Last month the left wing blog, One People's Project, posted a story about one Marcus Epstein. Within this story it was reported that two years ago next month Marcus assaulted a black woman in Georgetown calling her the "n" word.Right. A lynching. It's like white people can't get a fair shot in this society anymore. HT to TPM.
What happened next was a modern day lynching by a faceless, angry, ignorant mob who reveled in the collective assault on their victim. They had wounded an adversary and drawn blood -- without pausing to ask how so talented a young man could have found himself in such a mess.
« And Just Keep Feeding You And Feeding You | Main | History Through The Veil » Racism Against White People08 Jun 2009 10:00 am
It's the only real racism. Here's Bay Buchanan on the ordeal that suffered by bigots in her employ:
Comments (60)Post a comment |
Today's Headlines From The Atlantic |
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
Copyright © 2009 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
William Zan(t)zinger and Marcus Epstein -- the Great White American Martyrs.
Oh how I love that song. Be happy all day just listening to that, Percy's Song, and North Country Blues. Ballads to make you cry.
The Man just wouldn't leave him be, and that pushed him over the edge. I'd explain, but it's something you gotta experience on a daily basis to truly understand.
/sarcasm
Moral equivalency once more.
Succinctly - slavery is the original sin of our nation. It is there, in the Constitution. There is no more fundamental evil in our history. Lynching is a corollary to that evil. We cannot, we must never make equivalent a lesser evil. It diminishes all of us. It diminishes the pain of our slaves.
Writing about the stupidity of a drunken bigot is not equivalent to cutting off the genitals of a black citizen, hanging him on a tree, and then burning his body so that his family cannot decently bury him.
Of course much is explained about our politics by our modern reluctance to admit of original sin.
Bay Buchanan is displaying a huge deal of empathy.
Apparently the dude is only half white. Half Jewish/Half Korean. So, to be fair, his ethnic heredity has been at the bad end of a couple relatively recent murderously oppressive regimes, and while it's certainly not above Bay to bemoan the "modern-day lynching" (at what point in our history did "modern day" become the grossly hyperbolic modifier of choice?) of the white man, it may not be altogether apt in this scenario.
Although, I guess, the argument could be made that she's not really coming to this dude's defense as much as she is coming to the defense of her brother, Tom Tancredo, and herself. Saying they are the true targets of the modern-day Sudanese genocide, or whatever she wants to call it.
BB,
If you are half white and half Asian and work for Bay Buchanan's organization you are more than "white enough".
My guess is that the third part of that equation is the key one.
Agree
I've noticed a huge upsurge from the rightwing this past week (re Sotomayor) of pre-civil rights language: white people are "sent to the back of the bus," "forced to use different water fountains," and as here "lynched." I really want someone to call in and demand an actual example of someone sent to the back of a bus, etc.
Per Bay Buchanon's complaint: so if someone is talented, they obviously wouldn't attack a stranger on the street, strike her, and hurl racial epithets, ergo this never happened? Or is it just something that happens with these people, and we should all understand and sympathize? I'm really at a loss as to her point, beyond "when one of our employees physically attacks someone, they were asking for it; when our employee is verbally savaged for that attack, it is a lynching."
What does it mean when we can't tell the dada performance artists from the actual right wingers anymore?
Okay, having read the piece her problem is just a raging case of hypocrisy: crimes committed by good conservative boys working at our organization must be understood within the wider context of the issues the boy is dealing with, with empathy for his plight, with concern for his future prospects, etc. She's far to the left of me on crime, for this one particular case; I somehow suspect not in general.
To their credit some of the (seemingly conservative and regular) commentators are calling her on this inconsistency with respect to conservative principles. And she was called out quite thoroughly on what it would mean for her protege to be "lynched."
I guess the Secret Service Agent who was the witness to this just imagined it all.
Yes. I guess they all imagined it, and that Black woman just forced Epstein to attack her because of her existence.
Thank the FSM for that Secret Service agent; otherwise they'd say the victim made it up.
This is pretty bad. Obviously, Buchanan is defending not just racist attitudes, but racial violence. Unacceptable, of course. However, the truly sickening part is that you always hear conservatives decrying minority crime as a failure of personal responsibility. For the most part, while I think this argument is wrong, I at least can respect it to a certain extent. However, conservatives also often decry liberals for making excuses for minorities. We're being too PC, we aren't up for punishing offenders, etc. And Bay Buchanan has basically used an argument which she would otherwise see as a joke in order to defend racial violence
Exactly. A lot of empathy for the white guy. Now imagine the reverse, a black guy assaulting a white woman while spitting racial slurs.
I didn't need to imagine this, because old scratch face already pretended it happened before the election and we got to see the outrage anyway.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/10/27/article-1080189-023CEB1F000005DC-718_468x311.jpg
Yes, and being the lie that it was..of course, they never apologized.
It's even crazier considering she worked for 2 Republican campaigns before this happened.
I think the sheer nature of the crime is what horrifies me the most. This guy didn't just say a bad word or look funny at a black woman. This guy assaulted someone. WTH?
And just to get it out of the way...dude almost certainly had his admission to UVa Law revoked because he did not mention the pending lawsuit that came out of his drunken behavior on his application. Not disclosing the lawsuit is basically lying, which would violate the school's honor code.
He had a frigging RAP SHEET.
Was that the ONLY thing he skipped on his application?
My understanding is that a conviction for marijuana possession will keep you out of law school, or at least prevent you joining the bar and thus make law schools not want to bother with you. Assault is surely graver than pot in this regard?
Deborah. Circling all the way to William Zantzinger, mentioned in the first post of this thread. He was jailed 6 months for manslaughter. But later in his life received a sentence of 18 months for deceptive trade practices. American jurisprudence.
Thanks for linking to that article, Ta-Nehisi. Now, at least, this incident makes a little more sense: Marcus Epstein seems to be mentally ill.
I do think your post title is interesting, though, given Epstein's Jewish-Korean ancestry. The kid is as white as Barack Obama (if you consider Jews white), but he commits a racist assault and you categorize him as white.
In America, if you look white (and prepster Epstein does), you can be white. Or you can be the other if you think that's cool or advantageous. If you look black (and the POTUS does), you are black.
He looks more Asian than white to me. Maybe if he were the lead singer of a an alt-rock band, and not a guy who admitted to karate chopping a black woman while calling her the n-word, more commenters on this site would agree. By ignoring his multiracial background and categorizing him as white, Ta-Nehisi has implicitly aligned whiteness with racism here, when, in reality, people of all races and backgrounds are capable of being racists.
Centuries ago, a Mongol dipped his wick into my family's genetic pool. My Polish immigrant grandmother looked way more Asian than Epstein does. Says white on her immigration papers.
But we can debate a person's looks interminably. What you say about racism is true. Comes in all colors. Your point is better made without the left-field comparison to Barack Obama's genetic heritage. In part because referring to him as "half-white" is culturally counter-factual. In America, in every context, anyone who looks like the President is a black man. That's where we live.
Gee, I don't know how whiteness got aligned with racism. Anyway, let's make this a little more PC, or even anyway, and just note that we are all pretty much aware of the stereotype of Asians, specifically Koreans, having problems with the black community, especially as it pertains to convenience stores in LA. So the guy's got all sorts of prejudicial problems if we factor him in as identifying with both his white and asian sides equally.
Hey, as soon as Karen O starts karate chopping black women on the street and using the N word she will go right back to white in my book.
Thanks LCrawfty. Who woulda thunk it? Karen O now on my list of great Polish Americans. Sort of (I don't mean sort of great, I mean sort of Polish American -- she's like Polish-Korean and grew up in Korea and now I guess is an American and I don't know if we have a place in our racial politics for that). But I'll gladly accept her.
I had no idea.
"The kid is as what as Barack Obama" maybe on paper but in a street at night coming at you yelling racial slurs, not so much, the kid looks very much white.
Also, Bay Buchanan classifies him as an alcoholic who has attended AA meetings and detox, not someone who is just mentally ill and may have the kind of paranoid violent fantasies that could justify attacking people on the street. If we can keep it all straight Mark Foley was an alcoholic, Marcus Epstein is an alcoholic, and Mel Gibson was having problems with alcohol, all of these things make it acceptable to sexually proposition children, attack women on the street with racist violence, and blame the jews for all the wars in the world, who wants to go get a cocktail?
Everyone who assaults someone for just belonging to another group is mentally ill.
Indeed, probably most of the people who end up in jail due to violent acts are mentally ill. But if they are black...
Check out his facebook page. Along with him boasting about his now-revoked acceptance to UVa Law and dissing Ethiopian art as "a dog standing on its hind legs", he lists his ethnicity as "white".
Is he the moderator of a group "Karate Chops+The N Word=Awesome" and "Bay Buchanan, The Bay is short for Bay-bee Got it Going On"?, or is he just a fan of Whitewashing your Criminal Record?
Didn't that Black woman know she was supposed to cross the street when she sees a White person coming.
How Epstein didn't get his ass beat, I will never know.
Obviously its problematic to use loaded words like 'lynching', because it sets up false equivalences, and the intent was clearly for right-wing nut jobs to gin up their quasi-racist followers. At the same time, this kid obviously has problems - and sure its within everyone's rights excoriate this kid until the end of time for what he did. But a better man forgives and moves on.
The internet can be a cruel place for anyone looking to move beyond their past.
Setting aside the false equivalency of comparing Epstein's treatment to a lynching, which is an awful thing to do and ignores the historical record, I think one could read Bay Buchanan's first paragraph and be misled to believe that what happened was simply a verbal assault. She wrote: "Marcus assaulted a black woman in Georgetown calling her the 'n' word," almost suggests the name-calling WAS the assault, when what really happened was two assaults - physical and verbal. I don't think people would get that just from reading her post.
Like she's trying to give the impression he was arrested for calling someone the N-word? That always seemed like enemies of political correctness' greatest fear, getting arrested for hate speech.
Right, LCrawfty. It's hard to say it was intentional on her part, but would it really be a stretch? She spent a lot of time writing Epstein's backstory, but "for legal reasons", couldn't, or wouldn't, address the assault itself.
First off, Epstein must absolutely be held accountable for his horrible actions and nothing that is happening to him is off-base or unfair. Attempting to defend him as Buchanan does shows nothing but moral ineptitude.
However, I don't think it is fair or accurate to just label Epstein as "white." Hapa identity is very complex. This guy obviously has some serious internal demons. My guess is that at least some of these arise from the fact of his mixed heritage. I don't know the dude (and don't really want to,) but there's probably some serious shit going on his head that is neither white nor Asian nor a melding of the two.
"without pausing to ask how so talented a young man could have found himself in such a mess"
The word on the street in DC is that the woman, seeing that the 'talented young man' was headed her way, squared off and taunted him over the pitiful weakness of his Shaolin shadowboxing technique.
I steeled myself and read the article, because lord knows the Internet is prone to outbursts of one-sided vitriol. OK, this guy was a depressed alcoholic who Ms. Buchanan also believed was talented, full of potential
I was still shocked to find that in her article there is not a single word, not a phrase, about the woman who was beaten.
You know, the possibility that she is a human being of worth, "talented!" even (the upper class word for "magic!"), who didn't deserve to be assaulted in the street both physically and with racial slurs.
You'd think, from Buchanan's article, that Epstein smashed up a car, or similar. A "mess"? Really? A "mess," in my book is getting drunk and doing something embarassing in public.
Beating a woman on a public street while shouting "n*gger" would be a "crime." Maybe Bay could "pause to ask" what it might feel like to get that fist in the face. If it were a person who mattered.
Damn, I am not helping the situation. I started out trying to see the other side, but that piece made me more angry.
Bay Buchanan is a kind hearted woman for taking personal interest in the well-being of Marcus Epstein. According to her account, Epstein had not been in her life very long before he sought her help during a desperate bout with despair. She was on his team, helping him out of depression. She's defending him now because she understands that he is not a caricature, but a complicated, troubled kid.
Fine. He's a complicated, troubled kid who should go to jail for assault.
Given Ms. Buchanan's interest in the public weal, I am sure she would agree that such a crime should not be permitted to go unpunished.
Bay Buchanan is trying to do damage control because she, her brother, and Tancredo have enough of a history of looking like bigots in the media. He's not a caricature? Who was calling him a caricature? He was being called what he is, a violent bigot who uses depression and alcoholism as an excuse for his criminal actions. Could we do a little poll of people in rehab, see who at thier worst ever did anything like this? I`ve seen my fair share of "Intervention" episodes and in all that insanity I don't think any of the participants attacked a stranger on the basis of their race.
When drunk and/or high, the most loving person in the world can get pretty ugly. I think Epstein will pay the price for his crime, as he absolutely should. And his acceptance to UVA Law has been rescinded, so his future is definitely less bright.
He just seems awfully young and troubled to me. And I was surprised to read that Bay Buchanan took so much time and care to help someone who wasn't even flesh and blood. I admire her for that. I know we lose sight of the victim here with all of this focus on the violent perpetrator; I'm simply noting that there was pain and heartbreak in the young guy that spilled out in violence but that Bay Buchanan tried to help him keep it together.
I was trying to make the point that there are millions of addicts in this country (and I`m not even convinced Epstein was a true alcoholic) but very few of them ever get involved in racial attacks in their darkest moments if they are not already racist individuals. They may steal from family, hit people with their cars, or prostitute themselves, but it doesn't seem to often come to racial violence so easily. I`m not surprised to hear that Bay Buchanan took the time to help someone who represents her business interests and public image. Where is Marc Epstein on the media circuit apologizing to his victim if he is so hurt and troubled by all of this?
As LCrawfty notes, people don't usually say things they don't believe when drunk or high; they say things they have the sense to self-edit when sober. And Mr. Epstein apparently was posting some rather dicey things on the internet at other times.
As noted upthread, his law school acceptance was probably rescinded for committing felony assault and not mentioning it; breaking the law (outside of traffic tickets) is usually a nonstarter for law school entrance, as are any lies on the application. This is a consequence that falls on a thousand other bright young things who let a moment of stupidity crush their future careers; he is not so special and unique.
If Bay Buchanon were just a woman running, say, an economic thinktank, then her compassion toward her former protege might be unremarkable. People would no doubt laugh at the caricature she represents of leftist views of crime--all about the circumstances for the poor poor assaulter, no mention of the victim, the crime described in such a way that the physical assault is elided, and in general a demand that you understand this person, his life, his troubles, and then do not judge him.
But BB is not that; no one familiar with her role in the right's culture wars would characterize her position on crime as one of overwhelming empathy for the sad, sad thing to befall the poor criminal in question. She is being called to account for (a) her use of the term "lynching," comically inappropriate and disparaging to 1000s of people for whom lynching meant death; (b) her flaming hypocrisy, in that the care and understanding she demands for her employee is not what she has seen as appropriate for others. Does this show an ounce of compassion in her heart? Sure. Does it show an ounce of self-awareness, or recognition of irony? No.
Well put.
I'm going to show Epstein the same empathy I want Bay Buchanan to show youthful offenders who emerge from Rikers Island after serving time for assault. Some of those young men have childhood traumas and substance abuse problems that would absolutely shred her heart if she listened as well as she listened to Marcus during his psychological ordeals. They are no less complicated and troubled. And they deserve a second chance as much as Epstein. But I won't be accused of hypocrisy by Ms. Buchanan.
Thank you. And I'm a great fan of your namesake--excellent books. (Assuming that's a Stephen Maturin Jack Aubrey reference.)
Here's an interesting insight into the mind of the average racist - Channel 4 ran a revealing survey on the people who voted for the British National Party in the European elections this past week, their findings?
That is to say, the majority of people who at least vote racist even if they are unwilling to express racist views believe that it is they who are the victims, even though in financial terms they are clearly not. The majority of them are much more fearful about the future than the average person. Most of them identified with the traditional left but are now disenchanted with them, as they no longer feel that they serve their interests.
I would be inclined to dismiss these people as ignorant and dishonest even to themselves, but the fact that nearly one million people voted for the BNP - that's about 1/60th of the British population, and 1/30th of those who voted (European elections have a traditionally low turn-out). I wouldn't at all be surprised in Buchanan supporters showed similar metrics.
This is my first time posting on this site. I have always enjoyed reading your posts Ta-Nehisi.
As for Bay Buchanan and her brother, they systematically play the race card. It's the same thing that they accuse blacks of doing. Pat Buchanan just compared the plight of the white man to that of blacks in the 60's during Jim Crow. It is just so amazing how out of touch they are both are collectively.
Bigots typically are out of touch with the real world. They live in their own bubble, and manufacture their reality as they fit, because somewhere, somebody of another race has did some harm to them or taken advantage of the system that has failed them. It must suck to live that way.
You just made my eyes light up. In this ongoing rhetorical war, one of the techniques is to steal from the opponent's rhetoric, as has been mentioned frequently in this post and on this site. You are correct to say that "Playing the race card" is now in our hand. Glory be! I'd love to see Pat B sputter out an incoherent response to an accusation of "playing the race card". Thank you for that insight.
I speak for all white people, I just elected myself spokesman, after I won all the votes including the deceased........I am from Chicago after all.
Epstein is an asshole. He yells racial epithets and attacks a woman? He is not some tragic flawed genius just waiting for the Buchanans to save him from himself.
Internet lynching?
Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!
Don't the Buchanans have any elderly nazis to defend?
I'm so white that if I stand under a bright street lamp at night I can't even be seen, but these "excuses" that are being made for Epstein are olympian in the history of excuse making.
Last week the off duty Chicago cop who attempted to beat the hell out of the small female bartender was tried and found guilty. The video was a YOUTUBE hit.
His attorney tried to make the argument that the cop, Anthony Abbate, was merely defending himself from that terror of a tiny woman.
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/06/abbate-acquitted-on-2-lesser-charges.html
SHEEEEEEEEEEET.
Bullshit, is bullshit, is bullshit.
I second IrishPirate as spokesperson.
I recently watched Star Wars V and VI with my kids, and was too envious to mildly stay stuck with that country singer guy.
I third.
And when do we have an "I'm so white...." contest on the Open Thread at Noon?
Can someone link to one of these right-wingers criticizing Buchanan for her insane and blatantly hypocritical stance? It might restore my faith in humanity.