Tree worker beat by crowd

RyanCafferky said:
Reading this exchange makes me think of this story in a different light. What if the driver had been black? Would his medical bills have been covered by strangers? Would he have been treated as a criminal instead of an innocent victim? Maybe those people who delivered that beating felt like they were the villagers and the white driver was the tiger. In my eyes, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. A veritable symbol of the foot on their neck that they have felt for years. I'm not defending behavior or giving justification for it. Everyone has to take responsibility for their actions. I just think it is important to have sympathy for all of those involved and to not ignore the lingering effects of a racist culture a few generations removed from slavery.
Click to expand...

I disagree that it is important to have sympathy for all those involved. Those who robbed and almost beat one of our brothers to death deserve no sympathy. Would you tell Steve Utash they deserve his sympathy? To say he "was just in the wrong place at the wrong time" seems to me that you see his beating as an act of nature like a rigging failure or a freak wind burst. Independent of the race of the victim or perpetrators, a horrible crime was committed here and I hope the perpetrators face the full brunt of the U.S. justice system.

Carlos
 
A rigging failure is not an act of nature.

Watching this thread has caused my IQ to drop a few points. Good thing I'm a genius, and can stand to lose some of my intelligence.

SZ
 
I am very sympathetic to Utash but I have a nagging feeling he was on his cell phone when he hit that kid. It was a wake up call to me because I have the bad habit of that sometimes.
 
treebing said:
I am very sympathetic to Utash but I have a nagging feeling he was on his cell phone when he hit that kid. It was a wake up call to me because I have the bad habit of that sometimes.
Click to expand...
I don't think so Kevin. Watch the video. The kid walked out from behind a car right into traffic. At least I think that's what I saw. Regardless, it appeared pretty unavoidable for the driver.

Let's just make sure we're not attacking races here. If there's a certain group that cause problems, I don't think we should hide from it. That does more harm than good. But I want to make it clear that no race is to blame. Just bad teaching and peer pressure.

Each race will have bad groups within it, all caused by some bad teaching. I think of the holocaust and gangs of any color. We should be able to call out those groups. Period. And do so without focusing on the race. Being called racist for pointing to that group is the same bad teaching that caused that group.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, you could be right it may have been unavoidable. This incident has definitely caused racial tensions to rise. I don't live very far from where it happened. I have the best neighbors in the world though. The history of race in this city is very complicated. I have been amazed at some of the commentary on this incident on white radio here. It scares me.
 
Obviously I'm referring to any problematic group, regardless of race. Why are you always playing the devil's advocate? You'll never make me racist no matter how hard you try.
 
Logic, I am truly not trying to call you out as a racist. But the language you are using makes me really uncomfortable.

What group would you be watching out for to avoid this scenario? Large groups of young males in any low income neighborhood?
 
Mac, it's cool. Like the tigers I mentioned (incorrectly living in Africa) I'm watching out for whatever group would be a threat to me or my family. Call it paranoid but I'm a Dad that cares about his girls. I'm not calling out a race because it's not a race I'm watching out for. Could color play a part? Sure. If an officer asked you what the criminal looked like that attacked your family would you not tell him their skin color? Would you not say the dude looked like a white supremacist, if in fact he did? I would hope so. It's only a facet in a whole line of descriptives that are used as tools in law enforcement.

You're hypersensitive to all this Mac. I'm OK, and I'm sure the majority of the United States is OK with the fact that you've married into a family of color. Big deal. It's 2014. What gets me is you're so focused on the flesh, but the soul means nothing to you.
 
easyphloem said:
A rigging failure is not an act of nature.

Watching this thread has caused my IQ to drop a few points. Good thing I'm a genius, and can stand to lose some of my intelligence.

SZ
Click to expand...

True, a rigging failure is usually a result of operation outside of spec. Bad example on my part. Sorry to offend Stephen Hawking here.
 
I am concerned that whenever a white person kills a person of color it is no big deal, self defense, the white guy was really scared of the teenagers so he unloaded his pistol into the car, the two white cops see a Hispanic child with a toy gun, yell for him to stop, when he turns they shoot him. These things go almost unnoticed by white America. And the murderers invariably get minimal, if any, punishment.

This tragic event (I do feel terrible for Utash and his family) however has the roles reversed and gets people all riled up about which "groups" it's okay to profile as dangerous.

I think I need to be done with this thread...
 
"This tragic event (I do feel terrible for Utash and his family) however has the roles reversed and gets people all riled up about which "groups" it's okay to profile as dangerous. "

You really have got to be kidding right? A local news report and some guys talking on a forum is riled up? Need I remind you of a Florida incident? That was riled up. National news. Sometimes I'm not sure your head is right.

I've tried being polite to you and feel I've offered a plausible debate. All I get in return is being pigeonholed into a category I know is not true. As if your only response is, "Nanny nanny boo boo."
 
Last edited:
Logic, I wasn't trying to call you out in my last post, I apologize if that's how it came across.

And people were upset about that Florida incident, but the guy still walked. And I am not focused on the flesh, but on the equal treatment of all human beings, which we are FAR from in this world.

In regards to your last paragraph, it's like you took the words out of my mouth.

I do not believe you to be a racist in the classic sense. But white people as a whole tend to have an attitude toward race that is more cavalier, because hey have never suffered as a result of their race. Maybe Utash did. But that is the exception, not the rule.

And some of the language you were using in earlier posts came off as racist, sorry, that's how it sounded. All that tiger talk really didn't sound good.

I'm sure you think my head is wrong, cause I feel the same way about yours. We fundamentally disagree on some very hot button issues. I appreciate that we've been able to keep it civil this far. Thanks for holding up your end on that.

This debate goes nowhere, though because we are both certain of our truths.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New threads New posts

Back
Top Bottom