that.
No, what this interaction has proven is that you are a spiteful, angry poster who turned what could’ve been a courteous and respectful disagreement into a mean-spirited barrage of attacks.
Then after everything is said and done, you laughably pretend to take a moral “high ground”, even though you had just gotten through posting some of the most vile and reprehensible things I’ve ever seen posted towards a user on a public comment forum.
I don’t think of anyone who could behave that way as “nice”. And trust me, the majority of the readers and commenters looking at the nasty trash you wrote, isn’t thinking it either.
Have a nice life, and don’t write me back again. This has been an utterly disgusting escapade on your part.
you poor thing. No wonder you want to mold the whole world to your standards of behavior. You can dish it out, but you sure can’t take it.
even in my anger, i have humor..you are just angry…it ain’t pretty.
we really are finished here.
I don’t “take” disrespect, slurs, and racial cracks from anybody.
Ever.
Yeah, we really are done here.
Hope you feel you came out looking good here.
Bite me
Sepiaroses…This interviewer should be ashamed of himself for race baiting and trying to brainwash these teens with his “I don’t like, blah, blah, blah”. Watched the vid. it’s clear the teens were excited that they were actually in the presence of the actual Mom from a movie they really liked. It was kind of a ‘star-struck celebrity’ moment for them that this interviewer totally robs them of (possibly because he’s a racist, angry black man who thinks black teens shouldn’t have white role models that touch their hearts in some way??). It’s clear the teens were totally comfortable with the woman after their interaction and wanted the pic with her. She put them at ease and here this guy is poisoning their minds by trying to sell them on his race-baiting ‘she was just using you’ false narrative. This is teaching hatred, anger, and disrespect to two good and respectful young people and is totally irresponsible. She put their mind at ease when they were, sadly, initially thinking about the current racial tension going on (brought about by the race-baiters, Sharpton, Jackson, etc.). Wow. This guy totally is trying to cause even more paranoia in these teens than should be in their minds. Newsflash: not all white folks are racists. The interview is totally irresponsible.
….And then this guy (interviewer) offers to pay the woman back for what really amounts to nothing more than her kindness and desire to prove to someone else that THEIR internal narrative was invalid. She saw their excitement at meeting her and offered a photo op to them so they wouldn’t possibly feel awkward in asking for it…and they took her up on it–because they were excited to meet someone they considered a role model–even though she’s white! The fact is that the teens didn’t have to take the money at all–the teen said he had a job and had money. So, why not politely and proudly say “thanks, but no thanks, it’s only a couple of bucks to get into the game and I have a job and can spring for it myself, and we can walk–it’s not far at all… but thanks for the pic, just the same.” ?? Yet, the interviewer portrays AND plays them as victims of white supremacy at worst and self-aggrandizing and patronizing at best instead of offering to teach them a sound, firm, but polite way to deal with the situation (being, of course, to refuse the $20 per person) in order to avoid what HE feels is patronizing, self-aggrandizement by a white chick–clearly, THEY did not feel that way until the race-baiter got a hold of them.
This is obviously a sick and sad attempt at trying to make these teens think and feel something they really never did after the interaction was over. He repeats his “I don’t think and we cannot tolerate” several times over, as if it’s an ‘US (blacks) against them (whites)’ war he is waging. Nothing but a brainwashing attempt with an angry narrative. I feel for these kids being used by this guy to further his pathetic narrative, as if he, himself, has nothing to gain by it. He, too, is profiting from it by recruiting angry black listeners to his program (meaning he will stay on the air). If the teens are NOW unhappy about accepting the money, after this race-baiter brainwashed them, and made them feel even less secure in the world with his ‘white people are only out to use you’ narrative, then they should visit her and return it themselves and their Momma, if she had any self-respect, would see to it that they did themselves, not some angry race-baiting radio personality who, according to his tone, is waging war in his own mind and trying desperately to get a posse of his own by poisoning the minds of the youth and anyone else who will lend him an ear. From the sound of it, he’s becoming the black version of the KKK in his recruiting tactics, only he’s doing it openly. Hate is hate, regardless of who or how it is generated in the minds of the unsuspecting.
The young man’s mother was outraged. She herself felt it was exploitative, wrong, and offensive. I thought that the feelings and sentiments of the young man’s family would count for something.
Apparently not.
sepiaroses: “No one can make you believe anything or choose anything you don’t want.” u have said this several times & yet, according to u, Tuohy MADE them respond to her questions, take a pic & take her money. They could have politely declined wih a “No thank u” & a leave or rudely with a “Piss off” & a leave, or they could have just left, but any way they CHOSE, they weren’t made to do anything! Now, YOU defend that!!
Listen Mark, the bottom line here is that this invasion of two strangers’ privacy wouldn’t have happened with two White teenagers. It just wouldn’t have. No “demands” to know their personal business. No peering at their cell phones. No tacky Facebook post plastering these young men’s faces all over the friggin’ world, no smarmy, inane comments like “don’t judge a book by its cover” (what relevance did that comment have anyway? They’re simply two young Black men existing in public). Just plain, good old-fashioned American minding your own business. That’s the courtesy and respect many White Americans take for granted as a largely unquestioned right, and which many Black Americans still have to remind people is theirs also. It’s not hard, so very hard, to grasp that one should be treated the same as the other. That’s not political correctness. It’s common sense. My parents taught me that, thank goodness.
“wouldn’t have happened with two White teenagers. It just wouldn’t.” Sepiaroses said it, so it must be true! White teenagers are so white and privileged, EVERYONE ALWAYS lets them mind their own business, especially when they look like they’re up to no good.
It looks like Ms. Tuyeioyvowels was being abrasive in this instance, based on this completely unbiased report, but social ineptitude does not necessarily constitute racism.
Spare me the sarcasmn, TheTruthHurts (kind of an ironic screenname).
I am talking about the entire situation. Not only would two innocent White teenage boys not have *automatically* been considered people up “to no good”, but the humiliating Facebook post exposing their faces, insinuating that they are broke and less fortunate, all curiously touting the phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” would never have happened. There would’ve been nothing that most people would’ve judged in the first place with two White teenagers, in this context, sitting at a table and minding their own business. And spreading their faces all over the world wide web in this degrading manner would likely never have even occurred to anyone. I’ve seen White kids sitting at restaurant tables and chatting, with their cell phones in their hands. Nobody has bothered them. They’re not viewed as props for race related faux-inspirational so-called ‘teaching moments’.
With my own eyes, I’ve seen Black people monitored and policed by certain White people. Two incidents in my own life spring to mind that sort of ‘opened my eyes’ as to the frayed state of race relations in this country; when I was a kid, my mother was on polite conversational terms with a Black man who worked in a local mall we shopped at. On one day in the middle of a conversation, one White person after another who walked by, craned their necks GLARING at him and my mother (this was in the main walking area) My mother is a light-skinned Black woman, he was dark-skinned. I saw some stare at them, as if they wanted to walk up to them and demand to know what was going on. It was bizarre. The guy made a comment on it himself, it was becoming so obvious. There was also colorism mixed in there….not liking light-skinned people interacting with darker skinned people, even though they were the same friggin’ race. Oh, I could tell you things, little details about white prejudice towards people of color that for years has been openly discussed in the community but not really something an average White person has a clue about. Of course they don’t. It doesn’t affect them!
Another separate occasion years later was when we were *again* out shopping, and we got into a friendly chat with a Black couple about some such subject. A few minutes later, a tense-looking White assistant manager type marches up to the area demanding to know if he can “help us”. We all knew what it was about. He had concern written all over his face, his posturing and body language was on-guard and unfriendly. He wanted to “break things up”.
Years ago, there was a law in the book in many parts of the South that groups of Black people couldn’t even gather publicly. Something Whites did routinely was forbidden to them because it was considered ‘threatening’ to White eyes.
Please don’t tell ‘sepiaroses’ what is and isn’t ‘so’. ‘sepiaroses’ has seen more than you on this subject, knows more than you on this subject because ‘sepiaroses’ has seen BOTH sides of the fence here in racially-divided America.
Now that you’ve vented take a moment to address why you feel so angry.
thank you, Oh Patronizing one, for your cryptic non-comment. I’m going to marinate on that.
Really Mark?
yeah. really Staycee
lmao Mark the White Knight.Pathetic.
ah…should we assume Joe, that you are black? I love the double standard that black people can make as many snide racially comments they want, while claiming to be victims of racism. You are a perfect example of my point about making enemies out of allies. BTW Joe: Eat shit and die. (oops. sorry, didn’t mean to be impolite.) “Please eat shit and die” (yeah, that’s better)
The man has intense anger issues and doesn’t know how to speak to people without calling them out their name. This is the type of “person” defending Leigh Anne Tuohy, just think about that.
don’t listen to anything sepiaroses has to say. She’s a deranged, homicidal, psychopath who has already abducted and murdered 17 children in the Tri-State Area. Lock your doors. Draw your shutters. Hide your Krispy Kremes.
…and whatever you do, DON’T RESPOND TO HER INSANE ATTEMPTS AT CHARACTER ASSASSINATION.
From the moment you hopped on this blog addressing me, you went on frenzied tirades against me, throwing my racial heritage in my face, and calling me slurs. I’d call that anger. If I was wrong in using the term, “anger issues”, okay, my mistake. It sure looked like a ridiculously angry person writing to me.
And by the way, I *personally* think it’s a very sick thing to write what you wrote here. I can’t believe the level of your disrespect and unnerving gall. Me saying you had anger issues with the way you address people is not even remotely comparable to creepy cracks about murder.
What in the fucking hell is wrong with you? You’re out of control.
This unbelievable tirade you perpetrated against me here on The Bell Jar all began basically because I posted an opinion on the case and you falsely accused me of “insulting your logic”. That wasn’t my intention. But if your logic can be so easily “insulted” because of the presence of a divergent viewpoint, it’s made out of tissue paper and spit and deserves to not only be insulted but torn apart.
GOODBYE!
you really live in your own reality, dontcha sepiaroses. It was YOU who first addressed me directly and then made a series of fallacious statements directed at me. When I respectfully responded, you took a dump on my good grace and showed yourself for the patronizing, solipsistic egomaniac you are (have you really changed your profile photo AGAIN? You’re the Imelda Marcos of ‘selfies’. Good Lord, step away from the camera!)
then after lobbing countless insults, you want to portray yourself as a victim. Just as in my response to this joker, you crashed the conversation to declare your opinions and lob insults, but then want to be exempt from rebuttal.
tsch. tsch. tsch. poor baby.
I’m sorry if what i wrote about you being a psychopath who murdered 17 children was crossing the line (was it only 16?). Lord knows, everything you’ve written has been factually based.
I disagreed with your opinions. That was all. And boy did you show your ass. It was such a sight to see.
Your “logic” and your opinions are up for debate the minute you put yourself out on a public forum. It’s not called “insult”. It’s called debate. Get yourself that thesaurus you promised me for Kwanzaa and read up on the definitions. I think even you can grasp it.
If you can’t take being disagreed with, even strongly, then you haven’t grasped the meaning of debate.
I disagree with your opinion, your “logic” as you call it, and you come at me with vicious disrespect, mocking and making fun of my ethnic background, and calling me a bitch.
Over what? ‘Cause Mister Mark’s logic was “insulted”. Everyone shudder and tremble!
You are a highly disrespectful brat who doesn’t know how to speak to people with a modicum of decorum. I see how you addressed other users on this page. Quite an intellectual, aren’t ya’ Mister Mark? Quite the graceful speaker.
You publicly shamed yourself (not me) all over this forum and exposed yourself as the kind of man to make ad-hominem, gender & racially-based personal attacks against a stranger because you neither have the intelligence, maturity, or respect to express yourself in any better way.
Like I said, you did it to yourself not I. I hope you enjoyed being the Bell Jar’s public spectacle. Take it as a learning experience.
🙂
You’ve hardly disagreed with any of my arguments. You’ve simply failed or refused to address them.
In virtually every one of your condescending entries here, you’ve made snarky, snide, bitchy, comments. Usually, you make accusations about another’s inability to see a logical perspective, or failure to comprehend a basic concept, while being guilty of that exact offense at that moment. This entire passage is high comedy coming from you.
“Just like Ms. Leigh Anne…she was so busy attempting to create a false situation and make two young Black men look bad, she made herself look worse.
People who behave like you and her are woefully ignorant.
Pathetic in how stubbornly oblivious you are to your own ignorance.
Pathetic in how you lash out at others in order to maintain a consistent denial of your own ignorance.
And in the process, extremely pathetic in how during the process, you make yourselves look utterly horrible.”
Irony much?
BTW: There is a difference, slight as it may seem, between calling someone ‘bitch’ and calling someone “a bitch’.
I know nuance is not your strong point…nor logic,…nor truth., but still, there is a difference. Please stop saying I called you a bitch. I did not. I did hint that you are a cunt, but, that was only because i wasn’t yet sure that you are. You’ve helped me resolve any reservations I may have had (thanks!)
opps, there i go with one of those ad hominem attacks, and displaying my brat-like immaturity and inability to comprehend the parameters of civilized debate, as so beautifully demonstrated by you.
BTW2: it’s been about 3 hours since you’ve changed your profile photo, we’re all waiting with baited breath for your next selfie.
Mark, you’re wasting my time. You’ve already publicly shamed yourself for the 22nd. Do you want to try for the 23rd? It’s nothing to me to watch you go on another frenzied rant. I mean, I could get some popcorn and a glass of cola, kick my feet up, and watch it with a big smile on my face. But I think you should be concerned about the way you’re coming across to people. I mean….people other than me ARE reading what you write. It’s getting really sad for you. How ’bout quitting while you’re ahead and you can exit this bizarre marathon of yours with some of your dignity intact?
you are so thoughtful. Always looking out for me. I really appreciate that. Let me return the favor: lay off the popcorn and soda. Try some Kale or seaweed crisps. Maybe take your feet down and try…i don’t know …walking (NOT to the refrigerator)
Thanks for the advice. *Munch-Munch* Now, take yourself somewhere where someone gives a damn about you, what you think and how you feel.
If you’re lucky, it’s not just a household pet that I’m thinking it probably is.
funny, for someone who keeps reiterating that I am wasting your time, you sure seem to have truckloads of it to waste. Not even a pet to keep you busy?
You repeatedly dis-invite me to this forum too, as if you are the voice of the people. Your ego is as hyper-inflated as the rest of you. True, there were several people who called me out, but that is to be expected when someone takes a radically opposing viewpoint to the author’s. Clearly, my sentiments were echoed by many others. But, if per chance, the chorus of nit wits should sing along and harmonize with YOU, remember this basic rule: People always rush in to defend the weak one, who is clearly losing. And Sophie, you have most certainly lost, despite repeatedly declaring yourself the winner.
You’ve lost all credibility and lost it hours ago. Why do you even keep trying with me? You’ve already shown your incredible disrespect, then you think you actually have the capability of trying to “tell” me anything about anything as if anyone would take the rantings of a vindictive, slur-throwing, race-insulting fool like you seriously.
You keep on publicly shaming yourself in the process of trying to ‘shame’ me, continuously adding to your ever growing pile of steaming hypocrisy. I love it. If you don’t care about being a public spectacle, than I guess I don’t care about you being one either. Please continue being this blog’s entertainment.
🙂
She’s back. You’re like that zombie that refuses to die. Even though your question was likely merely rhetorical (like everything else you have written), I’m gonna give you an answer:
Because it’s fun kicking the shit our of you. Once it became clear that a civilized, mature debate was off the table, it was simply a matter of switching gears into street fight mode. A bit of schadenfreude, to be sure, but on some level we all like to roll around in the mud with a pig.
oh…i hope my last comment doesn’t suggest I am calling YOU a pig. Pigs are cute and highly intelligent.
You kicked the shit out of your own image, appearance, decorum, and behavior on this blog. You kicked the ever-loving shit out of any validity and credibility you may have once possessed a shred of. You did it when you sunk to the dirt by mocking a woman’s race, and revealing your contempt after one, singular comment I wrote you didn’t happen to like. That’s all it took to push you over the edge.
And it was great fun seeing you do it to yourself, too.
Try to kick that shit into obscurity. It’s all here, readily available to the public.
🙂
And by the way, pigs just LOVE dirt. You fucking wallowed in it.
🙂
God, you love the victim role. Why ARE you so hypersensitive about your race(s)? Who really cares? High Yellow or Octoroon are so offensive? Why? They may have fallen out of favor in modern times, but at one point in history, they were considered proper terms to be used in polite society. Just as the word “negro” is currently out of fashion in the United States, yet we still have United Negro College Fund, even though it goes by UNCF. The same is true for the term “colored” as in NAACP / National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Once upon a time, there was The National Association for Retarded Citizens, but in modern times, “retarded” has become a tabboo term. Why? Because of popular usage and the way a languages evolve. . but language is not a game of Whac-A-Mole, and in today’s hysterically PC climate, well meaning people are branded a racist, or homophobic, because they used an out-dated expression or used “Oriental” to refer to a person. “Tranny” has already fallen by the wayside and “drag queen” will probably be the next casualty.
Lenny Bruce and George Carlin built their legends on stipping words of their power, but today’s PC Gestapos won’t be happy until EVERYONE it tiptoeing to their tune.
You struck me as a reactionary, thought police type, so i laid the bait and you lapped it up like ambrosia.
Chill the fuck out!
You are also profoundly hypocritical. but that is here, in black and white for all to see (oh, i made a pun and i didn’t even try)
I thought it was ‘mud’ that pigs love…but, you’re the expert
I don’t care about your reasoning. Don’t give a damn about your explanation. You don’t have the fucking right to speak to people like that. You don’t have the fucking right to mock people’s race and family heritage for any reason, for any motivation, any MOTHERFUCKING time.
If you had an ounce of common sense in that rattling brain of yours, you would know that. But since you’re lacking in common sense and respect for others, that’s the kind of slimy shit I’d expect from the likes of you.
actually, that’s PRECISELY WHAT I DO HAVE – THE RIGHT TO WRITE OR SAY WHAT I THINK. And that gets to the heart of your thought police mentality.
You try to appeal to people’s sympathy as some oppressed minority, yet, given the power, you would surely be a ruthless and intolerant authoritarian dictator. the oppressed become the oppressors.
Be a piece of fly-specked shit. If that’s the right you want to have; well, my boy, be my guest.
Have a nice Christmas & New Year’s.
🙂
speaking of language. you have quite the vocabulary. You kiss your mother with that mouth? Maybe you just blow your father with it. (what? too far? c’mon. she’s a tough cookie. Look at that stream of obscenities she just unleashed.)
BTW: common sense is not measured by weight.
You too should have a Merry ChrismaKwanzaaChanukaFestivus. & a Happy New Year.
Remember on New Year’s Eve that many people are out driving while intoxicated and the roads are particularly dangerous…so try to save all your errands till then.,
Thanks for the holiday wishes. Enjoy the sad wreckage of your life!
🙂
I always do.
so funny, i was just going to write something about ‘like minded companions’ but i pressed the “i” instead of the “o” and auto-fill suggested the word ‘chimpanzee’. does Auto-fill have a Freudian Slip function?
I’m not trying to suggest that you are a monkey. Monkeys are cute and highly intelligent (I never get tired that joke!)
Bravo! Mark, I couldn’t have said it better.
So, uhm… still there mark?… *crickets*
Guess he watched the video response from the teen. lol.
sorry Crickets, but the majority of my life takes place away from my computer monitor.
He watched and didn’t care. Because his personal opinions mean more to him than facts, logic, and common sense. Just the kind of person who would think of defending the invasion of privacy of strangers, in the first place.
guuurl YOU sho nuff got a lot of time to chat on this blog. I’m worried about you not getting enough fresh air. It’s gotta be stuffy down there, in your parent’s basement.
Who was writing back to me, Mark, for the same amount of time, ranting and raving, calling me out my name, and making cracks about my race? Who was I talking to?
Too busy to respond to comments on this thread now that he knows he’s wrong, and an idiot…… Has all the time in the world to defend white saviors, tell people of color they are over reacting, and troll on about how we live in a #postracialsociety.
I do like the fact that he still hasn’t retracted anything he’s said in defense of this women… oh, forgot… too busy… but conveniently has time to respond to the fact that I said he has nothing to say about all the nonsense he said before… but not really, since none of it was addressed.
I have a feeling he’s going to be a very busy guy from now on.
pretty much had this moron figured out from the beginning.
*chirp chirp*
just noticed how often this tool has posted here….
“sorry Crickets, but the majority of my life takes place away from my computer monitor.”
…. apparently it does. it cool though, nothing wrong with being unemployed bro.
#thanksobama!
that’s sweet Law Call. I said it many times about this post and the comments. The effect is to make enemies out of allies and that has certainly been the effect with me. Never again will i be concerned with the plight of African Americans. this experience was an eye opener for me.
Yep, all the time in the world to defend the invasion of privacy Leigh Anne Tuohy perpetrated, then presume to tell others about their lives as if he is an expert on anything or anybody.
Then after all of the disgusting, disrespectful vermin-infested trash this dude posts, including having the motherfucking nerve to make a mockery of another person’s racial heritage, he’s gonna pretend as if he was an ally.
Maybe in his own head. Perhaps there.
“I have a feeling he’s going to be a very busy guy from now on.
pretty much had this moron figured out from the beginning.
*chirp chirp*”
I had him figured out the minute he jumped on here and started telling people to “eat shit and die”. That’s a real “ally” type thing to do, LOL.
ah yes, the echo chamber of like minded companions…I mean like minded chimpanzees
Im sorry Sepearoses. I didn’t realize your heritage is such a point of shame for you, despite you repeatedly using the word “proudly”.
You should be ashamed, but that is because you are a cunt. being half dago and half moulinyan is nothing to be ashamed of though.
I SO enjoy being a mulatto/high yellow/octaroon who could verbally rip your twisted, race-baiting bullshit into a thousand pieces at a moment’s notice, but I do grow weary of the game, as fun as it is.
You want round two, motherfucker?
Race baiting. Is that like masturbating? cuz i already jizzed all over your face and hair. seems like you want me to shoot for your blue dress now. actually cunt-4-brains, i don’t have time, so…I’l just have to give you a topic to riff on in my absence. It’ll be a real barn burner so I’m sure you’ll all have lots to say about it. You may be half dago, but you’re ALL Porch Monkey to me. Discuss…i mean…disgust.
Come on…tell us more about “allies”.
“The effect is to make enemies out of allies and that has certainly been the effect with me. Never again will i be concerned with the plight of African Americans.”
Oh yes, indeed.
“being half dago and half moulinyan is nothing to be ashamed of though.”
Tell us more about how you were EVER an ally of anybody.
Come on, now that you’ve properly shamed and humiliated yourself all over this page, exposing the dank, worm-infested shit that’s been in your head and in your heart, tell us more about proper allyship.
This mulatto/high yellow/octaroon is ever so fucking interested.
🙂
“You may be half dago, but you’re ALL Porch Monkey to me. Discuss…i mean…disgust.”
The world is watching. Everyone is reading your comments. The racial slurs, everything. You did it to yourself. You pulled your pants down and showed your ass to this entire blog.
Thank you.
For proving what you really think. How you really feel.
Thank you.
that’s right cunt-4=brains. Empathy was a choice. So is being a racist. I’ve made my choice, so, you could say I’m “all in” with the racists. I’ll check out membership and locations of my local KKK. turns out, all the white power freaks were on to something after all.
No one can make you believe anything or choose anything you don’t want. Enjoy that membership. Revel and wallow in the mud and the shit with your fellow race-baiting failures. Have a fun time living in the delusions of your own creation. Have a marvelous time being a member of society’s fringe.
Bye, good luck, and godspeed!
Arrivederci in the language of my Italian relatives!
ciao cuntface, I love that you chose a clip of a beautiful, elegant, and slim woman turning to leave. It’s the perfect metaphor for your delusions of grandeur. the real you, appears to have eaten that poor little thing…with a side of potato salad and a 12-pack of Dr Pepper.
You’re not even trying now. What you know about potato salad, boy? Your favorite thing to do on here is to tell people to “eat shit”. I NATURALLY assumed you were the expert on it. Try to put some hot sauce on that; maybe it’ll taste a little better.
i can understand now, why you turned out this way.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/retro_rose/2815475311/in/set-72157625458842192
buh buh feces
I mean…Felecia https://www.flickr.com/photos/retro_rose/9111452720/in/set-72157625458842192/
Bye-bye George Wallace!
you do realize that George Wallace is also a black comedian, dontcha dumbass? tsch tsch tsch. missed opportunity
I know my history, race-baiting garbage spewer.
“I’ll check out membership and locations of my local KKK.”
And by the way, thanks for linking to my vintage family imagery/photographic art/self-portrait gallery: https://www.flickr.com/photos/retro_rose/with/15907080549/
I just LOVE free publicity!
🙂
dawg, you funny
No, what I’m NOT is a fucking “dago porch-monkey”. I’m an American citizen whose family on both sides served their country in military service, I’m a daughter, I’m a writer, and first and foremost, I’m a human being.
What YOU have said on this forum echoes the kind of horrific things men like Wallace and others of his ilk perpetuated against Black Americans. Ignorance, cruelty, and hate. You’ve written intense words of hatred when it didn’t have to spiral down and degenerate into this. YOU chose to belittle and degrade another person’s humanity and race. I don’t like arguing with people like this because it takes a little something out of me. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit here and not defend my humanity.
Maybe when you will have cooled off and stepped away from this mess, you’ll think about the kind of things you said to a fellow human being.
But I’m done. I truly am. I’m sorry that what could’ve been a productive dialogue turned into this, and I don’t want to argue with you any more.
I truly mean this: have a happy Christmas and New Year’s. I still recognize your humanity even though you may not do the same with me right now.
no, seriously, i am very sorry if you’re upset. for me, most of this was just like a performance art piece, trying to indulge and let flow free the sorts of things I really DON’T think or feel…but, let’s face it, I know will get a rise out of you. But also to demonstrate that when you’re gonna treat people like an enemy, they are gonna act like the enemy.
You can hate me all you want…that’s totally fine. But i really don’t want you to take anything i’ve said too seriously, because the thing that would make me feel the worst is if I really did hurt your feelings.
but be honest dawg, you can dish that shit out as well as anyone.
Regardless, this nonsense is NOT the way to spend the holidays.
all the best to you kiddo.
Calling someone racial slurs, comparing them to an animal, attacking who they are even if you don’t really believe it on a sincere level is indeed hurtful. I’ve never been spoken to like this by anyone in my life. It makes an impression on not only the person you’ve hurt and disrespected but on so many other people of color who don’t know what’s in your head or what’s in your heart. All they’re going to see when they log on is a *presumably* a white man calling a mixed-race woman “porch monkey”.
Whatever, I’m not going to get into it again. Have a nice life. I’m done.
well, that was sorta the whole point…to demonstrate that the whole thing is really on a razor’s edge. If you’ve really never been spoken to like that, then fasten your seat-belt, because it gets a lot worse.
What you said was wrong Mark. “Razors’ edge”, “performance art”, it doesn’t matter how you package hurtful, cruel racial slurs. None of that matters, and I don’t think anyone can accept that. The damage has been done…what you said was absolutely heinous. Whatever, I’ve said enough.
that’s fine. Merry Christmas.
WOW!! This exchange between the two of you has been VERY entertaining. Mark, you made some valid points and I recognized the satire in your comments right away, but I have to say you went TOO far in your “performance art.” (You can tell me to “eat shit and die” or whatever but keep in mind I am defending you…in a sense.)
Sepiaroses, you are right, the whole thing DOES reek of exploitation. That AUDIO (not video) interview seemed hell bent on altering perceptions. “OBJECTION!! Leading the witness!” The interviewer kept saying what HE saw and not asking what the interviewee felt. “I KNOW the first thing in your mind…” And he kept making a point of the kids not being a charity case and saying he was going to send her the “funky 40 dollars” but under the same breath said he was going to send him cash for his troubles.
Now I am in no way excusing the woman for her actions. Yes, I saw this as a photo op for for herself and it was patronizing and self aggrandizing. But I see what is happening after the fact as something worse. It’s just inflicting negative emotions and exploiting these two young men further.
You pointed out that the mother is outraged. Has anyone actually interviewed the mother, and has she gone on record as such? Has she spoken personally with Touhey about how she feels? Why doesn’t she give her the money back instead of allowing some outsider who states that these two young men should be fearful because Touhey has contacts in law enforcement..AND gives them money for their “troubles?”
Admittedly this is just speculation, but think about how it could have gone down if it had not been for Touhey’s celebrity status.
Owner: Excuse me, boys. Do you intend on buying anything?
Squatters: We just sitting here.
Owner: I’m sorry, if you don’t intend on buying anything, I ‘ll have to ask you to leave.
Squatters: What? We not doing nothing. It’s because we’re black, right?
Owner: No, it’s because you are in my place of business and you aren’t buying anything. Please leave. I don’t want to have to call the police.
Squatters: Aw, man! You just doing this cuz we’re black! We’ll show you!
Cut to:
BREAKING NEWS
This is Eyewitless News. We are stand outside a Kentucky Fried Chicken where two young men men were thrown out for being black.
Squatters: Yeah! She told us to leave! We weren’t doing anything!
Eyewitless News: So what do you have to say about this?
Owner: Well, they weren’t buying anything.
Eyewitless News: And there you have it! A cold hearted business owner threw two innocent young black boys out into the cold streets because they were black. Racism is alive, America. Wake up! And now for the weather report.
Public reaction:
BURN THE PLACE DOWN!!!!
The exploitation of these two youths is coming from both directions. Let’s not fool ourselves that it isn’t.
“You pointed out that the mother is outraged. Has anyone actually interviewed the mother, and has she gone on record as such?”
Yes, both of the boys’ mothers have gone on public record as being offended and upset at Tuohy’s invasive and irresponsible actions. Their public posts on the matter are located here: http://imgur.com/9b8GG9N
Their reactions are the final nails in the coffin. What Tuohy did was wrong in every way.
“…final nails in the coffin”? Oh, come now, let’s not be so macabre.
Thank you for the follow up. Maybe it is out of a sense of morbid curiosity that made me interested in how this all plays out, but with Xmas and all it wasn’t on my to do list.
Again, I make no effort to attempt to excuse her for her actions as I recognize it as self promotion. Yet there were a few things in one of the mothers’ statements that have given me pause.
“GLAD THESE YOUNG MEN WERE RAISED RIGHT BECAUSE WHEN YOU INVADED THEIR SPACE THEY COULD HAVE EASILY CURSED YOU OUT, THEN THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN SHOT OR IN JAIL!!!”
1) She didn’t invade their space, they invaded hers. It was her place of business and they were loitering, plain and simple.
2) Since they were raised right it would not have been so easy to curse her out. Why make that a point?
3) Both she and that interviewer seem to imply that had these two young men not given in to her they would have been taken out back to be worked over. Now granted, this mother was emotional about this and possibly did not choose her words carefully, but I refuse to entertain that line of thought.
All in all, there has been much spin coming from both sides that has been put on this and I feel that there are more serious matters going on that need be addressed than some self-promoting white woman that wants to play white savior.
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. Have a equally wonderful New Year’s!
Okay, curiosity got the better of me so this cat may have to bury himself in his litterbox and await to be dumped upon.
I had completely forgotten about Touhy and “The Blind Side,” as the latter I had dismissed as Hollywood “fluff,” until the recent course of events. As I had nothing better to do with my time – oh, how sad am I – I decided to look a little deeper. I came upon this excerpt, the source which can be found here:
http://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/blindside.php
“Did Michael really get in a fight when he was waiting to see his mom?
No. Michael did not get into a fight with gang members in his old neighborhood. However, after researching The Blind Side true story, we discovered that while he was in college at Ole Miss, Michael got into a fight with teammate Antonio Turner who had visited the Tuohy’s home. At some point after his visit, Turner called Michael a cracker for living with a white family. Antonio also made comments to Michael suggesting that he was going to have sex with Michael’s white sister and white mother (similar to the comments made by the gang member in the movie). This infuriated Michael who chased after Antonio and eventually tracked him down hiding at the study hall where the football players studied with their tutors. Michael threw the 230 pound Antonio into the ground, picked him up by the throat, beat him in the face and threw him across the room. In the process, the 3-year-old son of one of the tutors was knocked to the floor and suffered a bad head wound. The small white boy laid on the floor in a pool of his own blood. When Michael saw what had happened to the boy, he ran off. Antonio was taken to one of the coaches homes for protection. At Sean Tuohy’s urging, Michael eventually turned himself in to the campus police, and Sean called his friend, well known attorney Steve Farese. Michael ended up making apologies and was given ten hours of community service. -Evolution of a Game”
Now this may be a heavy handed assessment but I bring this up as I equate the reactions to her actions as something similar; an intent to turn what she misconstrued but possibly may have believed as something as an act of kindness into something perverse.
Now one can argue, and rightly so, as to why she has not responded to the mothers and the negative press. Now I will not try to answer for her but answer as myself with the perspective of being on the outside looking in. Has anyone ever attempted to explain themselves to someone who was blinded by anger? I have, and no matter what I had to say there was no attempt to listen. I had to wait until everything cooled down before any rationality was expected. It seems that no one wants to hear anything other than, “Yes, you’re right. I’m a racist bitch.” Anything other than that admission will be dismissed.
There appears to be too hard of attempts to rake this woman over the coals without offering her an opportunity to recognize the folly of her actions and apologize if she indeed recognizes what she did as a mistake. Sepiaroses, your own statement confirms it: “Their reactions are the final nails in the coffin.” Now I know you meant it metaphorically, but please think about what it implies.
In reference to the excerpt, I would like to know what Michael’s opinion is on this turn of events. I see how a lot wish to plug in the “what if” scenario, so I respectfully request to plug in mine. If he should disagree, would everyone leave it alone? Or would there be valiant attempts to convince him that she is a racist? And call him a “cracker” is he does not turn to that line of thinking? (Not to his face, I don’t think.)
thank you Wizard for your props. To the extent that you are critical (of me), I can understand your feelings, but I stand by my methods, precisely because they do go “too far”. That was, in fact, the point. The fact that it was all done with humor was supposed to be a clue that i was using offensive, taboo terms in a controlled way (Unlike Michael Richards blowing a gasket and screaming ‘nigger’ at his entire audience.) That is not to say that i wrote without genuine anger and passion, but never was I unconsciously lashing out or writing from pure, unbridled emotion (some would argue that makes it even worse, but we’ll have to agree to disagree).
I don’t think i need to explain to you (because you have already made the case) that many people are so blinded by anger in this incident, that they have made up their minds about Touhy. You also argue many points i would make about her ‘real motives’, etc, although at one point, you do characterize them as indefensible self promotion, whereas I suspect she is just an egocentric type who has a tendency towards vainglorious acts of kindness – which is a very human and very defensible motivation.
While you speculate that Touhy might be waiting for tempers to calm before speaking about this, I would speculate that the public messages by the boy’s mother have the smell of litigation and perhaps she is being advised to keep her trap shut (if those posts are, in fact, authentic).
Although we agree on many points, i think the main difference is one of focus. You are (admirably) trying to make a reasonable defense of Touhy’s motives, and contextualize her actions. I too think it only fair to give her the benefit of the doubt, however, just as Touhy’s FB post has taken on a life of its own, so has the debate over it. At this point, i am far more interested in the dogmatic, vitriolic character of Touhy’s accusers than anything else.
While there may be reasons to question Touhy’s judgement and motives, there is no shortage of people willing to ignore evidence suggesting that she acted with good intent, so that they can further their own racist agendas.
That is clearly the case with this sleazy radio interviewer who tries to spoon feed talking points to Kris Banks. He brazenly states “Her whole Tough-Gal-Southern-Act, that comes from her having backup of law enforcement, and she knows that HER word against any young, black male is gonna be believed over them” WTF? He tosses off a grenade, portraying Touhy as someone who would easily lie to incriminate innocent young black men, yet he never addresses why she would do such a thing or that such an action would be completely at odds with everything else we know about her.
When the interviewer learns that Touhy gave the boys $40, he seems momentarily taken aback by the generous amount, as it doesn’t fit the story he’s peddling. However he quickly regains his hateful composure and eventually manages to frame Touhy’s generosity as a conscience, guilty of racial profiling, trying to buy the boy’s silence (then why on earth would SHE have drawn attention to it, herself?)
Furthermore, Kris Banks says that they were initially at the game location, but walked the few blocks to Touhy’s business in order to charge their phones and meet the other boy’s uncle, in order to get $10. This suggests that they didn’t spend money in Touhy’s store, because if they had money for food/drink, they probably would have had money for that second ticket.
This statement by Banks begs the question “did you guys buy anything there or were you just loitering?” However, the interviewer never goes near that obvious question. Certainly, if he is clever enough to mount the argument of nefarious motives, he is clever enough to ask “did you and your friend BUY anything in her store?”, yet he avoids that question like it had Ebola. If they had spent money, I suspect he would want to stress that they were ‘paying customers’ being harassed, The fact that he conspicuously fails to address it, suggests that the truth is far less important than him spinning this story for his own personal gain. It’s also possible that he already knew the answer and that they were electricity stealing loiterers, in which case, he deliberately mislead his audience by concealing that information.
While he appoints himself judge, jury and executioner of Touhy, and criticizes her for racist exploitation, he obliviously does the exact same thing, when he offers to repay Touhy’s $40 and toss the boys a few bucks. He is using them as pawns in a baldly self-serving way, yet those calling for Touhy’s head on a stake seem to take no notice of it. That double standard is as racist as anything Touhy stands accused of.
In fact, it is far worse, because even if Touhy did ‘use’ these boys in a self serving way, her message was one of good will and compassion, whereas this interviewer uses Banks for revenge and to tell Touhy to go fuck herself. It’s a far more divisive and polarizing position, made even more unforgivable because it is far more calculated.
BTW Wizard: you have quite an imagination. Your fictionalized possible scenario, in your first entry, reminds me of Ellen Degeneres’ bit about going to the store to find they are out of cheese. Funny stuff.
apologies Wiz. I just reread your first post and you pretty much made all the same points (I guess mine is the unabridged version)
Turns out, you and I are ‘like minded chimpanzees’
go figure
“Turns out, you and I are ‘like minded chimpanzees’”
OOK, OOK! Gimme your banana and I’ll groom you for fleas! Oh wait….was that racist? Someone will come along and say that I was referencing black people. Moving right along…
Mark, I just knew you would be back as you did not strike me as someone that would slink off into the shadows to lurk. But I will say that your “performance art” took a vile turn. I raised my eyebrows when you wrote, “Listen bitch…,” and as it went on I thought that you could not be for real; it HAD to be satire. You mentioned Lenny Bruce and George Carlin, but I hope you are not putting yourself in the same league as them. I saw more of Andy Kaufman; no one got the joke except him….and me for that matter.
I don’t agree on your methods but have to say you did make some points that some refuse to see. I could explain but what would be the point? You and I already agree on those points and the majority here doesn’t. I will say this though, I did not take into account the notion of a lawsuit, and I agree with you. BIG payout. From her…from the interviewer…and now from her again. I honestly hope we are wrong, but we will find out eventually.
BTW the action I find indefensible is the one of posting her action, not the action itself. It would appear with a certain coated lens that it calls attention to herself. “Hey! Look at me!! This is the way to handle it!!” As stated earlier, I had completely forgotten about her until recently. I googled and saw her all over the place with pix and interviews and such. Now it just may be that this was a publicity stunt for her, possibly… but I honestly want to know what Michael’s reaction is. If he disagrees, will everyone shut up?
I will say that all this reaction has made things worse. With us in America the adage of “finding a silver lining in every cloud” always turns into “I KNOW there is evil behind it! FIND it!! Even if it’s NOT there!!”
BTW I haven’t a clue about your “Ellen” reference. I reversed it in a humorous way in hopes to enlighten. Not that I’m holding my breath on it. I await the next comments to accuse me of being in league with a “racist” and the call for my head on a platter.
Hey, I hope you and Sepiaroses can patch your differences. You two make an AWFULLY cute couple!!
RE Ellen DeGeneres: Beginning at the 2:30 mark
I don’t want to “defend” my “performance art” for two reasons: if it’s done properly, it doesn’t need to be explained. Not saying that it couldn’t have been better, but as I reread it, with a clear and calm mind, I saw the logic of my approach throughout. The other reason is that it will only serve to stir up an already dead exchange, which has run its course.
Please clarify this: “the action I find indefensible is the one of posting her action, not the action itself…”
If your point is that her egomania is the most indefensible thing, then I wholeheartedly disagree. Not because I am a cheerleader for Narcissism, but because I think it is a very very common psychological tendency and once we start demonizing people for the idiosyncrasies of their personas, it’s a slippery slope. The same bold “talk first/think later” approach which may have gotten her into hot water now, might be the same quality which made her take in an older foster child, who most would reject (if only because of his age).
I don’t think we have yet come to understand the human psyche well enough to start throwing out this or that trait, willy nilly. Touhy’s overarching egoism, might be the annoying rodent, which if eliminated, would throw off the entire eco-system of her personality. (jeez, that was an exhausting metaphor!) Hence my argument that the only valid indictment of Touhy would have to be based on nefarious motives, and since I see little evidence that she consciously sought to humiliate or denigrate these boys, I think the criticism of her is completely disproportionate to her actions. She is effectively being made a scapegoat for racial inequality, which strikes me as particularly unfair for someone who has at least tried to do some good in an area many are fatootsed by. I am always amazed at how people seem to hold everyone else up to some ideal, which is outside of the scope of most people’s capacity, and usually far beyond the realm of possibility for the critic. Hence my initial tirade against stifling political correctness.
With all the unapologetic racist people out there, it’s Touhy who people are trying to knock? Where’s Sinead O’Connor when we need her? No doubt a large percentage of people act out of self serving motives, and at the risk of sounding like Ayn Rand, I don’t know that there is anything wrong with that. In fact, I am suspicious of the person of great accomplishments who wants to give credit to ‘the almighty’ or their 5th grade English teacher…or the Girl Scouts. It smacks of disingenuousness.
that didn’t work right. wrong part
again at 2:30 mark
ok…it’s always gonna default to the first segment in the playlist. it’s actually part 5
“I don’t want to “defend” my “performance art” for two reasons: if it’s done properly, it doesn’t need to be explained. Not saying that it couldn’t have been better, but as I reread it, with a clear and calm mind, I saw the logic of my approach throughout. The other reason is that it will only serve to stir up an already dead exchange, which has run its course.”
Mark…CAH..MON!!!! I never asked for you to defend your “performance art.” I saw it for what it was and gave my perspective. My opinion, for whatever it was worth, was that you went too far. The fact that you keep bringing it up is stirring up “an already dead exchange.” If you wish to take it up further, please take it up with Sepiaroses and not me.
“Please clarify this: ‘the action I find indefensible is the one of posting her action, not the action itself…’”
Mark, what is there to clarify? She posted what she did for the entire world to see without thinking of how it was going to affect others. You have seen the aftermath. She could have done what she did and left it alone. And then those two young men could have posted their encounter with her after the fact. Using the “what if” scenario that those that have pontificated on this site and others, I cannot help but wonder if it had turned out differently.
“I don’t think we have yet come to understand the human psyche well enough to start throwing out this or that trait, willy nilly. “
Mark, I doubt if we ever will.
“Touhy’s overarching egoism, might be the annoying rodent, which if eliminated, would throw off the entire eco-system of her personality. (jeez, that was an exhausting metaphor!) “
I hope you did not go into cardiac arrest coming up with it. There are those here that would cheer that on.
“Hence my argument that the only valid indictment of Touhy would have to be based on nefarious motives, and since I see little evidence that she consciously sought to humiliate or denigrate these boys, I think the criticism of her is completely disproportionate to her actions. She is effectively being made a scapegoat for racial inequality, which strikes me as particularly unfair for someone who has at least tried to do some good in an area many are fatootsed by. I am always amazed at how people seem to hold everyone else up to some ideal, which is outside of the scope of most people’s capacity, and usually far beyond the realm of possibility for the critic. Hence my initial tirade against stifling political correctness.”
Get with the times. bro. Find fault and malicious intent where there is none, get peeps riled up over it, THEN ….file a lawsuit. In the meantime people’s attention is diverted from real problems, some will get their 15 minutes of fame…or notoriety…the court’s time is wasted and more people compel themselves to do stupid shit that acquires themselves felonies that take away their right to vote. Understand how it works now?
“With all the unapologetic racist people out there, it’s Touhy who people are trying to knock? “
She’s “white and privileged.” You are shocked by this?
“Where’s Sinead O’Connor when we need her? “
Probably ripping up photos of the pope.
“No doubt a large percentage of people act out of self serving motives, and at the risk of sounding like Ayn Rand, I don’t know that there is anything wrong with that. In fact, I am suspicious of the person of great accomplishments who wants to give credit to ‘the almighty’ or their 5th grade English teacher…or the Girl Scouts. It smacks of disingenuousness.”
I give credit to the guy who sold me my first nickel bag of reefer. Or is that racist?
ok, so my bad. i took this line of text ” I could explain but what would be the point?” and misread it as “if you could explain what would be the point” (i.e. MY point for going “too far”).
this really is exhausting.
BTW: I just watched my first ever interview with Touhy.
Personally, i would have to choke the shit out of her if i had to spend more than 5 minutes in her presence. However, i am even more convinced that she is just a well intentioned buffoon and ascribing such sinister intent has been an injustice.
your point about her being wrong to post to facebook is made mute by the fact that Banks posted his own photo to Instagram, clearly trying to draw the association with her notoriety. Therefore, the potential that HIS photo be picked up and become viral was always there. Are there laws yet addressing whether a person can post a photo of a minor to the internet? I can’t imagine Touhy has committed any offense worse than being a legend in her own mind.
OK. I’m outta here. good chatting with you. smell ya later. 🙂
“ok, so my bad. i took this line of text ” I could explain but what would be the point?” and misread it as “if you could explain what would be the point” (i.e. MY point for going “too far”).”
AHA!! Hopefully you read the actual intent as why bother explaining points we already agree upon?
“BTW: I just watched my first ever interview with Touhy.
Personally, i would have to choke the shit out of her if i had to spend more than 5 minutes in her presence. However, i am even more convinced that she is just a well intentioned buffoon and ascribing such sinister intent has been an injustice.”
I honestly think this is the heart of the matter as I felt the same way while watching interviews with her that I could barely stomach. But there will be those that want to convince her and the world of her racism. I want Michael’s opinion. I want to see what weight his words hold with those that would condemn her.
“your point about her being wrong to post to facebook is made mute by the fact that Banks posted his own photo to Instagram, clearly trying to draw the association with her notoriety. Therefore, the potential that HIS photo be picked up and become viral was always there. Are there laws yet addressing whether a person can post a photo of a minor to the internet? I can’t imagine Touhy has committed any offense worse than being a legend in her own mind.”
I was unaware of Banks posting any photo. But I do not believe his posting of her photo renders my point mute, it actually strengthens my assessment. “What if”…Touhy had NOT posted anything? I am curious as to whether this incident would have reached the heights of absurdity that it has. But knowing human nature, my doubts of it having reached this point are nil.
“OK. I’m outta here. good chatting with you. smell ya later. :-)”
Not if I smells ya first!! Laters.
Wow, it’s amazing how quickly you disintegrated from your psuedo-intellectual personality analysis of Touhy to racial slurs when someone debates you well on each point amd counterpoint.
Thanks Susan. 🙂
Wow this is totally amazing! People truly dont get it and thats so sad.
While I agree that the way she went about this is a little questionable and her decision to post this on social media gives me the impression that she’s somewhat arrogant and overly prideful, this article definitely blows some of the race/racism issues way out of proportion and many things are just flat out wrong. First off, we have this segment:
“Assuming that those kids were doing something bad was racist. Assuming that she could take up space at their table was racist. Insisting that they talk to her was disrespectful and racist. Wanting evidence that they weren’t up to no good was racist. Treating those boys as props to make her look good and then posting this picture publicly (and honestly, I wonder if the boys consented to that) is incredibly racist.”
1. Yes, assuming those kids were doing something bad was racist. But isn’t this article about Tuohy, who was the one who DIDN’T think they were up to no good? Thus in this way she’s NOT being racist.
2. Based on the information available in her post, it seems like she owns the store. Therefore, since it’s her property, she does have the right to go over, sit at their table, and ask what they’re up to. Not racist.
3. She wanted evidence that they were up to no good because she wanted to prove a point to the other person. Not racial profiling, but instead proving a point to someone else that THEY were racial profiling.
I do agree that posting the picture publicly was a highly questionable decision and the way she went about doing this whole thing could have been MUCH better. She could have explained to the kids why she asked them what they were doing afterwards. She didn’t need to take a picture and post it on social media, especially not without the express permission of those two kids. Even if she did, her writeup sounds conceited and arrogant. However, the basis of the argument in this article (that Truohy is some crazy racial profiling privacy invading asshole) doesn’t make sense.
While we’re at it, can we talk about the whole “don’t judge a book by its cover” argument? For reference, here’s the paragraph from the article:
“Also, can we talk about how problematic using the phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” is when it comes to talking about race? First of all, it begins with the assumption that the “cover” (or in this case, skin) tells you something unappealing about the contents of the book or person. It also implies that there is something unattractive or bad about the “cover” (or, again, skin). I can’t believe that I have to say this, but: there is nothing wrong or bad about Black skin. Black skin is not unpleasant or ugly, and to imply that dark skin might devalue someone is really, really fucked up.”
1. It does NOT begin with the assumption that the cover tells you something unappealing about the contents. The whole point of the phrase is to say that some people will draw conclusions about the contents based on what they see in the “cover”, and also that those conclusions are not necessarily true. So in fact the saying says almost the complete opposite: it says that the cover may SEEM to tell you something (potentially unappealing, I’ll get to this in my next point) about the contents, but there’s no reason to believe those things are true.
2. It does NOT imply that there’s something unattractive about the “cover”. In fact, there could be something really great about the cover! Going with the whole book analogy, you might have a book that has the most awesome looking cover, with amazing design and great visual appeal, yet the story inside is the most boring story ever told (maybe one of those ones that repeats forever). In this case, “don’t judge a book by its cover” still applies: just because it looks great from the outside doesn’t mean the inside is just as great. So this argument presented in the article just doesn’t make any sense.
3. “to imply that dark skin might devalue someone is really, really fucked up.” Yes, it is. And isn’t this the point of the whole saying? Some people might assume that dark skin devalues someone. The saying is telling them NOT to do this! it says: don’t draw any assumptions about them based on the color of their skin. Don’t assume they’re bad, but don’t assume they’re a saint either. Don’t make judgments about their character based on their appearance, but rather based on their actions.
Just a couple of points:
“It does NOT imply that there’s something unattractive about the “cover”. In fact, there could be something really great about the cover!”
While that may be true for the saying itself, it is pretty clear that in this context Tuohy clearly meant that despite others might view these two young black youths as trouble makers, they are not. Where it becomes problematic is when she decides to verify this for all those racists out there, just to prove that these kids are not bad. Why the hell do those two kids need to prove anything? She forces them to prove that they are innocent for the sake of some moral point she wants to prove to her friend, then posts it on social media to prove it to her other friends, I assume.
Just so you know, it is racial profiling to identify someone, based on their race, and then ask them to prove their innocence when they have done nothing wrong. Whether she believes they were up to no good or not is immaterial, her actions were exactly those of someone who could have believed they were up to no good. If she had come over to the table said, hey, my friend is a bit racist and thinks y’all are up to something bad, can you tell me what you’re up to to make her shut up, it might have been a little better. Instead, she made them feel criminalized and confused, and then became condescending and nice. If you saw the story alone, wouldn’t you think that she just helped out two poor black kids and then gave them money to help them have fun (fun which they normally couldn’t have afforded)? But that is clearly not the case, and that’s why the other is responding this way.
So, Kevin. Indulge me for a second.
Imagine you’re out for the evening at the restaurant of your choice, you’re sitting there with a friend, or your wife, or whoever you go to restaurants with, minding your own business, and this person just plops down in the middle of your table, in the middle of your conversation, and just… sits there, staring.
You weren’t expecting this, so you’re just sitting there. After a long silence, the interloper demands to know what you’re doing. I’m guessing at this point, your response is going to be something like, “…I’m sitting here, minding my own business. What the heck are YOU doing?”
And the person says, “Look, this is my restaurant, so if I want to sit here and ask you questions, you’d better answer them or you’re out of here.”
Now, at this point… doesn’t that strike you as insulting? I mean, has that ever happened to you? Sure, we’ve all seen rowdy guests get a visit from the manager to pointedly quiet them down or hurry them along, but not to quiet, well-behaved guests, and it’s in no way normal for the owner or manager to just slide on in and make themselves at home.
As a paying customer, you don’t exactly have a rental agreement on the booth, but there’s such a thing as social conventions and being the owner of a business that someone is patronizing does not entitle one to contravene them. Simply put, that’s not you behave towards a stranger, much less a customer.
The fact that the phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” also applies to things that look awesome does NOT in any logical way remove the fact that it only makes sense in the original posting as a reference to Black skin as a “bad” cover. The fact that her trite moral lesson would also mean “also don’t judge people as good based on the traits you have learned to positively stereotype!” doesn’t make it less racist.
You’re ready to clap Tuohy on the back for having been willing to prove the racist assumptions wrong, but absent her own racism, she never would have thought it was okay to treat a pair of customers like that. Never. She acted like they were not entitled to the same privacy as other customers, the same benefit of the doubt as other customers, the same boundaries as other customers. She treated them without an ounce of respect or human dignity.
If she wanted to send a message that Black youth are no different than anyone else, the way to do it would have been to tell the “they’re up to no good!” lady to mind her own business, not put them on the spot and turn their lives into an object lesson for the internet.
Bravo, EXCELLENT post. Excellent points.
This is common courtesy and social convention. Things that I THOUGHT were to be applied to everyone.
I am a woman of what you would call white privilege, no doubt. Even so, I’ve been approached by waiters and waitresses as to my sitting in a restaurant if I haven’t ordered anything in a few minutes time and/or if I linger for over five minutes if my meal is over. (No-where in the story does it state the kids were ‘paying’ customers or had ordered anything–if it’s in there, please point me to it…so this is merely Your assumption). I have also been approached in boutiques and even typical department stores with trepidation if it appears I am loitering or walking around without intent to buy something. I even had a store manager knock on the restroom door once (because she thought I was taking too long and, potentially, up to no good). Yes, I do feel insulted when that happens and feel like they are watching me thinking I’m a potential shop-lifter or merely ducking in and loitering to hide from someone. Should I tell them to stop it because I’m claiming ‘white privilege’? Not that this is the case in this particular scenario, but it does speak to your points.
excellent points, well articulated. thank you.
Well said. Your response was the most unbiased I read, very objective. Thanks for your thoughts
Kevin excuse me but I think you’ve missed the crux of what the author is trying to say, which is that there is a racism so deeply ingrained
even the actor is not aware their actions are racist.
Wow, you weren’t there. You didn’t see what she saw. You don’t know what she was thinking. Yet somehow, you want to judge what you think she was thinking and what you interpret her actions to mean. Maybe you are reacting this way because this is how you would see the situation. That doesn’t mean someone else is seeing it the same way.
Well Stated, Randy–although the race-baiting radio interviewer I listened to sure worked like mad to get the teens to buy into his outrage and his totally irresponsible and pathetic narrative.
Reblogged this on hafsahaneelabashir's Blog and commented:
Had to repost this!
This definitely takes the cake as the most demeaning story I have heard in recent history. The idea that after making what amounts to a racial profiling decision about what these young men were doing that this woman then wanted her picture taken with them and posted to Facebook turns my stomach. If white people are afraid of black people it should be because our ancestors treated them so poorly for so many years, enslaved them, and at minimum remained silent while so many good people were murdered that we expect them to want revenge. Like the Native American community against whom are ancestors committed genocide, most people of color offer a level of forgiveness and goodwill which cannot be claimed to be deserved but at minimum deserves to be gratefully acknowledged.
The thing is, I don’t really think it’s so much about being afraid as it is about control and exerting authority.
There’s been a whole history of Black people’s public gatherings being severely restricted, monitored, and disrupted. I can’t tell you HOW many personal accounts I’ve read from African-Americans about being at work, at school, some social function, and seeing looks of concern or upset from certain Whites towards groups of Black folks.
These have been innocent, working, average, every-day Black Americans; surely, people aren’t “afraid” of them ‘conspiring’ to do something…it’s about exerting that authority over them. Wanting to maintain that privilege of disrupting and interfering with the private & public spaces of people of color. It’s all about power.
This has ranged from the smallest incidents to wide-scale, massive attacks (like the intentional destruction of Black communities).
It’s all part and package of the racist power structure in America, I feel.
I suppose I can only go by what I sense and perhaps I am way off target it has happened before. What I was feeling was that white people are afraid of black people because they’re expecting the anger and desire for revenge that they so clearly have earned by enslaving and oppressing people of color throughout the history of this country.
You make good points, though…I didn’t really consider that part of it.
If there are some white people “afraid” of African-Americans, it really speaks more of an internal shame than anything else…African-Americans don’t have a history of violence against Whites. Lynching, community rampaging, etc. these acts were not perpetrated by Black people towards Whites as a group.
For most of U.S. history, Black people have wanted nothing more than to be left the hell alone by racists, work for a decent wage to provide for their families, and live their lives without harassment. I think that Black people have been a remarkably calm and forgiving people considering all that they’ve suffered.
Wow cannot believe this still happens.
To all white people:
Leave us alone. Stay away from us. Your presence and company are not welcomed additions.
Thank you.
What about our money? Do you want us to keep that away too? Are the non whites going to take care of thier own? We are always the evil ones, but the same ones that are expected to pay the bills. Call me a racist, I dont care. I know my heart, and I am sick of being condemned by those who do not know me, all while they demand more from me.
Racist much?
It’s people like you who made life hell for us mixed kids growing up.
Not white enough to be white, and not black enough to be black.
I can totally understand people’s anger seeing this. It’s like this cycle never seems to end…people perpetuate it, feed into it, support it, and it continues to go on and on, ripping apart at the strands of the already frayed state of race relations in America.
But I feel it’s good to make a distinction and judge people based on their individual merit, so I don’t say “all” white people stay away from us (people of color).
But what I can say is that people with preconceived notions, harmful stereotypes, a belief in their own privilege and superiority, should stay far, far, FAR away from Black people. Leave them the hell alone. Stop hounding, harassing, and pestering people of color because they can’t recognize all of our common humanity.
It’s just a sad state of affairs.
“Stop hounding, harassing, and pestering people of color because they can’t recognize all of our common humanity.”
And when I say “they”, of course I mean the hounders, harassers, and pesterers.
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This is what happens when female narcissism goes unchecked. You can thank white feminism for getting it to this point.(Don’t be fooled. Black feminism doesn’t exist. Ask Gloria Steinem)
File Leigh Anne in the same category as Kreayshawn, V-Nasty, Gwyneth Paltrow, Madonna and every other white female scumbag who feel they have a pass to be racist because feminism will supposedly protect them from black criticism.
Its 2014
I think what people don’t understand about racism is that it’s about more than offensive judgements and hate. It’s about a power-imbalance. Think about it, what do I care if a white man hates me. I care only because the power he has to execute his hate, to legislate his delusion scares me. Because I have I so few defenses against his assault, so I feel powerless. And angry. Living with that, second guessing the next white man who didn’t ask for his power yet he stepped on me through carelessness, coping with these fears from the cradle to the grave, that’s racism.
Leigh Anne perhaps meant well, but she wielded her power over these boys like a club or a whip until she got them to bend to her will. That’s not cool.
I would have loved if she’d approached them as equals. “Hey I’m really bothered by what my friend said. I think that’s bullshit. I want to prove her wrong; will you help me?”
At least then, they have their choice and their dignity.
Thank you for your first paragraph honestly explaining, succinctly, how it Feels to be in your shoes without lecturing. This is what will make a difference in the mindset of honest white folk, like me, who care for the sake of understanding and want to make a difference.
You lose, me, however, in your subsequent paragraphs when you begin your lecture assuming to dictate how she ‘should have; responded to the scenario. According to one of the teen’s responses, they were sitting in the restaurant discussing whether or not he would pay for his brother’s way into the game and that he had a job and was willing to do so. If this is the case, then why didn’t he just say “thanks, but no thanks, I have a job and will pay my brother’s way into the game myself…I know you mean well, but don’t you think that’s a bit stereotypical?”. Why did they accept the money? If they had politely refused, there, likely, would have been no picture made, and they wouldn’t have felt any ‘obligation’ whatsoever for a pic, not that they did feel obligated. Clearly, they were at ease with this woman and felt like she cared. Even so, THEY had the choice to politely Not accept her offer, and she would have had to return to the other woman (or not) and tell her, ‘Hey, this kid here has a job and is merely discussing if he will pay his brother’s way into the game tonight’, so you’re assumptions are invalid.
Are you (well-intended, also) not actually teaching the perpetuation of the stereotype to try and dictate the woman’s response (which I don’t agree with either) while Not addressing the teen’s response to the woman–esp. the teen who says he has had a job for a year and added clarity to the story that they were there discussing who would pay for his brother’s way?
” If this is the case, then why didn’t he just say “thanks, but no thanks, I have a job and will pay my brother’s way into the game myself…I know you mean well, but don’t you think that’s a bit stereotypical?”. Why did they accept the money? If they had politely refused, there, likely, would have been no picture made, and they wouldn’t have felt any ‘obligation’ whatsoever for a pic, not that they did feel obligated.”
I think, as young Black men, there’s the possibility they may have felt cornered into the situation….Leigh Anne, even if we all give her the benefit of the doubt, and she meant 100% well (which according to all the details coming out about how she lied about these young men’s financial situation, doesn’t seem likely. This looks in every way to exploitation to the public), seemed to exert all of her authority in that moment over them. Her authority as a business owner, her authority as a White woman in America whose word, hypothetically speaking, would be listened to over young Black men’s in case authorities would be called….even if we could remove the race element from this story, what would we be seeing?
We’d still be looking at a person who horned into two strangers’ lives, and regardless of money given to them, blasted their personal information and faces all over the world wide web without seeking their permission and consent.
As I posted above, the mother of one of the young men in the video interview I shared, was described by her son as “outraged”. The family of this young man felt violated.
I think that counts for SOMETHING. In fact, I think that says it all, and means that Tuohy was in the wrong.
I respect their family’s feelings and take them far, far, far more into consideration than anyone else’s in this situation. They’re the ones who’ve had to live with seeing their kids’ faces spread all around the internet because of the self-serving, irresponsible actions of this woman.
I should add that this incident shouldn’t be turned into a case of nothing at all mattering except what Tuohy wanted to do, what Tuohy’s intentions were, what Tuohy thought was right, and the family’s feelings not really mattering, the young men’s feelings not really mattering, the public’s feelings not really mattering…the only thing mattering is that Leigh Anne Tuohy had supposedly “good intentions”. I’m not specifically addressing anything you said, to be clear, I’m just speaking in general.
What’s the point of “good intentions” if they backfire and make people upset and uncomfortable. The young man’s family being angry at what transpired is the only sentiment that has any value in this story.
“The young man’s family being angry at what transpired is the only sentiment that has any value in this story.
That may be your opinion, and you can shout it from the rooftops if you like, but it doesn’t make it reality. The reality is that a black racist radio host who got wind of Leigh-Ann’s ‘good deed’ via the internet, contacted the Mom to stir the pot and got her all worked up about it, (in an effort to get permission to interview her son for his racist radio program) like he tried to do with her son, but failed after repeated attempts.
To me, the whole story has value–which hasn’t been accurately portrayed or even vetted by racist folks just out to gain a blog following in order to spread the poison ‘always the victim’ dogma. The reality is that It should only matter how the boys experiencing the encounter first-hand feel about it–and the boy he interviewed said he and his friend would never have thought Leigh Ann was what the black racist radio host (who kept trying to put words in the boy’s mouth) pointed out and said he wouldn’t even have considered it…until repeatedly baited to do so by the racist radio show host.
That a Mom would either not ask, and/or ignore her son’s feelings about it and/or not give a damn about them and choose, instead, to jump on the ‘do-gooder white folk are self-serving racist’ bandwagon is beyond logical to me and revealing as to the possibility of self-serving motives. If an encounter or incident doesn’t create angst in my child, who states, publicly, he would never have thought of the woman in the way she was being portrayed, then it is just purely selfish to pursue my own angst about it and insist my son be stirred up to have the same feelings. While I can see the Mom not wanting her family to be seen as a ‘charity case’, the logical thing to have done would to have been to take him back and return the money, with a simple ‘thank you for your generosity, but my son works and pays his own way, as I have taught him to do.” Or better yet, have him say it for himself. What, exactly, are we teaching our children with choosing to promote anger instead of constructive action? Think about it.
Fair
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A road paved with good intentions?
Enough with the race baiting and finger pointing amid cries of “that’s racist!” White people can’t do anything right these days, even when they’re simply trying to be nice or help someone. Get a life and focus on your own instead of analyzing someone else’s attempt to do something nice for another person, as misplaced as the gesture may have been.
This story sounded fishy. They needed 3 dollars for a basketball game when he’s got wireless Beats headphones. I think those are like 350$
Reblogged this on Thoughts, Raves, and Outright Beatings and commented:
“Leigh Anne Tuohy profiled two Black kids, invaded their privacy and interrogated them, but somehow people are behaving as if this is some kind of wonderful social justice moment. No. Not even a little. This is some fucked up racial profiling combined with white saviourism, and it is racist as hell. Assuming that those kids were doing something bad was racist. Assuming that she could take up space at their table was racist. Insisting that they talk to her was disrespectful and racist. Wanting evidence that they weren’t up to no good was racist. Treating those boys as props to make her look good and then posting this picture publicly (and honestly, I wonder if the boys consented to that) is incredibly racist.”
Just because someone made a movie about you being “nice” to someone does not mean that you are protected from being called out on your shit. The best thing Ms. Tuohy could have done is leave those kids alone and kick paranoid racist white lady #1 to the curb. Of course, that’s not what happened, and she got a cookie, anyway. Grrrr.
Thank you for this post. It is spot-on.
This article is a piece of shit i dnt see yall tryna help no one just talk about it … N really those two bois are twice her size she is obviously no dam threat come on a Lil white women n 2 obviously bigger then her black boys …. And you weren’t there those bois could have been sitting there looking miserable…they Look obviously happy for her help in this picture regardless of this “confession” from “one”of the boys..because really if he had “money” on him or a job or wtever that he wouldnt trip off $3 n the other boys supposedly his “brother” was to proud to take it “so they decided to wait for someone to drop off $3 wtf dat dont even sound right “i have 6 brother 2 sisters” i aint never hurd them say they was to proud or wtever to take $3 come the fuc one BOGUS…”and if this confession is fake and they called dem brothers cuz there black and can pass for brother “then whos really racist”????.. this little lady is a Angel how many blacc ppl or any one at that have you helped? Or adopted and clothed Nd fed out the kindness of your heart and didnt ask for shit in return… we need more pl like her maybe we wouldn’t have so many bllack deaths n misunderstanding cuz of skin color.she obviously felt like she could help them bois and she did and didnt ask for shit in return if thats a racist then this world is really screwed up..shit you didnt put a smile on those bois faces.she did! You didnt give them money to help them out “regardless if they needed it or not ” “she did” so who the hell are you to tryn an analyze someones intentions especially sence they were GOOD intentions ..if ur gunna analyze anything it shouldnt be wt “good” ppl are doin . Why wouldnt you applaude her for helpn out ppl she felt were in need she made there day…..yall tryna make it sumthing its not just to get your bullshit ass paper or website views ur sicc for attacking hER all she obviously wanted to do was help …why would you attack her for that.?….your obviously the racists one…. Are you mad a “white women” helped out two “black bois”?…..cuz it looks n sounds like it to me…she cant control wt her friends are saying and thinking ..”no one can”…. all she was doing was goin with her own beliefs which were Tryna help someone she felt might need her assistance..#how can you knocc her for that? #God bless her “little”…. “BIG” HEART..
Also if the one boy was to proud or embarrassed or head strong or wtever to accept help from his own brother why would he accept it from her?
??
And he said “i was gunna pay for my brother the pottery guy in the picture but he insisted on waiting for “HIS UNCLE”…thought yall was brothers?..????
I ment “*other” not pottery sorry auto correct…
??
For her to make sweeping judgments about the motives or “scariness” of two people sitting at a table is wrong. But, well, so is this author to do the same. It probably was racial profiling, but there’s no concrete evidence, nor was any crime committed anyway. Racial profiling may absolutely SUCK, but hating on this woman or the police or anything else with—what else, but more sweeping judgment does NOT fix anything.
Rants and diatribes, more victimization, loss of sight with the big picture… Speak up, but at least try to be fair. Sharpton makes a profit too, though he’s not considered kind. When will the hatred and rash fear stop? When we stop feeding it.
Reblogged this on the something garden and commented:
Love me some Anne over at The Belle Jar… she is so spot on here!
Reblogged over at thesomethinggarden.com. You’re the best!
I am an extrovert, I am nosey, I have fewer personal boundaries than most…I like people. I even like teenagers. I often use actions, not only words, to prove a point. I constantly cross the invisible line that separates strangers, authority figures, societal outcasts, the ill, tatted up felons…. I too would have sat my butt in someone else’s booth, most likely un welcomed, and started a conversation. I give rides, unsolicited advice and hugs to complete strangers. I like people. I am white. I can only hope that I am not judged (to harshly) for who I am
Reblogged this on classyasfemme and commented:
“good” White people should get a prize for all the fucking great things they do. (sarcasm)
Why shouldn’t ‘good’ black people get a prize for all the effing great things they do as well?? Let’s face it, with your attitude white folk are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Make up your mind. Not all white folk are patronizing and self-aggrandizing.
You clearly don’t understand the point of this article. There’s a history of racism in the US that white people took part of and still enforce in society today. I’m not saying all White folk are damned, I’m saying that they should actively think and question their actions and the societies they are in a part in, and fight for the rights of people of color as their own in order to be true allies. Ever wonder why you see people of color reflected less on the media and TV shows than white folk?
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You are so full of yourself and was why I unfriended you.
Wow. What she did for her eldest child is a wonderful thing, and a great example. What she did to these two young men is the exact opposite. She needs to stop buying her own press – just apologize, learn your lesson, and move on with life.
I cannot even imagine having to worry about someone invading my privacy to ask what I’m doing. Then give me money I didn’t ask for and brag about it?
Why did they accept the money? One of the teens clarified the story saying he had a job and that they were in the restaurant discussing if his brother wanted him to pay his way into the game, etc. The working teen could have just politely said “thanks, but no thanks–I have a job and will pay my brother’s and my way in and the game is just right down the street, so we can walk, no problem.” Accepting the money feeds into the stereotype–and offered the woman the opportunity to help–and then post it on social media resulting in this story where white folks are damned if they care and damned if they don’t. You look like a white chick to me–aren’t you just as patronizing with your empathetic post? White folk are supposed to watch their step, their words, and accept responsibility for their actions, but black folks aren’t?? If you don’t need the money and can pay your own way (and your brother’s as well in this instance), then why take the hand-out?? Seems a bit disingenuous to me. Someone needs to tell that working teen to quit feeding the monster. (which is what white folks are being portrayed as here for merely giving a damn–granted she may have went about it in the wrong way in trying to prove her point, but it appears her intentions were to show the other woman she had no reason to fear a couple of black teens just hanging out together).
Your points are well written! Thanks for sharing!
This discussion is heated. I can see both sides of the argument. Must say without the fullest facts I can not call it. I would like to draw you to a post I have. I would like to invite you guys to leave comments on my post. Keep it clean.
http://okay2disagree.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/let-there-be-black-annie.html?m=1
Let there be a black Annie.
Sylvia, I understand the point you are trying to make, but you are wrong to think that this woman had any racist intentions. A person who truly believes in something (that we are all created equal for example) will try to enforce that belief when it is questioned. That is all she was doing when she approached their table, proving to her friend that they weren’t doing anything wrong. It is actually disgusting that you consider this to be a racially driven action. The money was an act of kindness, which given her history, she would have performed whether the boys were black, white, orange, blue or purple. Posting it on social media was probably done because of people such as yourself that try to promote racism because of recent events. She is trying to take a stand and show that these two men are just that, two men. If you can’t see the kind motivation behind her actions it is simply because you are blinded by your own racist beliefs.
One thing that I just want to be sure about, is that it appears from what one of the young men wrote, that they were actually NOT customers in her store, but rather loitering and charging a phone without having patronized her business. It gives the incident a slightly different tone if you think about that. I’m under the impression that a restaurant is not a public place like a park, but rather a private establishment. It is her business place, reserved for the use of paying customers. If you’re not spending money there, then I don’t think you have a “right” to be there, any more than homeless people have a right to hang out in restaurants briefly unless they buy something. I may be wrong about this, but I just think that a business owner has a right to say something about loitering, or am I wrong?