(Written and posted 25 November 2009)

Heather Ellis was shopping in the Kennett, Missouri, Wal-Mart in January 2007 with her cousin. Upon checking out, she and her cousin decided to go to two different lines, and whichever line was going faster is the one both would use. When Heather discovered that her cousin’s line was moving faster, she left her line and joined her cousin. One problem – her cousin was already finished checking out and the checker was already checking out the next customer in line. No problem. In store video shows Heather snatching the items from the cashier’s hand, throwing the other customer’s items off of the conveyor belt, not once, but numerous times, and placing her items on the belt. When the customer rightfully pointed out that she was already in line and being checked out, Heather became belligerent and hostile. Management was called. Witnesses say that Heather became hostile to the management when they asked her to leave. The police were called. Store video shows Heather being escorted from the store and giving a hand gesture to the police officers. A third video shows a handcuffed Heather being led to a police car, and kicking backwards at officers as they try to sit her in the car. She is ultimately charged with disturbing the peace, resisting arrest, and assaulting an officer, which, if convicted, means fifteen years in the slammer. In October 2009, after the trial has begun, she settles for a plea bargain.

Just a run-of-the-mill incident, right? It should be, but it wasn’t. You see, Heather is black, and all the other participants, the lady in the checkout line that she butted in front of, the cashier who called the manager, the manager, and the police officer she kicked, are white. Naturally, then, all these people were hostile to Heather because she is black. The customer who was angry because she cut in line was only angry because she is black. The cashier who refused to check her out only did so because she is black. The manager who asked her to leave only did so because she is black. The police officers only escorted her out and handcuffed her because she is black. The prosecutor only pressed charges because she is black.

In Heather’s mind, the only thing she did was jump lines. In her mind, she did not deserve any of the hostility that she received. Hers was a minor transgression, and the world reacted the way it did because she is black. She made a website to promote this warped point-of-view, that she is just an innocent victim of racism. Amazingly, she was able to con others into believing her victimhood. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and organization that traces its lineage to Martin Luther King, Jr., joined the fray. The American Civil Liberties Union made a statement bashing Missouri as a racist state. A host of other black organizations joined in as well, all parroting the racism claim.

Except, it wasn’t. The reason why the world reacted so negatively to Heather is that she acted like a first-class jerk. So the customer at Wal-mart called her a bad name. If she had been white, or if the customer had been black, I’d bet Heather still would have been called a bad name, and deservedly so. I’d bet that if Heather had been white or yellow or red, that the cashier would have still refused to serve her. After all, the cashier had been in the middle of serving another customer! When a white person causes a scene in Wal-mart, that person is asked to leave by management, and, if a white person refuses to leave private property when asked by the owner, is escorted off by the police. I know for a fact that that is true as I, a white guy, had the police escort a belligerent white person off of my property. If a white person flips off a police officer, that person will find himself in a heap of trouble. If a white person kicks an officer, a white person will be charged with assault.

The SCLC, ACLU, and other groups that joined in the fray with unfounded charges of racism have lost whatever moral authority and credibility that they might have had. Time again, these organizations will play the race card to excuse obnoxious and bad behavior on the part of blacks and other minorities. A couple of years ago, the grocery store in a predominantly black section of Tulsa closed when Albertson’s left the market and no other chain wanted it because it was unprofitable due to the massive amounts of shoplifting by the customers, and immediately the cries of racism rang out. The city manager of Kansas City is terminated by the City Council who think he’s doing a subpar job, and it’s racism, as the city manager is black. With each an every racism cry, these organizations are telling the world that they do not expect blacks and other minorities to be held to the same standards as whites, that it is okay to be a jerk, it is okay to shoplift, it is okay to be incompetent if you are black.

This is extraordinarily patronizing. What the ACLU and their brothers-in-arms are saying is that black people are so stupid, that we cannot hold them to the same standards as we hold everybody else, that blacks and minorities need to be treated like children and coddled because they can’t make it on their own. I don’t know about you, but I find this to be, well, racist, and akin to Hitler’s justification for his mass slaughter of millions. After all, Hitler argued, the Jews and Gypsies and faggots are inferior to the master race and have to be treated like children and are thus a burden on society and need to be eliminated. If the ACLU, the SCLC, and their friends continue to play the race card, continue to say that minorities are inferior and shouldn’t have to be held to the same standards as the rest of us, ultimately someone, or some group, will decide to follow the Hitlerian playbook and decide that these groups are a burden to society and should be eliminated. It has happened before, and unfortunately, it will happen again.