It may be harsh, but riding racists out of town on a rail is something that should perhaps happen more often. That might be what it takes to change the zeitgeist.
I am not a fan of the death threats part, but conscious, displayed racism definitely should have negative consequences.
I say “conscious, displayed” simply because a lot of people aren’t aware of some of the ways things are set up to systematically discriminate. And I don’t care how dark and evil someone’s thoughts are if they stay in their head (which is harder than it sounds. Our biases are prone to leaking into our behaviour).
And from the story, this isn’t the first time. I will bet Sunoco had on-the-job complaints about him, too… if not before, then people speaking up when this went viral.
My reading was that she had one of those internet video doorbells, especially considering how apologetic she was when the officer returned her call. It plays more into the way some people treat 911 as a service hotline, really.
EDIT: I had a look at the transcript of the call, and apparently the lady and her family were leaving for the holiday weekend, saw the canvasser, were unsure, and erred on the side of calling the emergency number before heading out. “Just to be sure” and whatnot. A sort of “hey, we’re leaving for the weekend but we saw something funny, and you guys keep saying ‘if you see something, say something’, right?”
Me, I’m going to stick to my Nightvale slogan: if you see something, say nothing, and drink to forget.
I totally agree with that in principle, but part of me feels like, well, that’s where we’re at now. We’re so far gone, and so deep in it, that we need extremism to move forward. It is indeed wrong, but the alternative is wronger. Thinking about it makes my brain hurt.
