Racism Is Alive and Thriving In WNY
by Betty Jean Grant
Betty Jean Grant
I am guessing that some of you are saying, “ Well, there she goes again, always talking about racism!” Now, I guess those people in our City of Good Neighbors who say that are probably correct. I do talk a lot about the racism in Buffalo and the surrounding areas, because a lot of racist people are being blatantly racist in comments they post in the ‘comment section’ of the local, daily newspaper or on the local television and radio stations around the area.
These homegrown haters and race baiters generally go on a venom filled tirade in their comments when they go and hide behind their computer screens as they spew anti-black sentiments, regardless of whether the news report is favorable or not to the person or victim being discussed or demonized.
Take the situation that happened when a negative post or photo was circulated on the POTUS social media page depicting former President Barack Obama and 1st Lady Michele Obama as apes. At first, President ‘Number 47’ claimed that he knew nothing about the post, insisting that a randomly, nameless White House staffer posted a video, without his knowledge, that showed many of the nation’s democratic political leaders as caricatures from the movie, the Lion King. Someone mentioned that was false information as there were no apes in the movie.
Whether there were apes or not is not the issue. The issue is that someone in that Republican White House chose to portray one of our greatest presidents and his wife, of all the animals in the movies, as apes. I have nothing against the primates except for the fact that racist segregationists and white supremacists have use animals such as apes, gorillas, raccoons (coons) and monkeys to denigrate Africans and African Americans for as long as we have been in this country.
That is one of the reasons why I was so dismayed to see, in the local media’s story about the Buffalo police officer arrested for killing his wife, someone’s comment and a photo of the City of Buffalo’s D-District Police Captain. The female officer, whose hair was in a neatly braided bun, was being depicted as a grossly overweight, female gorilla wearing hair braids!
Let me make myself clear. I am not passing judgement on that particular case in question. Those are the roles of the police, the DA and a judge & jury. What I am saying is that no one should be dehumanized by being thought of as an ape or any of the other primates or animals chosen by evil, racist people who cling to their mistaken belief that white skin denotes racial superiority