A while ago I pointed out that every couple of years, the "black kid" gets blamed for some random crime by some random white person:
Now Lindsay Lohan is that random White person. Lindsay has played the race card. She claimed that the "Black kid" was driving after she got pinched for a DUI. ...
There are other infamous moments in the "Black Kid did it" history. Who can forget Susan Smith? With her, "the Black kid carjacked me and took my kids!" defense. Smith repented by getting busy behind bars. Or Charles Stuart, with his "the Black kid shot and killed my pregnant wife! Luckily, he just grazed me!"
The "Black kid did it" defense even inspired a South Park episode, where Butter's mom blamed the "Puerto Rican" guy. In the movie, Freedomland starring Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore, Moore used the "Black Neighborhood did it" defense when her kid went missing.
The latest hate crime hoax comes to us from College Republican Ashley Todd. Todd claimed that a big, dark-skinned, black Obama supporter carved a backwards "B" in her cheek after her saw her McCain bumper sticker. After he allegedly carved up her face, he declared her, "a Barack supporter now!" Oh, and he tried to cop a feel in the process.
Here we go again.
Todd has a history of mental problems. I still have a hard time mustering up a lot of sympathy for her. I wonder if some early voters fell for her race bait especially after she added that sexual assault flourish to her story. The "black man defiled the white women" false accusation has been with us for hundreds of years.
Of course, Todd carved her own face up, as many of us suspected when we saw the backwards "B".
What's up with that backwards "B" anyway? Kids today really need to learn their history! If Todd had studied the sordid history of carving up one's face for a racist hoax, she might have learned a thing or two from that other right-wing hoax screw-up Morton Downey Jr. Also, why not just carve an "O" on your her face? No way that comes out backwards. Am I just expecting too much from right-wing nutjobs?
It's hard to feel sorry for Todd when she's not remorseful:
"She hasn't really shown any obvious remorse," Kraus said. "She's certainly surprised that it snowballed to where it is today."
In her mind, it's the media's fault:
"She was upset with the media for blowing this into a political firestorm."
Perhaps the most disturbing part of the hoax is the McCain staffer's fingerprints on the story. Does he have a history of mental problems too? Does that excuse his behavior?
TPM is reporting that a McCain staffer was pushing the most inflammatory parts of this hoax by repeating the "political" parts of the story to the press BEFORE the details of the story were made public. Now the campaign staffer is denying it and it looks like might be a cover-up.
Did the McCain campaign want to stir up the racial tensions in PA? Is there a race baiter on McCain's staff? Is this Willie Horton 2.0?
What about the College Republicans? How did the photo end up on Drudge? Todd's friend said he gave the photos to the police and to the College Republicans.
One highlight of the sad tale was local law enforcement's measured response. We don't want our society to not believe real cries of assault and the police handled this hoax very professionally. That makes me tend to doubt the police leaked the photos to Drudge.
Also, did those hateful McCain/Palin rallies help inspire Todd? There were more hate fueled mobs at their rallies this week.
While we're on the topic of toxic right-wing nut jobs, anyone else notice that Representative Michele Bachman has crazy "Runaway Bride" eyes?
Bachman's crazy-eyed look on Hardball reminded me of the Jennifer Wilbank's "Runaway Bride" hoax. You might recall that the "Runaway Bride" also accused a man of color of sexual assault. Wilbanks falsely claimed a "Mexican" groped her when she ditched her fiance and went on her cross-country trip. I bet Todd wish she had a poncho like Wilbanks covering her face for her perp walk.
Now Todd's in jail, she will be charged and hopefully get the help she needs if her MySpace is any indication of her state of mind:
On her MySpace profile, where her screen name is "Italian Pajamas," Ms. Todd gives her occupation as "Being a badass." Next to her picture, she references the title of a song by the group Panic at the Disco: "Lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her cloths (sic) off," but adds to it "but its (sic) better if you do." Among the books she lists as favorites: "The Scarlet Letter."
This hoax will always follow Todd and the McCain staffer's involvement with this sordid but all too familiar episode gives the McCain campaign yet another black eye.