![]() | ERIC HALL |
ERIC ON ... RACISM
South Carolina, apart from being the home of many tall pines, is also the home of Myrtle Beach. And Myrtle Beach is the home of what is known as "Black Biker Week". Despite being described as a "week", it actually takes place over a weekend - Memorial Weekend - which is commonly at the end of May.
A group called "Black Biker Rights" makes the point that there is a biker rally in Myrtle Beach at which the participants are "predominantly white" - thus accepting the fact that there are at least some black bikers involved. This event is known as "Harley Week". One imagines that the crucial element that bonds people together at this event is the Harley-Davidson, and the dearth (if this is indeed true) of black bikers at the event is due to the dearth of black bikers owning Harley Davidsons.
The organisers then go on to state categorically that "a similar number of black motorcyclists attend a similar rally in the Myrtle Beach area, known as "Black Bike Week" ". This seems to suggest that the crucial element that bonds people together at this event is the fact that they are black, and the fact that there is no qualification in their statement suggests that thay are all black.
Maybe it's me being an ignorant foreigner, I dunno, but just imagine what would happen if someone were to organise a "White Biker Week" at which all the participants would be white? There would be an outcry and outrage. Yet if it's some kind of racial discrimination in another direction, that seems to be permissible.
Someone did suggest that "Black Biker Week" is an ethnic minority exercising its right to have positive discrimination. Whether it is or not, it's still discrimination and I can't see why any kind of discimination is acceptable. If people want to be treated as one, then they should be treated as one, and that's the end of it.
In any case, when another ethnic minority in another country asserted itself and adopted positive discrimination, it was treated as an international pariah for over 30 years and banned from all contact with the rest of the world. I suppose it was just mere coincidence that this particular ethnic minority was white. And when that country was finally liberated from its ethnic minority and welcomed back into the international fold, all the international leaders who feted the new president were actually feting a convicted terrorist.
This organisation, "Black Biker Rights", is urging people to write to them with examples of discrimination that they suffered during "Black Biker Week". The irony of this has gone completely over their heads. Are they really going to field complaints from white bikers who were unable to join in the fun? All of this sounds like hypocrisy of the rankest kind to me.
What on earth is going on in the modern world?
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