THE GORILLA, THE KID, AND THE SAME OLE WHITE RACISM

Background: A woman was arguing with her kid, a four year old. The mother and child are going back and forth about the kid going inside the gorilla enclosure. 

Kid, "Yes, I am."

Mother, "No you're not.

Kid "Yes I am"

(Paraphrased. But this is very close to the argument I heard repeated on the local news)

The kid winds up in the gorilla cage at some point later.  (Don't know how long a gap there was between the argument and the kid getting in the enclosure. Could be 4 minutes or 4 hours. I don't know. Doesn't matter. Bear with me.)

The gorilla slams the kid around like a rag doll (not an old cliche' /figure of speech. the kid literally looked like a rag doll.  I can't believe the kids alive.)

The zoo shoots Harambe, the gorilla, to save the child. 

The animal rights activists, which I admire most days, went crazy asking why the Gorilla was shot (Didn't they see that damn video?) And then another set of people went crazy and wanted the mother of the toddler put in jail.

* * * * *

Okay.

So I first here about this incident via a meme I saw about a Harambe, the gorilla that was shot. The meme spoke about how the gorilla was taking better care of the child, who is seriously lucky not to be dead, than the child's mother was.

I start reading all these blurbs asking why the zoo shot the Gorilla.

Later that night, I was kind of appalled when I saw news footage of a small limp child being whipped around by the gorilla. Clearly, it was just luck Harambe didn't smash that kid's skull against the wall hard enough to crack it like an egg. 

So I am shocked and dismayed that some of my fellow "human beings" thought maybe it wasn't necessary to stop the gorilla instantly. Then again, maybe some of my fellow human beings have been watching too many cartoons and think a tranquilizer dart will fell a gorilla as fast as a bullet to the head or heart or center mass will. We'll give those folk the benefit of the doubt -- especially since I might have been one of them...until I saw the video.

Between seeing the joke meme (way too soon) and seeing the news story in the evening, I saw there was a petition for the mother to be put in jail, ostensibly for child neglect but in actuality for setting things in motion that resulted in Harambe's death. By the  time I saw they petition, maybe 2/3rds of the 100,000 signatures "needed" were there.

I was shocked at this reaction to a mother not watching child.


Of course, I didn't know one way or the other if the woman was watching her child. But even if she wasn't watching her kid AT ALL, I've never seen such a lack of empathy for woman that almost lost her child.

I know way too many people who believe in the magic of motherhood. The excuses for this that and the other thing, especially the excuses for a woman to not leave a husband/boyfriend who is beating her children half to death, are endless. 

(Yoda voice)

The assumption of woman become angel 

deserve benefit of doubt 

the minute child pass through birth canal

 is deep in some. 

This, I know.

So color me shocked when a woman called "mother" nearly loses her child and America starts debating the length of jail time she deserves....for neglecting her child.

I have to say I was happy to hear, "Where was his father?" for a change because I am tired of seeing cops on the news talking about getting an arrest warrant for the mother whenever they find a 3 year old wandering alone on a freeway --without parting their lips once to ask where the father is. I've seen cops and news reporters do this too many times to count, nationwide; every single time a child is neglected they are looking for Mommy and not Daddy.  Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself. Google it.

But I should have KNOWN, that all this concern about bad mothers and bad fathers in this zoo situation came together over black people. 

I should have known that little boy's mother was black

I should have known

I should have known

I should have known

I should have guessed that all this NEW concern and in depth investigation of parents that almost lost their child --that DIDN'T EVEN result in a child's death-- was about black people.

In the article below, a woman was holding her son so close to an exhibit that she dropped her son when he got excited and jumped/ "lunged" in her arms. As a result, the child dropped into pen and the animal within killed her child,

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/king-racism-found-cincinnati-zoo-saga-article-1.2655860

You know what? There's not a petition to have her thrown in jail  -- probably because her white skin doesn't generate racist stereotypes that prompts people who don't know they are racist to act.

Dear Reader, 

I deliberately made sure I did not look for more video before writing this post. I'd already heard other people say the woman wasn't doing x, y, and z like she should have been. I can take their word for it or not. But I do not want to know if I think that Gorilla toddler's mom is an idiot or incompetent as a mother. It doesn't matter.  What matters is the public reaction to this story.

That's where the racism is -- in the reaction to this story.  I can say that this is where the racism is, for me, because I've read quite a few zoo stories where I was wondering if the mother had a single brain cell-- seems like most of zoo tragedies involve white people, by the way. Yet...

this is the first time 

I've seen a zoo tragedy involving a black person 

and also 

the first time I've seen a petition 

for putting the mother in jail due to negligence

 immediately after her child was almost killed. 

What a coincidence, right?  (<--extreme sarcasm)
----
Pssssssst!!!! You know this mess is not about motherhood and negligence right? You know this is really about getting Harambe shot, right? You know this is about African named Gorilla being killed over an African American child? You know that some of these pro-animal folk are also colorblind/race-blind/racism deaf folk who are sitting at home right now wondering why a few more chances couldn't have been taken to save Harambe since it was JUST an African American child, right? You know that, right?