by Scruples McGee
A well-known political blog recently ran an article that spoke of the expressed outrage by some white Americans, angered by the portrayal of the character “Annie” from the hit musical. Most of us remember the character as a spunky Caucasian redhead. However, a new remake of the musical has cast a young black actress in the leading role, a move a number of racists have found hard to swallow. Twitter apparently was overcome with venomous tweets by those outraged by the decision to cast an African-American in the starring role as “Annie.” The most hate filled tweet read as follows: “Annie was a freckled face redhead, not a nappy head parasite infected #nigger shitbag! #niggers ruin everything!! @Bum_Farto.”
I have never viewed myself as naive, or as someone who was out of touch with reality, however a recent article on racism brought me down to Earth with a sickening jolt. I never had any doubt that racism against blacks still existed and was in fact very real. But upon reading the ugly and searing words of one particularly clearly devout racist, I came to realize racism was not only very real but thriving.
The Twitter name of the perpetrator of the most repugnant tweet speaks volumes, but what is almost as sickening as the tweet itself, is the picture used as the photo. Above the tweet we can see an image of murdered teen Trayvon Martin with what appears to be a red dot meant to resemble a target on his head. Upon reading the stomach turning tweets in the Daily Kos article, I became enraged, not only by the tweets themselves but the “Daily Kos” for sharing them. I suppose it was the fact that I had never fully grasped the extent of hatred by some towards blacks, especially when the hatred is aimed at a small child. It is difficult to accept that while these hate mongers do not represent the majority of white Americans, they are not alone in their sentiments. Racism is very much alive and in many ways more dangerous than ever.
