Attn: White people NEVER — do not EVER — question any thing a black man does.
Attn: Brown people That goes for you, too.
Byron Ragland was court-appointed to monitor a November 7 visit between a mother and a son of whom she does not have custody. The clients wanted frozen yogurt, so the three of them went to Menchie’s. The clients bought frozen yogurt and sat down together at a table. Ragland bought nothing, and sat down at such a distance from the others that staff believed he was alone.
This went on for thirty minutes. Then, instead of asking Ragland himself if he meant to buy anything, staff phoned the owner, Ramon Cruz, and asked that he call 911 to have Ragland removed.
Police came and told Ragland to leave. He was not arrested.
There is no evidence of racial profiling here.
In the Anglo world, it’s unheard of that any establishment would call police without speaking to the customer first. That this didn’t happen here tells me staff had so little English that they would not have been able to have the necessary conversation. For his part, Ragland proves to be so hostile that I shudder to think what would have happened, if staff had approached him. Elise Sole quotes his remarks at a November 20 press conference:
They are gonna say [Cruz] should be able to go on with his life. You know what I say? I say you cannot allow white supremacy to scurry away in the corner and lick its wounds and regroup. You got to keep your foot on white supremacy’s neck. You got to grind your boot into white supremacy’s throat until you hear it stop breathing. And when it’s looking up at you begging for mercy, you show it none. Because over the last 400 years, it hasn’t shown you any. Those are my intentions, that’s my agenda.
I worked in law from 1985 to 2004 and never saw it. Malik Shabazz tried and failed to incite the Freddie Gray riots, and I didn’t see it. Even behind the Carolyne Cass debacle, I didn’t see it. I see it now.
Some lawyers are just screwy.
Is fear racist?
Of James Bell (actually, James Bible), Ragland’s lawyer, Elise Sole reports this:
The lawyer says that during 911 calls, “code” is often used while describing people of color to justify removing them from public areas. For example, Cruz mentioned his employees were “scared” and informed the operator that “robberies” and drug use had once occurred in his store.
Here is the oft-repeated dogma that if a white/brown/red/yellow person ever feels uneasy in the presence of a black man, it never has anything to do with the latter’s conduct, but instead solely with the white/brown/red/yellow person’s racism.
Half a dozen people, now deceased, had every reason to fear Todd Kohlhepp. If he were black, would that be racist?
May 24, 2013, Rashaw Scott sat in a parked car in Baltimore’s Cherry Hill, holding his 1-year old son, Carter Scott. Three men wearing masks and latex gloves stormed the car, firing at least 16 rounds meant to kill Rashaw. They wounded him, but did kill Carter. From his hospital bed, the father identified all his assailants to detectives. But at their trial, he recanted every word. Clearly, he feared them.
Does the fact that they were black, make the accusations racist?
Was Rashaw’s fear racist?
If he’d been white/brown/red/yellow, would his fear have been racist?
Back to Ragland
More words from his press conference:
“I think we need to make sure Ramon Cruz is unable to renew his business license here. And when the lease for this store is up, we need to make sure that Byron Ragland has the capital and resources to purchase this Menchie’s and the two other restaurants he owns in this community. That would be a good place to start. That would make me feel a little bit better. That would be a look in the right direction and that is how you punish white supremacy and anti-black behavior — you hit it hard and you hit it fast right in its pockets.”
Bottom line: Will he, or will he not, get on with life?
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