Friday, August 28, 2015

The Specter of Black Revenge and Retaliation: 20 Years Before Vester Flanagan There was Colin Ferguson


The killing of two reporters in Virginia by Vester Flanagan is a tragedy. It is also political catnip and profoundly arousing for white supremacists and those other conservatives who are desperately obsessed with "anti-white" "hate crimes". The White Victimology Alex Jones conspiracy industry must be very excited by Vester Flanagan's killing of two white people.

The White Right decries phantom "anti-white" crime less than they hope that said events occur: the Right-wing hate media are the real "racism chasers", shoveling coal into the White Victimology Rube Goldberg machine.

Supposed anti-white hate crimes committed by black people in the United States are unbelievably rare events.

Colin Ferguson killed six people and wounded 19 on a Long Island Railroad commuter train in 1993.

Omar Thornton, acting in apparent retaliation for the racist abuse he suffered at a Hartford, Connecticut area beer distributor, shot and killed eight people in 2010.

A blue moon is quite literally order of magnitudes more common than the once every decade moment when a black American channels the hate that hate produces from living in a white racist society, committing an act of revenge and vengeance against a white person.

As Cornel West said in his much circulated speech on "niggerization", black folks have produced no terrorist organization that specifically targets white people for violence and revenge.


Some months ago, I had a great conversation with author Leonce Gaiter on The Chauncey DeVega Show about the idea of black revenge--and its absence in the United States. In the aftermath of Vester Flanagan's killing of Alison Parker and Adam Ward, I would like to return to the topic.

Why are events such as Flanagan's shooting of two white people in supposed retaliation for the white racial terrorist Dylann Roof's murder spree at a historic African-American church so infrequent?

What makes one group of people produce retaliatory violence against individuals and groups perceived to be part of an oppressive establishment, while another group does not pursue such an option?

Is it because of political culture and a belief in the legitimacy of the State? Limited options? "Superior" morality and ethics?

Or has the United State government through Cointelpro and a vast internal security apparatus just been amazingly adept at silencing those rare black and brown folks who would seek revenge against white people?

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