There are taterheads, and then there are total taterheads.
Former Florida Rep. Allen West just might be a total taterhead.
West is known for being black and conservative. Nothing wrong with that. I’m just as black and every bit as conservative as he is.
But he and I part company on several things. When he went on an “all Muslims are evil” rant a while back, I figured it might be best to dismiss any comment he made after that.
If a recent rant of his is any indication, then my dismissal was completely justified.
What has West in high dudgeon is the incident in which three black teens attacked a 13-year-old white boy on a Florida school bus. West’s rant about the incident follows:
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“Three 15-year-old black kids beat up a white kid because he told school officials they tried to sell him drugs. Do you hear anything from Sharpton, Jackson, NAACP, Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z, liberal media or Hollywood? Cat got your tongues or is it that pathetic hypocrisy revealing itself once again? Y’all just make me sick.”
You have to wonder about a guy that can diss Reverend Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, the NAACP, Jay-Z and a blind Stevie Wonder all at once.
But it isn’t the blind Stevie Wonder that matters here; it’s the blind Ray Charles, who’s quite dead. But even Ray Charles, dead and blind, could see everything that’s wrong with West’s rant.
It’s one thing to make apples to oranges comparisons; West chooses to make apples to hand grenades analogies, and those grenades have exploded right in his kisser.
Shall we count the ways the July 9 incident on a Florida school bus differs from George Zimmerman’s fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin?
1. That 13-year-old white victim is still alive.
Yes, he did receive a beating that, judging from video taken of the incident, can only be described as vicious.
Yes, he did suffer a broken arm and two black eyes. But the boy lived to tell his tale. And having a broken arm and two black eyes beats being dead seven days a week and twice on Sunday.
2. The boy’s attackers were arrested almost immediately. One month later, they were in court.
Compare that to what happened with the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin situation.
Police in Sanford, Fla., barely conducted an investigation. They bought Zimmerman’s story that Martin attacked him and that he fired in self-defense, hook, line and sinker.
They never bothered to consider, even remotely, that Martin might have attacked Zimmerman because the youth thought some nut was stalking him.
While I’m on this subject, isn’t it time someone questioned Zimmerman’s REAL reason for following and stalking Martin the night of Feb. 12, 2012?
Yes, we know the reason Zimmerman gave: that Martin looked like he was “up to no good” and that there had been several neighborhood burglaries.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been suspicious of grown men that follow and stalk young boys.
3. There was nothing racial about the July 9 incident.
West said as much himself: the attack was inspired by revenge, not race. The attackers were out to get payback because they thought the 13-year-old had “snitched.”
The beating of the 13-year-old was more a result of the “Stop Snitching” mentality afflicting today’s youth – white ones as well as black ones – than the result of racial animus.
Once again, compare that to the Zimmerman/Martin case. For months, Zimmerman’s supporters have espoused the fiction that the shooting had nothing to do with race, but consider the following, from the transcript of the taped call Zimmerman made to police the night he shot Martin:
“He’s got his hand in his waistband. And he’s a black male.”
Zimmerman was talking about Martin, and it’s clear exactly what he meant.
“Uh oh. Black kid’s got his hand in his waistband. You know how those black males are, especially when they’re reaching into their waistbands.”
4. No one supports what the 13-year-old attackers did.
Compare that to the support Zimmerman got – and continues to get – from American conservatives. With most of these people, Zimmerman’s a hero.
It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that West is one of them.
(Photo: AP)
