The reactions to everything from Fruitvale through Waller County to Staten Island are as instructive about America and where we rate on the human decency scale as anything our major media sources hire experts to assess. The comments section following reports and editorials in the New York Times are particularly useful. How about this comment from "Umar" in New York in response to the latest report on one east Texas county's glaring racism?
There is no racism if as a minority: you know your place, keep your head down and your mouth shut, laugh at racist jokes, nod your head to bigoted stereotypes and agree with the sentiment that "they got what was coming" for heavy handed police action.
For too long with we've confused "getting along" with "equality."
That, of course, is a characterization of the America we actually live in, not the one we fantasize.
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Just a reminder: Waller County is one tiny part of a huge state.
Remove human settlement in Texas and you're still left with an astounding diversity of landscape and climate. There are seven (count 'em!) distinct eco-regions in one enormous state.
Add humans and you've got Asian, African, native Americans, Scots-Irish, German, Hispanic, Czech, French, Italians (15th century), Belgians, Scandinavians, Syrians, Greeks -- and whole fresh bunches of people in the 20th century and onward.
Texas produces some fabulous beer; "normal" men take their jeans to be professionally washed and starched to the point where those garments can stand on their own. (That's what keeps the men looking strong and vertical when the cold Canadian wind starts blowing in November -- and on through until May when the heat begins to settle in and no amount of starch can guarantee the sustainability of manliness.)
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North of Waller County is the town of Farmersville. I avoid anything in the general vicinity of Dallas (except Fort Worth, a great town). So the news about Farmersville leaked through on public radio this morning. You can check it out in the Dallas Morning News if you like. An opener:
At first it was a story on the local TV news: “Collin County Residents Condemn Proposal For Muslim Cemetery,” reported KTVT-Channel 11. A couple of days later our Wendy Hundley followed up with this lengthy look at the dust-up along Highway 380 halfway between McKinney and Greenville (where visitors were once welcomed by a sign that said it was home to “The Blackest Land” and “The Whitest People”).
Then came the Jacquielynn Floyd column and the letters to the editor and the requisite Associated Press follow-up.
Now the whole world knows about the Fightin’ Farmers of Farmersville, some of whom are fightin’ mad enough that they’re threatening to dump pig’s blood on the would-be cemetery.
Public Radio gave us, for our listening pleasure, some largely unexpurgated comments from the "patriots" with (presumably) the pigs. Not nice.
CNN has also been to town, so you TV newsies will know more about this already.
