(ThyBlackMan.com) On the old Arsenio Hall show he would have a segment called “Things that make you go Hmmm…” It highlighted the many absurdities in everyday life that would make you wonder “WTF” in contemporary parlance. So, some things that made me go “Hmmm” recently…
This past weekend marks one year since the protests by Nazis, Klan members and other assorted racists, marching as “white nationalists” in Charlottesville, Virginia, culminated in one of their number killing counter-protester Heather Heyer in an ISIL-like attack by ramming a car into the crowd; although it was never called a terrorism (Hmmm…). The protest ostensibly was against removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a park bearing his name. But I ask myself, who erects statues to the losers? It’s like, “Hurray, we’re in last place”, or chanting “We’re number two”. Must be something else going on. Hmmm…
A man got arrested in Yellowstone National Park for “harassing” a Grizzly bear, trying to shoot him off the roadway. The police 
immediately closed in and took him away in handcuffs vowing to “get to the bottom” of this incident. That same week, a man was fatally shot for accosting another man who was verbally assaulting his wife for parking in a handicapped space, with their children in the car, while he ran into a store to buy some snacks for the kids. The local Sheriff said that under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, the same law that saw George Zimmerman acquitted for shooting and killing Trayvon Martin, there was no basis to arrest, let alone prosecute the shooter, even though cell phone footage clearly shows the man who was shot backing away after their confrontation. Harassing a bear, you’ve got to go to jail and an investigation will ensue. Killing a human being defending his family, move along nothing to see here. In the parking lot incident guess who was white and who was black? Hmmm…
The president has been a vociferous critic of the country’s immigration system, calling it the worst in the world. He has been especially critical of what he calls “chain migration”: allowing a former immigrant who becomes a U.S. citizen to sponsor a family member for citizenship. This was previously known as “family reunification” and even his own mother came into the country that way joining her sister in New York.
Last week Viktor and Amalija Knavs, formerly of Slovenia, were granted U.S. citizenship. They were sponsored by their immigrant daughter Melania, allowing them permanent residency here in the States. I guess what’s good enough for the president’s mother, and his current wife, is not good enough for anyone else’s family. Hmmm…
Two children boarded a flight as “unaccompanied minors” and ended up spending the night in a hotel after their flight was diverted from their city of destination. This became a huge news story and there was outrage all around that the parents were not notified (no one bothered to ask why the children were unaccompanied or criticize the parents for putting their children on a flight alone. Hmmm…). People demanded to know who was responsible and what was airline protocol for handling a situation like this?
Meanwhile, over five hundred children who were separated from their parents weeks ago attempting to cross the southern U.S. border are still not reunited. Many of them have been sleeping in cages and some have been “medicated” to calm their anxiety, or sexually abused, while separated. The parents have been roundly criticized for endangering their children by trying to seek asylum in the U.S. in the first place. And the tone of the news stories would have you believe that the “horror” of those children spending the night in a hotel room is essentially just as traumatizing to them as spending weeks in a cage. Hmmm…
We’ve got to “call BS” for what it is when we see it and renounce hypocrisy trying to pass as normal everyday occurrences. When clearly unequal things are given false equivalence and when “what’s good for me is bad for you” is being foisted on us, we can’t just let it go unnoticed.
I’m sure you’ve seen some things that have made you stop and say, “Hmmm…” or “WTF” recently too. Call them out.
Staff Writer; Harry Sewell
