Fresh of the heels of Ashley Todd’s arraignment – come new allegations of hate and anti- Obama frenzy, for those who don’t know Todd is the young McCain supporter who erroneously led her Texas AM campus to believe that she had been the victim of a hate crime. Accusing a 6’2” 200 pound black man of senselessly beating her, robbing her then taking a knife to her face to carve in a backwards B for Barack Obama.

While Todd’s botched hoax can be attributed to a nail in the coffin of McCain’s political campaign adding insult to injury is the notion that white people can still cry fowl get found guilty and garner little repercussion – and just what was her sentence for causing 6 foot 2 black men all over Dallas to cower in fear? Todd will receive a years probation with the promise of a clean record if she serves with good behavior.

Apparently everything is bigger in Texas—including bigotry. Shortly after this story broke it appears Texas A& M is also taking heat for two other incidents that have occurred last week on the heels of Obama’s win in the white house.

A&M’s young republicans group decided to host a cute little anti-Obama carnival where festivities included throwing eggs at a picture of our newest president elect and a ring toss called the socialist on a stick. Think these games sound trite and harmless – think again?

Apparently another fellow Texas A& M student Buck Brunette also a (star football player) took the jokes too far and was kicked off of A&Ms football team this week for hastily letting the world know how he really felt on his facebook page “”All the hunters gather up, we have a [nigger] in the White House.” In response Buck retorted he ain’t racist and sincerely apologizes for offending anyone.

Now if all of this doesn’t make you sick to your stomach here comes the double whammy. Apparently an angry mob of white men in Staten Island are accused of picking out a random black kid (Ali Kamara age 17) and senselessly beating him while repeatedly yelling “Obama, Obama!” as they continued to hit him with their baseball bats.

Ok, now we all know that many self-reported hate crimes end up being a fraud. What I find increasingly suspicious about this crime isn’t this kid Ali Kamara’s claim that he was allegedly beaten – what bothers me most the low amount of media coverage this story is getting in comparison with Todd’s initial revelations. The sheer minuscule amount of coverage the Kamara is getting amply suggests that the incident is unimportant in the minds of media journalists—but why?

True Kamara could be lying just as much as Ashley Todd but isn’t it fair to give this altercation just as much coverage as Todd – that way if it comes out that the boy is lying there will be the same amount of social fallout. Is this the “change & progress” we’ve collectively made as a country? It seems to me the more things change – the more some things stay visibly indifferent. These recent headlines prove one thing to me and one thing only – as soon as we as Americans take one giant political, moral, emotional and racial step forward by electing Barack and Michelle Obama into the White House there is sure to be several ignorant bigots with bats or fake black eyes to knock us three steps back.
—Erricka X