Resist telecom immunity! Call your Representative today!
I was sitting in a living room on Roycroft a couple of weeks ago talking to someone who had come to one of our Metro Justice events. She was concerned about the lack of jobs in the community and, when we had knocked on her door talking about city contracts and the fact that not too many people from the neighborhood were being hired, she was interested and came to our town hall forum.
I’ve been on the D&C website looking at this photo of Mike Green surrounded by the yellow tape at the homicide scene on the corner of Roycroft and North. I am trying to picture the corner. I think I just blew by it in my car on my way home after the meeting.
I didn’t know Antwan or Tamar. I’m trying to take it in. What is going on?
As I was reading the posts on the D&C website I couldn’t help but think that the same forces that left these youth dead are the same forces that flow through the fingers of the suburban folks leaving comments.
Invariably the posts devolve into self satisfied rantings wondering how “those people” could live that way. The city is characterized as “an open sewer.” One individual calling himself “taxed up the wazoo” wonders why anybody would actually choose to live in the city. Each post eggs the next one on until it seems that we are talking about two separate species- those who choose to live in the suburbs and those living in the city. The process of dehumanization grinds on.
I am reminded of the genocide in Rwanda where the Hutu DJ’s took to the air to urge people to grab machetes and go after Tutsis.
The glimmer of the machete is in these D&C posts. The urge to scapegoat is inside every human. Like so many who rubberneck through the Democrat and Chronicle, the folks typing at their home computers have embraced that impulse. First they break our legs then they make fun of us for limping.
Rwanda is actually a good example. We have been trained to focus on the ethnic tensions that lead to genocide. Our documentaries and Hollywood movies stay on that narrative. But in Rwanda the untold story was the torpedoing of the international coffee prices that drove the rural countryside into chaos. We’re not supposed to look at the Rwandan farmers uprooting their trees after US coffee traders refused to honor international agreements. The resulting nflation and unemployment uprooted families and eviscerated social roles. Unemployed youth roamed the countryside providing cheap labor for local warlords. But don’t tell that story.
Which brings us to Rochester and Kodak and sprawl and the posts following the murders on Roycroft. It’s always easier to blame the victim. The blame pattern always flows down. It’s just easier that way. Don’t look at the system. Just look at the limping.
After 9/11 Americans were shocked by our vulnerability. Politicians still can’t utter the term “blowback.” And we were then quickly mobilized into scapegoating mode, dutifully mouthing our oath to destroy islamofascism. The process is the same. Mobilize the media to drop any pretense of common humanity and dehumanize the “other.” Then apply machetes liberally.
What’s going on in the city? If you want to tell the story you must first understand the parameters of acceptable discourse. It would be unacceptable to talk about agricultural changes in the rural south, northern migration to Rochester and discriminatory hiring practices at Kodak and other corporations. You’d also have to forget about talking about redlining, predatory lending, housing and mortgage discrimination. Don’t try to understand the forces of blocked aspirations, alienation and self-destruction. Instead, you’d have to just focus on the individuals involved.
And what conclusion could you draw? Well the problem would have to dwell somewhere inside the individuals. Or in their families. That would be the acceptable parameters of discussion.
I didn’t know Antwan or Tamar. But I can guess where the conversation is going to in the next few weeks. And just in time for the City Budget hearings on Zero Tolerance.
The folks posting on the D&C blog will continue to post from their suburban living rooms. Maybe they are safe there. Maybe not.
Tags: living, room, safe, suburban
Superlative post, Jon. The comments on the D&C are so negative so routinely, it’s hard to feel as though we should expect any better. I wrote an open letter to the D&C a long time ago about this, but guess what? They’re not doing anything about it.
The Internet and networks like it (Quantum Link, CompuServe, back in the day) have always served a sort of cathartic purpose for many people, inasmuch as the anonymity afforded you allows people to say things they would never dare in normal company. I wouldn’t be surprised if the families of the commenters don’t even know that’s how those people feel. That doesn’t justify anything, in fact, it confirms some really scary fundamental truth in what you say.
I’ve also wondered from time to time how many of those commenters are - all kidding aside - Aspergers or autistic. For these people, normal social interaction is a huge stress, and I bet flaming online and pissing people off without consequence is a relief.
Whatever is the reason or motivation, that the D&C should open the door to such abuse and not do anything to moderate it is entirely unacceptable. Rottenchester from The Fighting 29th is working at the D&C now, so maybe he can gently persuade them to change their ways. After all, the D&C is in fact liable for the content on their website, even if they didn’t write it.
Thomas,
Could you elaborate on D&C’s liability of content?
Sure. The bottom line is that they - and you, and I - are responsible for the content on their servers. Even if content is not provided by you, it’s still on your site, and you are therefore responsible for it, and this has been proven in case law.
You will notice that, on this site, there is a User Provided Content Policy meant to limit the damage that could potentially be done by setting clear guidelines in what is a very, very murky business. Where it gets strange is that, even though the content is on your server and is your responsibility, it is still considered the author’s personal intellectual property. So, you can’t just delete it, either.
At least, not without a policy in place, which this site has. Here, I respect the rights of my readers, but also make it very, very clear that unwelcome content can and will be removed.
Thanks, Thomas.
This is a truly excellent post. Nice job.
To an extent, the D&C does moderate comments. If you post the n-word, or the f-word, they will remove the comment.
When I registered with the user name “God”, they shut down the account.
So, by not removing comments that refer to city residents as “ghetto trash” etc. the D&C is approving them.
Compare this to the NYT, which allows comments on on it’s blogs. Those comments do not appear until they have been approved by a moderator - and as a result are civil.