North Utah Faces Influx of Racists

NY Times ^ | April 4, 2003 | NICK MADIGAN

[Utah Girl]

I especially liked how the NY Times reporter linked Utahns' independence and suspicion of government to the white racists. Smooth move there. I have two brothers who live in North Ogden, I'll have to ask them about this article...

[Joe Hadenuf]

Just a guess, but I would think that most hard core of these people don't parade their beliefs down the street and wave banners.....

[Jhoffa_]

Traditionally conservative, independent and avowedly religious, many Utahans have long tolerated what some people elsewhere consider to be extreme points of view, including the perspectives of conspiracy theorists and opponents of a so-called world order. The right to bear arms is revered, and government is often viewed with suspicion.

Oh! Oh, my!

Janet, quick! Ready the tanks!

[Jhoffa_]

Sounds like racist profiling to me.

No kidding, if I made a comment about that like Blacks or Hispanics that's exactly what it would be called.

"Racist"

I am not friend of the KKK, but I haven't forgotten about Calipso Louie and Quannel_X on the other end of the spectrum either.

Fair's fair, you know. You can't have two groups of racists, celebrate one and then deride the other and call it anything but bias.

[Britton J Wingfield]

What a fearsome looking guy! I wouldn't want to meet him in a dark ally--NOT. (ROTFL).

I just spent the weekend learning from a pudgy, unassuming looking guy who happens to be a consumate badass. Looks mean nothing, and you wouldn't find this guy in a dark alley without 5 more just like him, anyway.

[Britton J Wingfield]

No need to make a choice, deride them all :)

We have our fair share of these losers in AZ, especially Mesa. For all their bluster, a typical attack by these guys is 5-on-1 against some highschool kid.

[Choose Ye This Day]

There are plenty of parts of Ogden that I wouldn't want my car to break down in. Too bad, because it's a beautiful city, but gangs have been a big problem there for many years.

[Jhoffa_]

No need to make a choice, deride them all :)

Works for me.. God created all men, can't pick and choose which ones are "okay" to persecute based on their skin color.

But I do get mad when I see some racists elevated to almost "freedom fighter" status while others are labled correctly.

The problem is, if you have nerve enough to point this bias out, then you get tagged as a "racist" yourself for "defending" them.

This whole thing is enough to make Freud spin like a top.

[amused]

In this country one is free to be many things including a bigot or a moron. That a-holes like this can be marginalized thanks to social pressure is comforting.

The fact that these are criminals re-organizing their gangs after release is far more troubling.

[goodieD]

nice generalization there catspaw.... I suppose you'd feel more comfortable with azatlan or the black panthers? sure, because all white people who are not ashamed of their race are evil in your racist eyes.

[JCEccles]

Isn't it amazing how these guys always go to some place like nothern Utah where they are unlikely to come into contact with any black people?

Many blacks live in Northern Utah. Hill Air Force Base draws many blacks from the military, and Weber State University always has a heavy black representation on its athletic teams. Because Ogden is an old railroad town, there has been a robust black community in Ogden for decades.

[SSN558]

Without a doubt the prison system is a hate factory, and survival on the inside makes joining one of these groups necessary. I wonder how many people have ever really met one of them or stopped to talk to one. I have.

My next door neighbors brother inlaw out in CA was an Aryan. He spent more than 3/4's of his adult life in prison. When he got out did odd jobs, tried to stay out of jail, and grow his own food out of necessity. The time he was out and I met him he had just got involved with a girl friend and she was pregnant. He wanted better for his child and tried to make a go of it. The two of them got nailed for drug paraphanilia in Placerville, and he got three strikes. His child that he will never see was born in prison.

Before this he told me he had spent most of his life in prison and couldn't handle it on the outside, but he was done this time. To get into the Aryans you have to kill a black person. He wasn't proud of it though.

The black and brown prison gangs exist for similiar purposes, for most of them it is a way of life. They can't be punished by jail, it is a mark of pride and they boast of how many years they have done.

[kms61]

"I wonder how many others there are out there like him. And I wonder when the country's penal system will begin regarding rape as a crime that needs to be punished severely rather than ignored or, in some cases, implicitly facilitated as a means of disciplining particularly problematic inmates. "

Sadly, I don't think it will be any time soon. In any thread on FR that deals with someone going to prison, the rape jokes invariably crop up. I'm not picking on this site in particular, but it's just an example that a substantial number of the public don't see it as a problem. Worse, some apparently view rape as part of the punishment process for transgressors.

[Pharmboy]

If rape at the AIr Force Academy was ok, then prison rape is a non-issue. Sad.