Loading ...Retaliation or not, it’s still racism
by Mountain Girl ~ June 16th, 2009. Filed under: Community, Crime, Neighborhood watch.Mt. Washington mom finds noose-tied doll scrawled with son’s initials
As ssb70 noted in a comment, WPXI.com reported that a Mt. Washington mother called 911 after finding a doll hanging from a noose attached to the hood of her car on Monday morning. When she looked closely at the doll, she noticed that its face had been painted black and her son’s initials were scrawled across the doll’s mangled and ketchup-splattered torso. This is horribly disturbing and I urge anyone that saw anything that may have led to this incident to call Zone 3 police at 412-488-8326.
What may seem like a cruel and heartless act by either kids who picked up the racist mentality of their ignorant parents or ignorant adults, it’s representative of much more than the misdemeanor offense with which the perpetrators will be charged. It’s a reminder that’s we’ve got miles to go with race relations in the City of Pittsburgh.
Racial incident effects of hypersegregated city?
We featured the Post-Gazette’s interactive homicide map in a previous post and mentioned the 2001 Brookings Institute study that concluded that Pittsburgh is in fact “hypersegregated” based on the fact that “68 percent of the metropolitan area’s black residents would have to move to achieve an even representation of race in every census tract.” Statistics on the City Planning website from the 2000 U.S. Census reinforce this theory. Just to give you a few points of comparison, African-Americans comprise about 16% of the total population of Mt. Washington, while making up 34% of the population in Hazelwood and 2% in Brookline. Not exactly what you would call parity. There are a myriad of reasons for this including sprawl, lack of representation at every level of politics and housing discrimination just to name a few.
There are no easy answers, but it’s something that needs to continue to be part of public discourse. As a friend of mine asked on Facebook today, “Anyone else think that because we have an African-American President that we’re now somehow post-racial?” with a link to this story.
Young man may have been involved in attack on elderly Mt. Washington woman
As I was writing this post, someone informed me that the young man that was targeted in this racial incident could be one of the people that attacked a 66-year old woman about six months ago on Woodruff Street. There was a lot of talk about this poor woman on the message boards as we followed her recovery and the trial. Supposedly, the young man is under house arrest now. We can’t corroborate this information and it wasn’t included in WPXI.com’s initial story so it is still speculation as far as we here at 15211.org are concerned.
We don’t do that in this neighborhood
Attacking that woman was awful and wrong and an affront to everything we love about this neighborhood. But it doesn’t change the fact that leaving a black-faced voodoo doll at the doorstep of an African-American family is just plain racist. What precipitated that act is not what we’re discussing. Getting upset about a slap-on-the-wrist penalty for what these kids did is completely understandable, but resorting to racial intimidation to express this frustration is unacceptable. It reminds me of what a woman once said at a MWCDC meeting I attended and it was one of the few times most of the heads in the room were nodding in agreement (imagine that!). She was talking about how she had confronted kids on her street that were throwing rocks. She walked up to them and simply said, “We don’t do that in this neighborhood.” And we don’t.
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June 17th, 2009 at 9:15 am
IT was indeed one of the punks that almost killed that woman. Isn’t Omaha Street close to Ream Center? I’m not sure if the MWCDC is affiliated with the center, but they better think about cutting all ties. NOW!
June 17th, 2009 at 9:37 am
How does the Ream Center increase crime? I just don’t see the connection. Perhaps if the staff and volunteers had more assistance and support with programming, the Center could be a huge asset in Mt. Washington.
When are we going to learn that if we continue to turn our backs on youth that we’ll continue to have to build more prisons?
MG
June 17th, 2009 at 11:47 am
I think the question is Should the MWCDC Be Affiliated with the Ream After School Program? I agree the Ream Center does not increase crime, but someone does have to take over the day to day running of it and it doesnt seem logical for a community development organization to get involved in a childrens center. Besides what type of insurance does the center have for this type of program? A lot of us are quite concerned that if something awful happens at the center, could the board be held responsible?
June 17th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Oh I see. I wasn’t sure where you were coming from, but that’s a larger question that needs to be addressed.
I would think the MWCDC has insurance for their board members. Most boards do. You may want to ask someone there if you’re interested.
MG
June 20th, 2009 at 12:31 am
Racism? Explain how? I guess you assume that the person that placed the doll was white. Why do you assume that? Your own inherent racism, maybe? How do you know it wasn’t a long-time black resident of Mt Washington that was disgusted with this incident and wanted to send a message. He wanted to place an effigy of the youth to send that message but was unable to locate a black doll, so had to improvise. He painted a white doll black. Hell, even if it was a white person it doesn’t say racist.
It says moderately sick, demi-vigilante. Not racist.
Effigy: Noun; a crude representation of someone disliked.
I think it’s safe to say this ‘person of interest’ is someone disliked.
Pretty dumb to try to represent a black youth with a white doll. Was the doll male, even? If he could only find a barbie doll, does this make him a sexist?
Usually the racism is found in the person that screams racism loudest. Grabbing onto an issue and trying to take the high ground to show others your moral superiority.
I think it is people like you that do more to hurt race relations. Racism was used here because it makes good story.
June 25th, 2009 at 8:56 am
Wasn’t it racism when these hoodlums beat down an elderly woman for a few dollars in the middle of the day? She was not of their race. This is the racism that happens more often that people turn blind eye too.
June 26th, 2009 at 7:23 am
Negative interactions between two races doesn’t always equate to racism. If there is some proof that these punks were actively seeking out a specific race as a target, then yes, label it racism. But if they were just looking for a quick score and she was, unfortunately, the only one around, then it is not racism, just assault & battery, and mugging and what ever other charges can be lumped on these turds.
July 7th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
I don’t think we can ignore the noose’s place in American history nor pretend that it has not been a symbol meant to instill fear and terror in African Americans.
Are people trying to defend leaving a (fake) bloodied doll in a noose in front a family’s home?
We should not defend that any more than you would defend an act of violence against an elderly lady.
September 17th, 2009 at 8:36 am
I agree with borninburg because it wasn’t
racisist when they beat an old lady up and
almost killed her. But as soon as someone
puts a black doll on a car o my god its racisist.
The little punk wont even come off his front pourch
because he knows people want to beat the hell out of him