RICHARDSON: Hidden racism — or something else
I was really having trouble dealing with a few events earlier in the week. As much as I try to give the benefit of the doubt to those accused of racism, there are times when it seems too obvious, and I have to call it what it is.
A South Carolina State Trooper shot a black man, Levar Edward Jones, in one such instance. Jones was pulled over in broad daylight for a seat belt infraction that was obviously a fishing expedition. The trooper’s own dash cam betrayed his version of events as he fired his weapon at least four times, hitting Jones in the hip. I can still hear Jones asking the officer, “Why did you shoot me?” Now former trooper Sean Groubert has been fired and faces criminal charges that could send him to prison for 20 years. Jones is lucky to be alive.
The complaint against the trooper states that he “did without justification unlawfully shoot Levar Jones which produced great bodily injury or was likely to cause great bodily injury. Audio and visual recordings, as well as written statements, obtained are further evidence to indicate the shooting incident was without justification.”
The seat belt stop was used in another instance where officers were caught on video breaking the passenger side window of a vehicle because the passenger, Jamal Jones, didn’t produce an ID. Why didn’t Jones just obey the officers and get out of the vehicle? Could it be he feared the officers as much as they feared him? After all, the Hammond, Indiana, officer had his gun drawn and pointed at him. As it was, the officers broke the window and forcefully removed and tased him as his children watched.
When I see events such as I described, I have to tell myself that thousands of people are stopped by police every day. I have been known to have a lead foot and have been pulled over countless times in my 47 years of driving. I’ve never had a officer act rudely. I follow their directions and say the magic words, “yes sir” and “no sir.” I’ve even had officers give me a break or two, or three, or four. So I look at the trooper in South Carolina as an outlier. I look at the police stop in Indiana as an aberration.
I also realize that I don’t present the same threat as younger folks with my complexion. My hair is gray and short. No gold teeth. But if I were 40 years younger and dressed with my pants down past my butt line and imitated the hairstyles of NFL players, I might have a problem.
But the incident that really had me wondering if there’s a solution to inner feelings that even the most progressive people may have about black people occurred in Texas.
How could a hospital send Thomas Eric Duncan home when he presented with a 103 degree temperature with knowledge he had just returned from Liberia, the hotbed of Ebola?
There are several studies that show the disparity in treatment between white and black patients. I have never wanted to believe that, but evidence is evidence, and this instance was eating away at me. Ebola should have been -- for the medical staff at Texas Health Presbyterian -- a top-of-mind issue. Here you have a Liberian man present with all the Ebola symptoms and you send him home?
But just as my mind was about to step off the cliff, other factors started to play out and I stepped away from the edge. First, a nurse who treated Duncan is infected with Ebola, then a second nurse, who may have, by the time you read this, infected passengers and others on a commercial airliner she really should not have been on, occurred.
I’m convinced it wasn’t hidden racism that made hospital personnel send Duncan home. It seems they were just clueless and sloppy. The second nurse has transferred to Emory University Hospital rather than being admitted to her own hospital in Texas. The first nurse diagnosed with Ebola has been transferred, too.
In my mental deliberations, I realize there may be a bit of paranoia, but in the words of novelist Philip K. Dick, “Strange how paranoia can link up with reality now and then.”
Charles E. Richardson is The Telegraph’s editorial page editor. He can be reached at 478-744-4342 or via email at crichardson@macon.com. Tweet @crichard1020.
This story was originally published October 19, 2014 at 12:00 AM with the headline "RICHARDSON: Hidden racism — or something else."