Saturday, March 12, 2016

I thought it was funny as all get out

In 1895, a man was murdered in Groesbeck Texas. A suspect was soon apprehended, and after a trial, found guilty and publicly hanged,  and as was the custom of the times, photographs were taken. The suspect was black, and whether he was in fact guilty or was scapegoated is a matter known only to GOD. Every one else has long since died.
Fast forward 120 years, and a copy of that old photograph was selected as part of the decor for a Joe's Crab Shack in Roseville, Liberal bastion of stupidity, Minnesota. In wander two black men who were seated at the table adorned with the age old photo of that long forgotten hanging, now captioned "ALL I SAID WAS I DON"T LIKE THE GUMBO" They, unlike me,didn't see humor, or if they did see humor, they also saw dollar signs. They voiced their dislike.
OK, lets face reality. many blacks were lynched in Texas as well as other southern, and a few northern states. This guy was not, he was convicted of a crime, murder. The rewrite implies maybe, just maybe he was lynched, and for an all together different reason. I doubt any blacks in the south got lynched because they didn't like the cooking. Most never got to sample it.  Those are facts, and though they are ugly, we cannot undo history, and glossing it over dooms us to repeat it.
Now, had the guy being hung been a Yankee, one of those hated Kansans, then the caption would have been correct. For a Carpet Bagger to dis anything southern in that era would have been a hanging offense, and the trial record would have shown, Hung for dissing on granny Parker's Chili fixins.
The Chicken shits in Minnesota won't even hang murderers which is why they have the problems they do. Polar Bear hunting is popular there.
Lnychings are a part of our history that we don't ever want to repeat. We also don't want to forget them lest we wander down that road again. We can have humor about it though. To me, even a picture of a lynching, at dark of night , by a swamp, under a tree, can be made a little humorous.
That photo, with that caption, serves to remind folks about how seriously some folks take their local cuisine, and Joe's is all about the cuisine. I know because the last time I went, the service sucked.

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