[BretLudwig]

The Riots Next Time? Racial Violence Looms If Barack Obama Loses€”Or Wins

By Matthew Richer

"Back in January, Jonah Goldberg wrote in National Review Online that if
Senator Barack Obama loses the presidential election

"I seriously think certain segments of American political life will become
completely unhinged. I can imagine the fear of this social unraveling
actually aiding Obama enormously in 2008."

We all know, of course, just which "segments of American political life"
Goldberg is referring to so coyly. This "social unraveling" really means
race riots.

In Salon.com, Glenn Greenwald immediately criticized Goldberg for making
such an (allegedly) racist observation. And to my knowledge, Goldberg has
not repeated it since. But it is an important question and Jonah Goldberg
deserves credit for raising it, however gingerly.

In the same post, Goldberg further warned us that if Barack Obama loses
the presidential election "teeth shall be gnashed, clothes rent, and
prices paid".

I am not really sure what Goldberg meant by this. But I certainly agree
that the outcome might very well be dangerous€”most especially, for
whites.

How dangerous? Consider one of the more serious race riots of the last
decade: the Cincinnati Riots of 2001.

In April, 2001, 19-year old Timothy Thomas led a dozen police officers on
a long, late-night chase through the dangerous "Over-the-Rhine" section of
Cincinnati. One officer eventually intercepted Thomas, suddenly confronting
him face to face in an alley. Thomas then apparently tried to pull up his
sagging pants. The officer believed he was reaching for a weapon. He fired
once, killing Thomas, who turned out to be unarmed.

Timothy Thomas was the 15th black male to die while in confrontation with
the Cincinnati police in six years. Soon Cincinnatis black leaders
began to repeat the cry of "15 Black Men" over and over again€”a cry that
was quickly picked up and parroted by a compliant media.

This, despite the fact that most of these black men were extremely violent
criminals€”one murdered a teenage girl with an axe and another shot a
female police officer, then carjacked her cruiser. In fact, ten of the
Cincinnati 15 had pointed or fired guns at police officers during their
fatal attempts to resist arrest. Two others tried to run over officers
with their cars.

These facts did not matter to Cincinnatis black leaders, some of whom
had already filed a racial-profiling lawsuit against the citys police
department. Norma Holt Davis of the NAACP announced that Thomass death
was just more proof that "the police force has declared war on
African-Americans."

Two days after Thomass death, a heated throng of black activists forced
their way into a City Council meeting with the usual demands for "justice".
The protest quickly grew into a crowd of over 1,000 black men, women, and
even children. They eventually poured out of Cincinnati City Hall, then
marched down to police headquarters, shouting angry demands to meet with
the Chief of Police. Some even took pictures of the officers guarding the
entrance to the police station, taunting them with promises of future
retribution. [What Really Happened in Cincinnati, By Heather Mac Donald,
City Journal, Summer 2001]

Anger would only increase over the next three days. hordes of black males
rampaged through the city targeting whites and white-owned establishments.
Storefront windows were smashed in and their goods looted, parked cars were
trashed, vending machines were overturned. Rioters also torched an outdoor
market, a police substation and dragged several dumpsters into the middle
of the street and set them ablaze.

"It was a night of white terror" said one Cincinnati business owner.
Blacks heaved bricks through the windows of passing white motorists, and
pulled white men and women from their vehicles and pummeled them. Some
indiscriminately fired gunshots into the air, and very often, at white
police officers.

Unfortunately, such instances of mass racial violence are not unusual.
Many Americans do not realize how often they occur because the MainStream
Media either glosses over such events or ignores them altogether. CNN, for
example, initially described the Cincinnati Riots as mere "disturbances"
committed by "protesters".

* Most people outside of New York have never heard of the Crown
Heights Riots of 1991, where for three days black mobs looted stores,
vandalized property, and brutalized whites, specifically
Jews€”culminating in the death of 29 year old Yankel Rosenbaum, who
suffered multiple stab wounds and a crushed skull.

* Few Americans remember the Seattle Mardi Gras Riots of 2001, where
gangs of young black men (and women) clobbered whites at random, including
twenty year old Kristopher Kime who was hit over the head with a broken
bottle then stomped to death for coming to the aid of a badly beaten white
woman.

Given this proclivity to mass racial violence, it seems reasonable to ask,
then, if riots will break out around Election Day€”not simply because
Barack Obama is the nominee, but because so many members of the black
underclass fervently support him.

Rapper Snoop Dog recently told Newsweek: "People that I know that have
never cared about politics are registering to vote this time: gang
members, ex-cons, you name it. I hate to see a lot of that hope go down
the drain, and if [Obama] loses, it will."

In a recent column well-worth reading, Dennis Prager warned that "the deep
emotional connection that nearly every black American has to an Obama
victory is difficult for even empathetic non-blacks to measure".
[Liberals' Warnings About Obama Loss May Prove Self-Fulfilling, September
23, 2008]

Yes, white liberals are attached to Obama too, but only superficially.
After Election Day, they can sip their lattes with a clean conscience
knowing that they voted for a black man for President, then go on with
life as usual.

For black Americans, however, Barack Obama is far more than a cause
célèbre. Their attachment, as Prager suggests, is something far deeper,
and far more disturbing.

This emotional connection is perhaps best illustrated in a video taken at
a charter school in Kansas City, Missouri and posted on Youtube [link]. In
the video, about a dozen black teenagers dressed in military fatigues
parade and chant about how Barack Obama has inspired them to be the next
architect, doctor and so on.

It is clear from the stony stares of these boys that Obama does not so
much inspire their admiration as reinforce their anger. How do you expect
they will react if Obama loses the election?

White liberals have convinced themselves that Barack Obama is one of them,
or nearly so, because of his articulate English and elite education. What
would an Ivy League educated, half-white man from Hawaii have in common
with incendiary black leaders like Louis Farrakhan?

Quite a bit, actually. Obamas spiritual mentor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright,
is a good friend of Louis Farrakhan and even accompanied him to Libya to
meet with General Muammar Gaddaffi in 1984. And in 1995, Barack Obama
himself flew from Chicago to Washington, D.C. to attend Farrakhans
Million Man March. He described the march then as "a powerful
demonstration of an impulse and need for African-American men to come
together to recognize each other and affirm our rightful place in the
society".

The unsettling truth is that Barack Obama is not some bridge between black
and white, but a man who is obsessed with the perceived injustice of
growing up black in a white-run world. In Dreams from My Father, Obama
writes of how, as a teenager, he would closet himself in his room and
absorb the works of black radicals like W.E.B. DuBois and Malcolm X,
withdrawing "into a smaller and smaller coil of rage".

Indeed, the one idea Obama most identified with then was Malcolm Xs
wish that "the white blood that ran through him, there by an act of
violence, might somehow be expunged".

It does not seem to matter to Barack Obama that the white blood that runs
through him is not there by an act of violence, but by an act of marriage.
Or that he has never personally experienced any of the injustices we
typically associate with black Americans.

Clearly, Barack Obama has far more in common with the angry young black
men who are devoted to his candidacy than most Americans realize.

Moreover, Obama has been leading in the polls for many weeks. His
supporters are psychologically prepared for his victory. So if he is
ultimately defeated, then it would appear to be because a significant
number of white voters switched to John McCain at the last minute. When
that happens, expect the pundit class to make many gloating remarks about
the "Bradley Effect" and how bigoted American voters will just never elect
a black candidate.

Even Obama supporters have begun to admit violence is likely if Obama
loses. On CNN, James Carville recently hinted at riots, saying that if
Obama loses, "it would be very, very dramatic out there".

And Philadelphia Daily News columnist Fatima Ali, a fervent Obama
supporter, recently wrote that "If McCain wins, look for a full-fledged
race and class war, fueled by a deflated and depressed country, soaring
crime, homelessness€”and hopelessness." [We need Obama, not 4 more years
of George Bush, September 2, 2008]

Many urban police departments are making special preparations in the event
of Election Day unrest, including Cincinnati, Chicago, Philadelphia and
Detroit. The Oakland Police Department has announced that they will deploy
riot control units on November 4th and have a SWAT team on standby. [Police
prepare for unrest, TheHill.com, By Alexander Bolton, October 21, 2008]

Significantly, police fear violence not only if Barack Obama loses€”but
even if he wins. That is because blacks have a history of violence in
victory, especially after sporting events. For example, riots of varying
size often coincide with the conclusion of the NBA Finals, most notably in
Detroit after the Pistons won the 1990 title. Seven people died during the
"celebrations".

Some will call it bigoted to prepare ourselves for post-election race
riots. But given recent history, its all too possible that if Barack
Obama loses the presidential election, a large number of black Americans
just might become unhinged."

http://www.vdare.com/richer/081024_obama.htm

Matthew Richer (email him) is a public relations specialist who divides
his time between New York City and New Hampshire. He is the former
American Editor of Right NOW.

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