From dallasnews.com:

When I worked at The Daily Texan, a similar affliction hobbled the university's Black Student Alliance. Every time they were about to start a scheduled meeting, someone would phone the newspaper threatening to blow them up. The Texan dutifully relayed this to campus police and wrote a little news item for the next morning's paper.

The second or third time this happened, somebody at the paper chose not to make it a news story. By the next morning, BSA representatives mobbed our office demanding an explanation. The editor shrugged and said it was no longer a news item, but a security issue for the police to resolve. This was not satisfactory, according to the BSA, which wanted front-page attention on every disrupted meeting.

Later that week, we set up a call-trace system on the paper's telephone lines and instructed the whole staff on how to use it. (This was just before Caller ID became available, so it was a big technological deal.) We let the BSA know about it, too, so they'd believe we took their safety seriously.

Imagine our surprise when the bomb threats ceased.

The BSA president had his own scare-issues, though. He insisted someone was after him personally, with menacing phone calls at all hours, and shadowy characters tailing him anytime he left his apartment. Also, someone poisoned his iced-tea pitcher. In his refrigerator.

The police couldn't get enough evidence to act on, and eventually the FBI took an interest. They invited him downtown for a friendly interview. After listening to his story, they left the room for a moment to confer. When they returned, they told him he was lying and could leave their office now.

what strikes me funniest about the BSA's and Rev. Wright's antics is the idea that anyone would care enough to threaten them. In the Jim Crow era, when certain whites felt they were in a war to defend segregation, some of them actually committed crimes, and threats were to be taken very seriously.

Today these claims merely underscore that the civil-rights battle is over, and those still fighting it are pretty much holding Pacific islands for the emperor. Tawana Brawley and Crystal Gail Mangum get exposed as liars, and the Jena crisis fizzles like Kohoutek, while actual white-on-black violence fails to register in the U.S.

The dearth of real crimes tells me that segregationists know their fight is lost, and no one in their diminishing ranks wants to risk anything, even to make a point. It's just so over now.

But every grudge merchant needs a persecutor, even if one has to be invented. Rev. Wright will call off his appearances if it means a headline; that's got to be worth at least as much in fundraising and book sales as he forgoes in honoraria.

Posted by: Michael Rittenhouse at 07:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 534 words, total size 4 kb.