Let the spin begin: Monday’s news showed little or no mention of Ashley Todd, the 20 year-old white woman who claimed late last week that a black man had beaten her because she was a volunteer for John McCain’s presidential campaign. He gave her a black eye, she alleged, and even scratched the scarlet letter “B” on her cheek, for “Barack.” The Obama campaign issued a statement of sympathy for Ashley and urged that the perpetrator be caught quickly.
She was. Ashley soon confessed the lie and Republican pundits said that it would be foolish to say this incident reflected anything about the McCain campaign.
Except that it does: John McCain called and spoke with Ashley, as did McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin.It also reflects a lot about America. Fifty years after the murder of Emmett Till, it seems that any accusation against an African American male is believed. Significant elements of the media reported that an attack occurred, not that a woman claimed she had been attacked. Even the police said who they were looking for, down to his exact height, as if they had no doubt. If the story had not unraveled so quickly, Ashley might have put the lives of thousands of black men — “suspects” — in danger.
Only this month, I was dropping items off one evening at the storage locations I rent in my hometown of Brockport, New York. While I was working, another car pulled up. A white man in his early 20s asked me if this was location DA-42. I watched him carefully since I thought it was a strange coincidence that someone should want to use the exact same storage location as I was at the same time. He left. A few minutes later, a police squad car pulled up. I was questioned by a young officer (whom I later learned was from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office) who said there had been a call, and wanted not only my ID, but proof I was renting the storage locations. I showed him the receipt for one and he still demanded proof I was renting the other one. He further wanted me to prove that all (not just one) of my keys fitted the locks. He searched my car. I was grilled for about 10 or 15 minutes, despite the fact that there were other people also using the facility who were not being questioned. At this point another squad car pulled up, so I told the cop this was “Unloading While Black”.
Ashley Todd placed at risk the lives of thousands of black men who would have been interrogated had she not been exposed, and she should be charged with an appropriately severe offense.
The old “black man in the woods” libel shows that Obama is not out of the woods yet. Words can be weapons of mass destruction.
