southerners like me (7.21.05)

One day a few weeks ago, I was listening to this station when I
heard a radio personality reference a couple of movies—A Time to Kill
and Mississippi Burning—as being uncomfortable
to “Southerners like myself.”

I ruminated on this and tried to figure by definition,
who Southerners like me were, considering I am indeed a
Southerner. The first movie showed a man of African
descent killing another man for raping his daughter.
The second had the audacity to portray the FBI and
J. Edgar Hoover as trying to get African Americans
the right to vote in Mississippi. I won’t digress on my
personal disdain for providing false history lessons via
movies, but I will avail that I still did not see a difference.
Surely this radio personality would do the same for his
daughter—if he had one—or push for the rights of all to vote.

I couldn’t figure it out, until a few weeks later, when
the same commentator, asserted that Tupac Shakur
should not have been celebrated in any form or fashion,
because he (allegedly) shot at cops and sold drugs. If
I recall correctly, the Kennedy clan made loot from
bootlegging, which illegal at the time; and the Black Panthers
reportedly shot at cops (I admire the Black Panther Party for
Self Defense, regardless of allegations against them).

I concluded that the radio personality was playing the
race card. Sorry, we can vote now if we so choose, and are no
longer slaves. If you don’t like me and mine, then say it, and
don’t try to use logic for personal assault. For you are not a
Southerner like me. --torrance stephens