Playing The Race Card - Part 1
A few weeks ago, the story of a beautiful young woman from Vancouver, Washington “Bethany Storro“ captured the news, and mortified me.
The poor woman face was badly maimed as a result of having acid thrown on her face, allegedly by a black woman in a park. I have to say, I felt so bad for Bethany and couldn’t understand how a person can harm another person just because they are a different color.
Bethany appeared on TV shows and was interviewed by Oprah; everyone’s heart went to her. Some even started collecting money to help her cover medical expenses. The authorities looked for the black woman for weeks, thinking it might have been a hate crime.
How wrong was I! To my total surprise and to the surprise of everyone else, Bethany recanted her whole story. My jaw dropped when I heard her confess that her attack was self-inflicted.
What really got to me was her playing the race card to get attention. At the same time, I couldn’t believe that someone’s hunger for attention, sympathy, or even money would prompt them to make a racial hoax. No matter what the reason is, mental illness or not, she wasn’t mentally sick enough to not know that the cops would buy the story as long as the motive might have been a hate crime or racially motivated.
Bethany wanted attention and did she get it! She faces charges of second-degree theft for accepting donations in the wake of the fake attack (the money donated to her to cover her medical bills). Did I hear an apology, anyone? No, as usual, and she wasn’t even cited for the reason of using a racial hoax.
Racial hoaxes are not as simple as they seem, they carry harm to a whole race, stereotyping them as criminals. Innocent people of color have been imprisoned and even executed because of lies like that one.
Continued on the next page
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