Not Again

My, oh my, oh my. 

 

There’s a county in the People’s Republic of Maryland known as Anne Arundel, which is home to the state’s capital, Annapolis.

 

No, I’m correct – Baltimore is NOT Maryland’s capital.  Please feel free to look it up; I’ll wait for you.

 

Being steeped in history, Anne Arundel County was named after Lord Calvert’s wife, Anne Arundel.  It was the mid-1600’s when Anne died, at which point the county was named in her honor.

 

As an aside, Lord Calvert, too, has a county honoring his name.

 

From the 1700’s, Annapolis, and Anne Arundel by extension, has been heavily populated by African Americans who have become an integral part of Maryland’s rich culture.

 

But it was a skirmish called The Civil War, which ended in 1865, that freed America’s slaves.  Until that time, though, women slaves were used as servants for weaving, sewing, cooking, washing, baking, and other chores; men were used for chopping wood, ditch digging and working as sawyers, blacksmiths, and maritime tradesmen.

 

Unfortunately, with this history comes a dark background which regularly continued until recent decades that included physical abuse and lynching.

 

Lynchings were used as a racial terror tactic to keep the slaves in check, and were conducted openly to discourage other slaves from “straying.”

 

Still used today as a symbol of hate, and to induce fear, the noose can be fashioned out of rope – tied to form a slip knot that is able to be tightened or loosened.  Such utilitarian knots are used for securing boats, lifting cargo, and securing newly planted trees.

 

However, that powerful symbol of hate and subsequent centuries of intimidation have brought us to a place of great discomfort we left behind.

 

In 2020, an African American NASCAR driver, Bubba Wallace, was racing at the Talladega, Alabama, racetrack where a noose was discovered in his garage bay.

 

Almost immediately, local and federal law enforcement agencies swarmed Wallace’s garage to examine the “hate-crime” scene, and secure evidence of this emotional attack.

 

A NASCAR official publicly decried this vile act, while most news agencies desperately tried to bring this horrible, divisive symbolic act into today’s headlines.

 

The fifteen FBI agents investigating the scene determined the noose was not a message of hate, but a rope that had been tied to enable the raising and lowering of that particular garage bay door.

 

Although this valiant effort by select news people to portray White people as a racist sub-society had failed, it was also applauded as a success in pointing out the bigotry that remains.

 

I wasn’t quite sure how this all worked.  Blacks were brought to America in the 1600’s, they were freed after a bloody civil conflict, official legislation proclaimed them whole, and though decades of affirmative action and special programs, more than a few Black activists remain dissatisfied.

 

To investigate further, several local news organizations reported on this, with one headline reading: “’Lynching in Anne Arundel County’ historical marker vandalized with apparent noose.”

 

Other headlines and following stories were just as caustic implying no one with dark skin was safe leaving their homes.

 

Upon reading the story itself, this news scoop details how “a piece of string was found attached to the ‘Lynching in Anne Arundel County’ historical marker Sunday morning.  Police said they’re investigating it as racially motivated vandalism.”

 

Terrifying ball of string

Of course they are.

 

But this story continues.  It seems as though a special dedication of this marker would not have been complete were it not for flowers and balloons.

 

A closer inspection, and a thorough costly investigation, revealed the “racially motivated vandalism noose” was used to secure flowers to this historical marker for a recent ceremony.  Mystery solved!  The inferior flowers needed help to stand upright.  Amen.

 

But this would not be as satisfying without the finger-pointing and false accusations of normal ‘Us vs. Them,’ Black vs. White, men vs. women, gay vs. straight, and so on.

 

Everything in life is not motivated by hate or having some unsettled ax to grind.  Sometimes a piece of rope is just a piece of rope; sometimes a piece of string is just a piece of string.

 

Let your vitriol rest.  Please.