The Boogeyman Theory: Conjuring up the mythical creature of our nightmares, by giving it a face of a particular demographic, resulting in fear.
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from Vancouver British Columbia Canada
composer Renan Javier
in The Neighborhood since 2013
w/ Lovers & Madmen
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The Second Question
developed by Kendall F. Person
The remaining 10 Demographics have each been given the second question at the same time with the same deadline. Their responses as well as your next chance to vote is on Sunday Nov. 20 beginning at 6:00pm PST/9pm EST.
SCENARIO
In 1995, a mother named Susan Smith would lock her two young kids in a car and push it, with them in it, into John D. Long lake in Union South Carolina. She immediately ran screaming, and even went on national tv to falsely claim that she had been carjacked and her kids kidnapped by a black man.
The Sheriff, however, would do his due diligence, and discovered the truth, far before Susan Smith’s use of The Boogeyman Theory could cause irreparable harm to race relations in South Carolina.
THE SECOND QUESTION: From actual experience, has their been a time that you have heard false information and addressed a person’s unwarranted fears about a demographic different than you?
If not, over the years, have any of your views changed in a positive way about a demographic different than you? You can note a specific experience or in general, based on acquired knowledge.
Feel free to offer your own response in the forum section below as the search for common ground involves us all.
episode ii The Pursuit of happiness
this is... The Neighborhood 
About the Susan Smith deal….I remember that well. Loser (my ex) ran the newspaper. I remember him walking in and saying “if she didn’t have something to do with this, they’ll never see those kids again.” I said “what?! You think she had something to do with this? Their own mama?”
He said “I think that’s far more likely than a black man taking them.” “To me” he said, “it’s just a little too convenient.”
Was he ever right. I hated her…and I still do.
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The Susan Smith ordeal stayed with us for so many unfortunate reasons. Thank you for adding your voice and being a part of The Neighborhood.
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I have a hard time with injustice. It gets me into trouble sometimes. Did you know that the detective said if she hadn’t folded when he told her about the red light, she would have gotten away with it and they would have continued to look for the phantom “black man?” What if they had found somebody who looked enough like the fake description to be hauled in?
She should have been shot in front of a firing squad.
Sorry, this kind of thing just makes my blood boil.
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That’s terrible and so very troublesome. I can’t stand this kind of crap. It’s just wrong on every single solitary level.
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Reblogged this on tenacitytdotcom and commented:
Check this out! PLEASE and Thank YOU 🙂
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Silly (perhaps not the right word) as this may sound, but my opinion of all races has changed over the years, including that of my own. The bottom line is there is no race exempt of prejudice. My personal experience or exposure would say that everyone on this earth contributes to the dissension of the human race. It is true.
My mother was Hispanic and one of the most prejudiced persons I’ve ever known, yet very sensitive to perceived prejudices against her. In the same vein, I have seen blacks far more judgmental and racist against both Hispanic but especially toward whites, challenging and daring whites to treat them better than they were willing to reciprocate. No honor, no respect. Granted, there is a history, but that history transcends all races as they came into this country. “Man has governed man to his own injury.(Eccl 8:9)”, no doubt, but that has been true of all nations.
I’ve seen white people, like my father, say ugly things about others not of his own color. We have also seen those in the Middle East who are willing to self-sacrifice to the death in order to annihilate us or I should say anyone different than themselves. I’ve seen self proclaimed “Jews” who although didn’t follow the religion, claim that everyone is prejudiced against them and out to destroy them, so they curse anyone they may feel to blame.
I’ve seen whites who claim to fight for the rights of minorities more prejudiced by their opinion of a certain region, impute wrong motives and in so doing cause more rifts and widen the divide of color. Every time someone incites people to riot or join in rioting, the blood begins to boil and things get out of control.
My father, who was white, loved people of all races, yet his language might not have given you that impression. Old habits and terminology can sometimes mislead others.
I worked with a white woman who came across as bigoted, but who helped people of color generously and from the heart.
I knew a black woman who every time the film “Roots”, came on, she couldn’t or wouldn’t talk to us white folk for awhile. She confided in me once that she had to pray every day to love us as God would want her to. She was making an effort. I had black people tell me how much they hated the Guatemalans and Hispanics who had moved into the community, because they were tapping into their welfare resources. Really?
I had black people sing with me at church and love and encourage me like a sister. I knew whites who still struggle with color, not individually but as a group. Right or wrong should be devoid of color but it’s not.
Media feeds and fuels the fire of disparity of race and the populace lets it. It calls attention to slights and grievances not with the intent to remedy or heal but to fester the wounds of hate.
So, no one is exempt. If they, we, all took everyone individually then things could change.
I live in a multi-cultural neighborhood and worried about that at first. But, I took my own advice and got to know them one on one and so far, so good.
Regardless of anyone’s religious beliefs, Jesus’ admonition in John 13:34-35 reads, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples…” That alone could pretty much solve all issues of race and most everything else. How simple is that?
Sometimes it gets me down because the solution is right there, yet no one wants to heed it. They are either irreligious or anti god, so to accept something so simple goes against their “beliefs”. Sigh. Just think, to learn to love unreservedly could heal the world. Oh, if it were only so.
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Not silly at all. Thank you, as always, for adding your voice.
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You’re welcome! I love that you always come across as a voice of reason when all else feels chaotic. Thanks for that!
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