Throwing Cotton Balls Considered Felony Hate Crime
Zachary Tucker and Sean Fitzgerald might´ve thought it would be funny to throw cotton balls all over the ground in front of the black culture center, but probably weren´t laughing when they were arrested on suspicion of a felony hate crime.
The incident happened at the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center on the University of Missouri-Columbia campus. They have since been released on bond and the county prosecutor is awaiting more police reports before seeking charges.
On Monday evening 300 angry people showed up to the center to discuss the incident. Nathan Stephens, the center´s coordinator, said the cotton balls were offensive because of the "symbolic violence" that hearkened to days of cotton field slavery.
and stones may break my bones but... WAIT! Cotton balls? Hey! Stop tickling me!
Like the comments at the source say:
"Where is the white cultural center? Oh! That´s right, it would be racist to have such a place. The double standard is obvious, it is ok to be proud of being any race, but white."
and:
"why is there not a white culture center, white entertainment network, white university"
Same goes for ´women´s hospital, women´s university, women´s ____.
If you all want equality, start by getting the race, gender out of the name.
BTW, according to a TV series (on the History Channel?) that explored DNA connections from Africa, most ´African Americans´ have absolutely NO biological roots in Africa!
However, many who call themselves African American DO have connections to the cotton fields/slavery of the American south - which is really what this story is about.
therefore, these students should be protected by the first amendment.
To be sure, their actions were at best racist, hateful and ill advised... but in the absence of harming others, they did nothing more than exercise their freedom of expression. And I´m pretty confident in saying that offending a person or group isn´t a crime.
But hey, I´m just glad Lurker doesn´t make the rules because if he saw a picture of me, there´s no end to the number of crime scenes I would likely be placed at. :)
I´d say those two probably did it specifically for the racial implication as they certainly do look like "racist rednecks" (as Lurker phrased it).
That being said, the only thing these two should be charged for is trespassing and littering. Anything more than that and the legal system starts to go down a very bad path.
The white male groups you mentioned do exist, although their names don´t indicate their exclusivity. A few that come to mind are the Freemasons, the VFW, the Ku Klux Klan, the Catholic Church and damn near any golf club or deer hunting lease in the U.S.
Also, white men don´t have a history of being oppressed. Rather, we have a history of being the oppressors.
but it was 500 years ago, my family didn´t even get off the boat until 1885ish. is it really fair to clump even white people who´s families had nothing to do with any of that shite into the ´it´s the white mans fault´ kind of thinking? i´m just guilty cause i´m white? who´s the real racists here? what about a white guy from france who arrived yesterday, is he guilty to just because he´s here? if i went to canada would i still be a guilty of something i had nothing to do with?
While I see your point, I find the very people who cry "racism" are the very ones who promote racism. Would there be objections to a ´Ku Klux Klan History Centre" opening up on campus? You bet there would. And do white people complain about golf courses - where only WHITE balls are smacked around? The base issue here is enormous. Why can girls be ´boy scouts´ but boys can´t be ´girl guides´? There needs to be found a balance of sensitivity and sensibility. Where there is no threat, there should be no legal foul - though not everything is that black and white. Morals are a different story. You can choose not to be friends of the moral-less. Freedom of thought and/or expression should not be bound by the law.
Oh, in case you haven´t noticed, whites (primarily males) ARE being oppressed. Affirmative action and staff hiring quotas are nothing BUT oppression.
Give the dudes a hefty fine for littering. I don´t like litterers.
I am so glad I do not live there anymore. Next thing in the news, {Woman goes to prison for asking for crackers at local grocery store} sheesh. You know what?! This term "hate crime" is ridiculous. Aren´t all crimes hate crimes? Racism is bad and needs to go away I agree but throwing people in jail for throwing cotton balls is just stupid.
but America has to be the most ###### up country in the history of existence.... behind Israel.
I have no doubt that race inequality still exists in America and much of the western world but this sort of shit is counter productive.
Now if my family was 5th generation convict(I am Australian, people were sent here for stupid shit and pretty much used as slave labor) and someone threw sugar cain on my front step(Convicts were often used as farm labor) and i actually got the connection, i would most likely just laugh and move the #### on.
I don´t understand how or why humans continue to take their ancestors exploitation and use it as if it had happened to them.
I say ban hate crime, it shouldn´t make a difference if i throw cotton on someones door step for them being black or being annoying.
that in this situation the offended people are giving the ´offenders´ an awful lot of power over there lives. I mean all it takes to rile them up is some cotton balls? Regardless of the implication, just look in disbelief, do the facepalm and acknowledge the ignorant boobs for what they are...ignorant boobs. Now I have to qualify that statement by saying that I believe judgement based skin pigment (I won´t say race, since scientifically there are no "races"), gender, etc. is bullsh*t and that people should be considered on a case by case basis (duh).
Have you guys ever seen a redneck? These guys look nothing more than some racist marine rejects.
On another note, I feel they had every right to demonstrate their opinion in a harmless way. I do not agree with it but nor do I agree with the idea that they got sent to jail over something so harmful.
Special treatment and not equal treatment racism will persist.
If blacks were the same as whites then they shouldn´t need a "black culture center."
By indicating that blacks have their own unique culture you´re confirming you can stereotype them...since the two words really mean the same thing it´s just the connotation that you take them in.
The kids look like idiots and their acts probably weren´t for and logical purpose. I´m certainly not jumping to defend them.
cotton balls are so offensive, they should be taken off the shelves and not sold. In fact, if a person merely utters "cotton balls" they should lose their job. And cotton ball manufacturers should be sued for putting out such a racist product. jk
To be fair to the kids, they had no idea this was a "felony hate crime". They knew enough to stay away from rope products and figured cotton was the way to go.
I wonder how many more politically incorrect things are on the list that the Government is hiding from unsuspecting closet "racists". Their fate is truly uncertain.
Hey I know. Maybe Catholics who go to church and get ashes on Ash Wednesday should be charged with a hate crime because someone gets offended at that too?
Put on a white T-shirt with a swastika emblazoned on it and enter any building in the USA and f**kn see what happens to you? All of a sudden you will think, all of USA is Jewish! You know where you will end right?
"BTW, according to a TV series (on the History Channel?) that explored DNA connections from Africa, most ´African Americans´ have absolutely NO biological roots in Africa! " Noooooo of course not! they are not even human beings, they grow in Louisiana marshes, how can they be human!!
I´ve got no sympathy for these two idiots. I can understand the comments regarding free speech and saying that the only real crime they committed was littering, but come on. If they wanted to explore their free speech they should have had the balls to stand out in front of the place with signs and protest or something. They only reason they did this was to piss off the people who attend this center solely because of the color of their skin. I´m sure many of the people attending remember the civil rights movement, perhaps remember a time when blacks couldn´t vote, were routinely beaten for no reason by police and segregated from their white counterparts. We´re not talking about white people paying for something that happened 500 years ago, we´re talking about protecting people from the violence and bigotry that occurred in the recent past here in this country. These too little bigots were trying to hurt and offend people just because they are of a different race, and how much do you want to bet that they thought this was going to be absolutely hilarious? If it was honest protest they could have gone another route. This was all about insult and they were trying to make a big joke out of it. Guess what dumbasses, the jokes on you. Maybe a felony conviction is too harsh. Maybe not. Again, it hasn´t been that long ago that black people were being lynched in the street simply because of the color of their skin. These two bigots would probably like to see it return that way again. Maybe this will open their eyes. Probably not. We´ve got a black guy as a president now, and these two scumbags are throwing cottonballs in front of a black history center. Pathetic. Couple of little cowards IMO. If they were trying to make a statement they should have called out everyone in the center and let them pick the cotton out of the bags themselves and see how that went over. I usually don´t condone violence but one look at these two guys makes me hope some white guys beat their asses for it.
And I am white BTW, surrounded by rednecks, and hear some form of racism on a fairly regular basis. Hate crime laws serve as a severe warning that this shit will not be tolerated.
White men are the most oppressed cultural group in the country. There a million hand outs like scholarships for anyone who is a "Minority" or a Woman,(So as long as you are not a White Man). Also white men are openly the target of racism, but it is never considered hate speech, and it is even broadcast on television and portrayed in movies. The point is, society demonizes white men, to say they aren´t oppressed is laughable. Not every white person is a Rockafeller sitting on trillions.
Huh? You are saying that people of African-American descent are not of African descent? What other continent has black people (that didn´t also get them from Africa, I mean). Is there a nearby planet of black people that I don´t know about?
I´m not racist and do NOT support it, just so we´re clear on that.
I just don´t think these two wanna-be bad a$$es should have their lives completely destroyed because of one foolish act. Most kids (of ALL races) go through worse in high school than these two perpetrated.
Was just relaying what I understood from watching the show. And OBVIOUSLY if they are of African-American descent, they MUST have African roots. But they were finding some so-called "African-Americans" were not. IMO, many would be more appropriately called Black Euro-Americans.
I have a plan reality show, gather all morons from every race and put them on on island for like 6 months. Blind fold them and force them to hug each other.
I don´ think it should be a felony tho, but I do think 2000 hours community service in a predominately black establishments(churches, barber shops, etc..) and sanitation in low income neighborhoods.
I completely agree with both of those ideas, but when they´re doing their 2000 hours community service in predominately black establishments(churches, barber shops, etc..) and sanitation in low income neighborhoods... they should be made to wear a t-shirt that says "RACIST" on it for good measure.
@ Tetsuru Uzuki:
"White men are the most oppressed cultural group in the country."
Oh woe is me, when they gonna lets muh people free? Yeah, my whole life I´ve been a victim of discrimination while women and the black man been keeping me down. You listen to a lot of talk radio by any chance?
@ womenareviolent:
When I was in high school I had a social studies class where the teacher was telling us that they had traced the genetic roots of all of humanity to its origins in Africa. Then he said (this was a white guy, BTW) "See, all of us white people are n@ggers too!". There was probably a 50/50 ratio of whites/blacks in the class and after he said this there was dead silence for about 2-3 seconds, after which the entire class erupted into laughter. Of course he wasn´t being racist, he was driving home a point. We are all one people.
popular subject i guess @ben reilly my family had nothing to do with those things either. @evilrat most germans i´ve met were really cool, not nazi-ish at all =P @spiggy sounds like you live in my hometown lol! @tetsuru lol @spiggys reply @tetsuru i think you both overdid it. i don´t feel oppressed, but i have noticed tons of grants and scholarships to schools for everyone Except white males. i have noticed the jokes on tv, i have had the race card played for simply IDing on a pack of cigarettes, i worked at this place where this black guy came in and wanted to give me a lot of change, not just a little, like 15 dollars in nickels and dimes and pennies. i said i´ll take it this time but i´m not going to do it every time, and he got all pissy saying ´what does that mean!?´ and i said ´exactly what i said.´ and he said ´you don´t gotta say it like that, why you gotta say it like that? huh?!´ and i said ´like what? all i said was i´m not taking this much change next time.´ and he goes ´why you gotta say it like that tho?!?´ and finally i just pushed all his change back at him and told him to get the fack out. and he started yelling and screaming and wanting me to come outside and fight him. so i said i was calling the cops and picked up the phone and dialed them, and he ran away like a little girl.
he came back like a month later and i told him ´i´m not dealing with your shit, get the fack out now!´ and he said ´why you gotta say it like that?!´ and i said ´because you acted like a crazy screaming jerk last time and i don´t want to deal with you´ and he gets all angry and tells me to come outside and fight him again, and i told him to get out and he kept saying no and i kept saying get out, and finally i said ´i´m calling the cops again´ and he threw this entire rack of 5-Hour Energy at me, missed horribly, but still threw it at me. so i said ´god you´re a facking asshole´ and picked up the phone and dialed 911 and he ran away Again.
well my boss knew the kid, and chased after him, but lost him. but he did see him like a month later and pulled over and told the kid not to ever come into the store again. and the kid said I called Him a n****r. WTF?! i never called him that. so my boss came in and told me what he said and looked at me like ´did you really say that?!´ and i said ´NO! i called him a facking asshole after he threw the 5-hour energy rack at me, but that´s about it.´ it seemed like good enough explanation to him, but he still looked suspicious about it. that facking asshole almost got me fired because he was an asshole and i told him to get the fack out! wtf?!
now don´t get me wrong, most black people i meet are nice, some, like one comedian said, think it´s their job to scare white people, some are just jerkoffs for no reason (maybe cause i´m white?), but all in all, most are nice to me. so i´m nice back. reverse golden rule.
I´m not white. I see racism against whites on a daily basis. In fact, I NEVER see racism against any other race.
I´m sure my children, who are all blonde with blue eyes, will experience this racism against them in their lifetime. It makes me sad.
I am of mixxed race between asian, native, and white. The only time I´ve experienced racism in my life was in a Gumbo shop in Mississippi. The black people there refused to serve me and called me whitey, till they found out I was there to have dinner with my father, who is darker then most light skinned blacks. They let me eat there after that, but I drew stares. Now the irony, is if anything I look mexican, or middle eastern, or whatever people think brown skins are (Tan skin, black hair, brown eyes), not white. So just having a lighter skin then them made me "The Man".
My wife, who is the whitest person in the world, experiences racism all the time towards her. Especially when we go to the Asian market. They probably are even racist against me as they wouldn´t think I´d speak the language as I don´t appear to be entirely asian, but I definately hear them talking shit about her, and they assume neither of us would speak tagalog or japaneese, so they are just opening racist in their own language with eachother.
If i believed in race... but i don´t. It´s inbreeder talk. You know, the kinda thinking that get´s Nazis and Nation of Islam types off... Since i don´t subscribe to that bull$hite... i don´t have to say, "I´m not racist but..." or i don´t have to say, "Oh please don´t victimize me or find a reason to justify my hatred towards you..." Now, if you all inbreeders were to stop your ranting and raving, us decent folk could just live our lives without worrying about your stupid pseudo science... but there you are... all over the place, inbreeding everywhere... seething and foaming at the mouth, judging me and my children... always labeling, always measuring, and classifying. Always drawing lines and borders, keeping me from pursuing happiness; limiting my ability to live by closing doors and creating little clicques. You´re all a bunch of sick inbreeding f__ks. Keep your race science out of my dna!
As far as these morons with the cotton balls and none of their own... just let them inbreed into stupidity. They surely will / and may be just one generation from perfecting it.
"They look like a couple of racist rednecks to me.(especially the jerk on the left)"
You sound like a moron to me.
When you so loosely define a ´Redneck´ it is especially offensive. I´ve always considered myself a redneck and am very proud of it. I´m 72 years old, degreed, can read and write, know the difference between ´there, their, and they´re´ and sincerely believe myself and others like me will be the ones to save your sorry arse when the government folds for lack of mentality. Also, I might mention that I lived a good part of my life in deep South Texas, where white people were actually THE minority. I don´t hold any racist tendencies, except for people that try to push their own racial agenda upon me and I feel the only people who have a right to prefix their American heritage with anything are Native-Americans. If you are an American, be an American. Just my 2 cents worth.
I´m a redneck during the summer. I´m a racist when the car runs well. I must have cotton balls ´cause my wife has a case of ´cotton´ mouth. And there will be moron my plate when the economy gets better.
Not directed at anyone in particular. It´s 3:00 AM writings.
It is good to have your view and very interesting to me to read about Texas.
You are probably right about your situation as you see it; but please do not think you are correct in calling Lurker a moron because on that statement you could not be more wrong!
Well... I guess it´s all just a matter of what you experience on a personal level. I have had next to no experiences where I was a victim of racism. It´s funny that you should mention an Asian supermarket though, I frequent a couple of them here in the area where I live on a regular basis and the folks that work there and other Asians shopping there could not be any nicer. However, my wife and I were in an Asian market in Florida and we got several foul looks and an old lady stepped in front of my wife, gave her an evil look, and mumbled something in her native tongue. My wife was offended and asked me what her problem was and I told here we are guilo, and she wasn´t crazy about our cracker arses being in "her" store. My wife was a bit offended but I had a big smile on my face and thought it was fascinating, the first time I had ever seen any racism towards me (us) for being white. I kind of appreciated it to be honest just because it was interesting and so different from what I´ve seen at home.
Despite this though I certainly wouldn´t say that white people are the most oppressed cultural group in the country. I think the Obama presidency is driving a lot of the closet racists out into the open, and I can only imagine some of the "water cooler" talk at work in a lot of the southern states since his election. It´s good to get it all out in the open though because that´s the only way it will be addressed.
I remember hearing some comedian saying that there are so many reasons to hate people on an individual basis that racism should never have to enter in to it. Any idiot who uses a difference of culture or especially something as insignificant as skin tone as a means to base judgment on someone else is a pathetic excuse for a human in my book. You can blame some of it on upbringing I guess but for how long is that an excuse? Most people begin to learn the difference between right and wrong at a very early age, and it doesn´t take much education to realize that people are people the world over.
A lot of it might have to do with location. I´m in the greater bay area of California, San Francisco, Oakland, etc. Life here is like a combination of a hood movie and a gay rights parade, god forbid you be a straight white man in my neiborhood.
I´m sure things are different in other areas of the country.
All future marriages must be inter-racial. Then we´ll all be light brown American´s, all these women can stop wasting time in the tanning booths, and we can all just learn to get along....
I would hardly call the Freemasons and VFW cultural facilities. A facility dedicated to "Black Culture" would be to teach black people about their heritage, etc. Though I do agree that it is obvious that having such a facility teaching "White Culture" would be seen as racist and immediately shut down (or cause riots,) I must say that knowing this proves that there is just as much racism on the part of black people as there is on the part of white people.
People have been taught to be racist (in pretty much ALL races.) Until everyone stops teaching their children to prefer their own race, it´ll never end. I certainly hope I´m not the first, but I´ve tried very hard to promote and understanding to my children that we are ALL "HUMAN" regardless of what we may look like!
Humans are all tribal. If race isn´t an issue we´ll still hate people who are different from ourselves in other ways. Its built into our DNA.
For instance I really REALLY hate emo kids who wear womens pants. Why? Because I associate myself with a different culture. One which I consider superior to theirs. Someone else however probably thinks the same about me when I walk around in a trench coat with metal chains and spikes, and pair of baggy ass black jeans.
I was raised a redneck by rednecks, but I managed to grow up and see there real world without blinders on. "know the difference between ´there, their, and they´re´" I have no idea what you are babbling about there. I never misused any words.
I´ve never felt discriminated against because I am white. That being said, I fully agree that programs like affirmative action (like most government schemes) have been misused and abused.
What I have been though, is discriminated against by people (apparently not unlike yourself) who didn´t like the way I dress.
Who knows.. these people might have met someone they really enjoyed doing business with or who could have become a good friend of theirs. Instead, they chose to hate me because I have long hair, tattoos and earrings.
My point being, you are only harming yourself by "hating" people who´re different looking than you.
I shudder to think how many great people I would never have gotten to know if I were that narrow minded. Not to mention how completely ignorant I would be of how others think and live.
why would cotton balls be a hate crime.... oh, slaves picking cotton! Doh! Maybe it should be a hate crime to serve watermelon at a white get together?
