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On the Internet, Nobody Knows You're White

Ken Foster checks in again on his blog with distressing internet bile:

ken foster: Apparently I'm African American...and other media-inspired epiphanies.:...[E]ntering the crime forum at nola.com, ... I encountered a mostly hostile collection of white men concerned about their Corvettes being stolen by...those people. When I posted a few thoughts that didn't fall in line with theirs--suggesting, for example, that not all criminals are black--they immediately assumed I was African American and began hurling insults at me. When I mentioned that I had to borrow money to evacuate, they continued, telling me that I was exactly the kind of person they needed to get rid of. When I identified myself as a school teacher, they told me I was what was wrong with the public school system and that I must have snorted my paycheck. The level of ignorance displayed by these self-identified proper New Orleanians sickened me. It made me not want to go back. Of course, they existed before the storm--I just never encountered them directly, in part because if we had met face to face they would have realized I was white--and therefore, absurdly, withheld the comments and ire they targeted me with onliine. But online, they were able to judge me based on just a few facts: my neighbhorhood and my income. The conclusions they drew show just how unfamiliar they are with their city, and the fact that it is possible to work hard and still have an empty bank account at the end of the week.

Sometimes I do not know what country I live in. Is it small or is it large? Why does it feel as if, whenever disaster strikes, we simply find the most powerless humans to blame and then declare war on them?

What is wrong with us?

Yes, us. I start with me. There is no other way to begin. Me. What do I see when I look inward?

Time to reflect, I think. To meditate. To begin again.

iTunesing: “The Mercy Seat” from the album American III by Johnny Cash

tags ∴ author ⋰ blog ⋰ blogger ⋰ hurricane ⋰ KenFoster ⋰ meditate ⋰ NOLA ⋰ reflection

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