“All the NewsrnUnfit to Print” ignsJ of tl^e QDimesfrnVol. 2 No. 9 September 2000rnThe parking lot of a shopping mall inrnBiloxi, Mississippi, was packed withrnyoung blacks in town for an event calledrnBlack Spring Break. Suddenly, a shoutrnwent up from several male voices:rn”There’s a white girl! There’s a whiterngirl!”rnSeconds l a t e r , the g i r l was underrnattack. The mob pressedrnin, hands clawed at her, andrnher top was ripped off. As shernt r i e d to cover up and buriedrnher face in her hands, therncrowd shouted, laughed, andrnjeered at her. Hands shot uprnin the a i r , some pumping f i s t srntriumphantly, others wavingrnvideo cameras seeking to capturernthe g i r l ‘ s trauma for morernlaughs l a t e r on.rnThe sordid proceedings were capturedrnby a photographer for the Biloxi Sun-Herald,rnwhich also reported the details above.rnBiloxi residents who did not appreciaternthe “party going” spirit wrote to the Sun-rnHerald about other girls of both races whornhad their clothes torn off; of girls followedrninto bathrooms by men with video cameras;rnof public stripping and sexual acts. Arnwoman described a frantic call from herrn19-year-old daughter stuck in traffic byrn”party goers”:rnThey were exposing themselvesrnand videotaping her reactionrnto i t . Groups of party-goersrnwere having sex on the hoods ofrncars next to her . . . I askedrni f she could find a policemanrnto help her get off the highway.rnShe said there were hundredsrnof policemen standingrnaround watching.rnHateful slurs soon escalated into physicalrnviolence. Shopkeepers were robbedrnand threatened, and many temporarilyrnclosed their businesses. “The behaviorrnwas disgusting, obscene and deplorable,”rnsaid Biloxi’s insensitive Mayor A.J. Holloway.rnBut the real problem with this unreportedrnscandal—or with the riot in LosrnAngeles in the aftermath of the Lakers’rnJune victory—is not so much the event itselfrnbut that we are not free to discuss itrnopenly. Any attempt to do so invites therncharge of “racism.”rnThe cult of minority victimologyrncrossed the Atlantic a long time ago, withrnTony Blair’s Britain leading the way:rnWhen Britain’s own version of the “partying”rnat Biloxi takes place—once a year atrnNotting Hill carnival or every Saturdayrnnight in Brixton—the police are expectedrnto act as social workers and therapists.rnBut egregious “hate crimes” barely meritrnfive lines of a Reuters dispatch (June 7)rnwhen the targets do not belong to a recognizedrncategory of victims:rnB r i t i s h tourism chiefs havernapologized to a group of Germanrnteenagers on a school t r i p whornsay they were stoned and calledrnNazis by English children. Thern44-strong school party fromrnBerlin was v i s i t i n g Marazionrnin the western English countyrnof Cornwall when the allegedrnattack took place. TeacherrnGabbi Muller was quoted as sayingrnthat the English childrenrnwere encouraged by their parentsrnto throw stones and waterrnbombs.rnOne can only speculate what the mediarnreaction would have been had those Englishrnchildren stoned and insulted a busloadrnof visiting teenagers from southeastrnWashington, D.C. At least now we knowrnthat Germans do not belong on Britain’srnUst of protected species. Being European,rnthey are deemed fair game.rnWe return to the Biloxi Sun-Herald forrnour next story—also about race, but with arndifferent message. On June 22, the paperrncarried a feature about black Confederaternsoldiers and their descendants who remainrnfaithful to Dixie. The accompanying picturernhad a self-explanatory caption:rnHarry Hervey, wearing a Confederaternkepi hat, and hisrnbrother, Anthony, dressed inrnConfederate gray, wave thernConfederate b a t t l e flag at thernEight Flags display in Gulfportrn. The Herveys were marchingrnwith the flags in supportrnof the Black Confederate SoldierrnFoundation. They want tornbring attention to the factrnthat blacks fought for the Confederacyrntoo.rnMr. Hervey’s devotion to the flag beganrnwhen he discovered that his great-greatunclernJames Hervey fought for the Confederacyrnand was killed at Shiloh. Furtherrnresearch helped Mr. Hervey discover thernrecords of 100,000 black Confederatesrnwho fought in the war.rn”I am marching for freedom,”rnHervey said. “The b a t t l e flagrnstands for freedom and s t a t e s ‘rnr i g h t s . The U.S. flag is thernflag of slavery. It flew overrn100 years of slavery, and Natrni v e Americans were annihilatedrnunder that flag.” . . . Herveyrnsees a correlation betweenrnthe past and today’s controversiesrnover the flag. “Werncurrently live under a psychologicalrnform of reconstruction,rn” he said. “Whites arernmade to feel guilty for sins ofrnt h e i r ancestors, and blacksrnare made to feel downtrodden.rnThis keeps a l l of us from communicating.rnThe p o l i t i c a lrncorrectness of today isrnk i l l i n g the pride of the peoplern.”rnBritish political satirist Auberon Waughrnagrees. Writing in London’s Daily Telegraphrn(June 14) on legislation to ban foxrnhunting, he commented that it may not bernenough to limit the power of the House ofrnCommons in order to discourage “itsrndreadful new members” from passing oppressivernlaws on matters they know nothingrnabout. He argues that there is a linkrnbetween banning fox hunts and bombingrn20/CHRONICLESrnrnrn