Rusty Shackleford's X-Files

[Rusty Shackleford]

I'm not saying who I used to be on here, but I used to write a weekly column that was partly political. I am hoping that this will be the beginning of a new weekly column, if you playas are feelin' it.

In my previous life on SZ, I offended a few people by being deliberately obnoxious. I apologize for that. I would especially like to apologize to Uxbridge, who is a sound fella, and certainly not what I called him in the past.

I also may have offended people with my opinions, I'm not going to apologize for that. You know what they say, opinions are like a$$holes, everyone's got one. And always be true to your butt, as well as your opinions.

Racism in Sainsbury's

I was queueing up in Sainsbury's the other day with my good lady, and in the next queue, a fella of about 65 was shouting at a much smaller woman, and barging her with his chest. The woman was clearly quite frightened, and her young daughter looked absolutely terrified. There were a number of people in the area, but nobody said anything, despite the chap being quite old and not particularly large. It was left to lil ole me to insist that the geriatric assailant desist from his tirade. He told me to mind my own business, but I was insistent and he finally shut up and left with his bag full of groceries and his heart full of bile.

So what's the racism angle here? Well, the older guy was black. These thoughts crossed my mind:

1. The black guy was bitter and twisted by real and perceived racism through his life and was looking for any excuse to lash out at a white person.

2. No-one intervened because they didn't want to appear 'racist'.

I think these are both possible scenarios, but I feel the lack of intervention was more due to our pervasive culture of 'it's not my problem, so I don't give a sh!t'. That attitude is understandable when you hear about the fate of 'Good Samaritans'. I do think the guy had a huge chip on his shoulder, but is that understandable too?

A lady standing in our queue, of a similar age to the aggressive grandad, remarked to me that he should 'go back to his own country'. Perhaps that is the view of most of her contemporaries. I am certain that it is a more widely held view amongst people in their sixties who lived in a virtually all white Britain than it is amongst younger generations. Was this chap bitter at having to spend most of his years in this country whilst it was 'OK' to use the 'n' word, and that he missed out on the multicultural jackpot where 'black' is synonymous with 'cool'. You feelin' me playas?

 

[Crabby Shrimper]

Sounds to me like you did the right thing.

I presume you don't know what caused the arguement, but to be honest that shouldn't matter. if the lady felt threatened, and her child scared, then it should be the moral duty of any chap to ask the man to stop.

As for the racism issue, well, some people may well have been racist. If people weren't asking him to calm down because of his colour, then they were racist. Having said that, it's just as likely that they were victims of the "don't have a go" culture that we find ourselves in. I think a lot of people these days are almost scared of getting involved due to a lack of faith in the legal system in so much as they fear that they could find themselves in trouble legally.

As for the woman that said he should go back to his own country, I hope you rebuked here too, attitudes like that only act as a catalyst.

 

[Benfleet A1]

Well made points and your posts and points of view have been sorely missed. Not having seen the incident in question I can't really comment or surmise but from an personal experience I can see where your coming from.

Tonight, I attended a wheel change on the A127. Nothing new there and I'm not Discussing as that's what I do and if everyone changed their own wheels or repaired their own cars then I would be out of a job. I arrive on scene to find the near side rear as flat as your hat and standing next to it one fit as a fiddle, younger than me gentleman of Asian decent. His English was terrible and his attitude even worse. How would the average person on here take 'Wheel flat, you change now!!?

I ask if his spare was ok and he just shrucked and said 'You look' I ignored the overwhelming desire to smack him with a breaker bar and just got on with the task in hand. Job done, I packed my kit away and got my job sheet for him to sign. He looked at me like I was a piece of sh!t on his shoe, scribbled across the sheet dropped the pen and with another look of utter contempt, got in his car and drove away. I got the impression that he thought he was getting one over on a white person.

Now don't get me wrong, I deal with black scum, white trash and oriental ratbags all day long. I have to advise eastern europeans driving deathtraps that their vehicle should be chucked in the nearest canal and have to bite my tongue when middle eastern people expect a full service on a motor that barely has an engine but I'm always polite, I'm always professional and I see only the person, NOT the colour of their skin. So what given right did this sh!t ******* tosser have to treat me like dirt?

Racism works both ways.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

As for the woman that said he should go back to his own country, I hope you rebuked here too, attitudes like that only act as a catalyst.

No, I asked her to join us for tea.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Welcome back, I'm glad you have confirmed what I thought! Anyway, this scenario - always difficult because of the current culture we live in, however, if that had been me in the woman's situation then I would hope someone would step in. I don't necessarily think people don't do so because of any assumed possible racist slurs but purely because you can never tell these days what the consequences of your actions will be. Personally, I would have tried speaking calmly and rationally to the bloke and if that didn't work, tell him quite clearly that I was calling the police - I am assuming that he was nothing to do with the woman. I'm surprised the security people in the store didn't intervene though. As a bank cashier (and with the safety of the toughened glass!) I have refused to serve people in the past who have been abusive.

Ignorant pigs are always ignorant pigs, regardless of race, colour or creed, and racism does definitely work both ways but invariably when its directed towards a white person it seems to lose significance. That's frequently my observation anyway.

 

[TrueBlue]

and that he missed out on the multicultural jackpot where 'black' is synonymous with 'cool'.

I ****ing hate it absolutely ****ing hate it

Just because your black 1. don't make you 'hard' and 2. don't 'make you cool'

 

[TrueBlue]

Personally, I would have tried speaking calmly and rationally to the bloke and if that didn't work, tell him quite clearly that I was calling the police

you should have called the 'nice guy' brigade Peter Holmes could have ******* him with his mic and catweazle could have touched him up!

 

[TrueBlue]

Welcome back, I'm glad you have confirmed what I thought! Anyway, this scenario - always difficult because of the current culture we live in, however, if that had been me in the woman's situation then I would hope someone would step in. I don't necessarily think people don't do so because of any assumed possible racist slurs but purely because you can never tell these days what the consequences of your actions will be. Personally, I would have tried speaking calmly and rationally to the bloke and if that didn't work, tell him quite clearly that I was calling the police - I am assuming that he was nothing to do with the woman. I'm surprised the security people in the store didn't intervene though. As a bank cashier (and with the safety of the toughened glass!) I have refused to serve people in the past who have been abusive.

Ignorant pigs are always ignorant pigs, regardless of race, colour or creed, and racism does definitely work both ways but invariably when its directed towards a white person it seems to lose significance. That's frequently my observation anyway.

was this the man.....

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

I ****ing hate it absolutely ****ing hate it

Just because your black 1. don't make you 'hard' and 2. don't 'make you cool'

Unless you're that Cuban kickboxer who chinned the ref. He looked pretty hard and I thought that was way cool.

 

[Mad Cyril]

I'd have left Jamie Oliver to defuse the siuation.

He likes dealing with problems.

 

[please delete my account]

You feelin' me playas?

Actually Chap, I'm feeling myself at present, but I digress..

As for your supermarket incident, I admire your restraint. If it had been me, I would have bounced the black dudes head off the till several times, then turned around and battered the racist old slag around the chops with something heavy, before rifling through her purse.
If anyone had complained about my actions, I would have offered out the whole ****ing queue.
But that's just me. I am rather tetchy as I didn't get much action this weekend.

 

[TrueBlue]

Unless you're that Cuban kickboxer who chinned the ref. He looked pretty hard and I thought that was way cool.

Yeah we let him off ;) but then again being Cuban is he Hispanic rather then Black?

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

And If Obama Loses?

After the phony roll call vote was taken in the US to formally nominate Barack Obama -- a roll call that did not remotely reflect the true delegate strength of Hillary -- the media exploded in an orgy of celebration about the historic character of the moment to which they had just been privileged to be witness.

"The first black presidential nominee ever of a major party in history!" was proclaimed. Coming on the 45th anniversary of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech, Barack's nomination is being hailed as the last great step forward in the long march to equality and justice in America.

The moral pressure to join the march of history is enormous.

Nor is it unfair to say that some journalists here are obsessed with the issue of race in this campaign. There may be wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, rising tensions with Russia, a falling regime in Pakistan, and reports of U.S. and NATO warships headed for the Persian Gulf, but here it is all about the first black ever nominated for president.

During the primaries, Bill Clinton was charged with racism by liberal Democrats for saying that Barack's claim to being consistent on Iraq was a "fairy tale" and for implying that Barack's victory in South Carolina was no big deal because Jesse Jackson had carried the state twice.

At the convention, the media watched Hillary and Bill's speeches with a commissar's care -- to ensure they not only embraced Barack but "validated" his credentials to be president. Should they not go all out for Obama, we are told, the Clintons are dead in the party.

The psychic investment in Barack's candidacy is immense.

So great is the moral pressure to conform that John Lewis, the young hero of Selma Bridge, buckled and recanted his endorsement of Hillary. And that act of disloyalty and betrayal, a capitulation to race solidarity, is regarded as praiseworthy.

Black radio has become a cheering section for Obama. Every GOP ad mocking Obama is inspected for racial motives. Campaign books that portray Obama as a radical or phony are denounced by people who have not even seen them. The thought police are out in force.

Michelle Obama's speech about her upbringing and beliefs -- crafted by Barack's hires -- is said to be the last word on what a mainstream patriotic woman she is. But why, then, would she have taken her two lovely daughters to be baptized by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and to listen on Sundays to his racist rants against America?

Abroad, we are told, Europe and the Third World are awaiting the moment when America turns her back on her racist past and elevates this black man to the presidency. The subtext is that this is not just a political contest, but a moral test for America.

Indeed, many have begun to see this election in solely racial terms, an issue of whether racism once again triumphs in America, or racism is buried one and for all.

Questions arise. With this immense moral and emotional investment in a Barack victory -- by 94 to 1 in one poll black America is behind him -- what happens if the nation decides he is too radical, too inexperienced, too callow, too risky to be president?

What happens if the American people reject their marching orders and say no to Barack and black America? What happens if all the hopes and dreams, hype and hoopla, end in disillusionment?

Would the defeat of Barack Obama be taken as an affront to black America? Could we be in for a time of deepening racial division rather than healing? Could we be in for a long, hot autumn like the long, hot summers of 40 years ago?

Should that happen, the people who have framed this election as a contest between morality and racial justice on one side, and the clammy hand of America's racist past on the other, will bear the same moral responsibility as did the advocates of mass civil obedience for the racial riots of the 1960s that followed.

Barack has just shot 6 points ahead of McCain. But he has not yet closed the sale. And to prevent his closing of the sale, the GOP must raise doubts in the public mind as to whether he is really a man of Middle America or the closet radical of the Rev. Wright's congregation who said of Pennsylvanians that they are bitter folks, who cling to their Bibles, bigotries and guns because the world has left them behind.

No candidate has ever been nominated by a major party with fewer credentials or a weaker claim to the presidency, or more doubts as to his core beliefs. If Obama wins, the country could be in real trouble. And if he loses, the country could be in real trouble.

What the media celebrate today, they may rue tomorrow.

Thanks to Pat Buchanan.

 

[MK Shrimper]

A lot of Americans will not put a cross next to a black man.....unless it's on fire.


(C) Dara O'Brain Mock The Week.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

A lot of Americans will not put a cross next to a black man.....unless it's on fire.


(C) Dara O'Brain Mock The Week.

Actually, we usually lynch the black man and then do the burning cross bit. That sort of thing happens all the time these days.

 

[MK Shrimper]

Actually, we usually lynch the black man and then do the burning cross bit. That sort of thing happens all the time these days.

I know Kevin Betsy was awful today, but that's a bit harsh!

 

[Crabby Shrimper]

A lot of Americans will not put a cross next to a black man.....unless it's on fire.


(C) Dara O'Brain Mock The Week.

That's quite scary, got the Mock the Week repeat on at the mo, and just as I was reading that quote, he was saying it!

 

[Einstein]

If Obama wins, the country could be in real trouble.

The country could be in real trouble if they elect McCain too. Thankfully Bush can only serve two terms or he'd probably be sitting in his office hovering over the button to take out Russia and start WWIII. Unfortunately, McCain's policies are too similar to Bush's.

After having just spent some time in the US, Obama has not only just won the 'black vote'. He has won over many of the white voters by promising change (exactly what the US needs!). In fact, in all the people I met, there was not one person which was truly in favour of McCain! And if I was American I'm pretty sure I know which way my vote would be going as well.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

The country could be in real trouble if they elect McCain too. Thankfully Bush can only serve two terms or he'd probably be sitting in his office hovering over the button to take out Russia and start WWIII. Unfortunately, McCain's policies are too similar to Bush's.

After having just spent some time in the US, Obama has not only just won the 'black vote'. He has won over many of the white voters by promising change (exactly what the US needs!). In fact, in all the people I met, there was not one person which was truly in favour of McCain! And if I was American I'm pretty sure I know which way my vote would be going as well.

I would be interested to know where you were in the US, I'm guessing New York? Nobody votes Republican in NYC, that's why Hilary chose that State to stand in. Obama has the black vote, and the Liberal vote, the US equivalent of the 'Guardianistas', but he doesn't have the support of the white and hispanic working class.

McCain is a long way removed from Bush - most Republicans (including me) see him as far too centrist - his choice of Palin as running mate is not just an appeal to women and younger voters but to the Conservative core of the party. The US needs to be tough with Russia - they are the ones invading neighbouring nations and killing civilians. Putin and his cronies are the danger to world peace, and Obama won't have the grapefruits to take a tough stance.

 

[McNasty]

Is there a possibility that the wrong Palin was chosen as running mate ? They meant Michael Palin as they had heard he has "invaded" many countries round the world making his travel programmes and thought he could take American troops with him next time.