Maybe we've had too much coffee or read too much forwarded invective from a certain political party, but we really were offended by The Aegis editorial cartoon in today's paper.
In it, two people are talking. One white, one African-American. The white man is enthusing, wide-eyed, about how it's only a few people in Edgewood who are giving it a bad reputation. "Together we can take back the community." While the other person replies, "That shouldn't be too hard...'cept the guns and no respect for the law."
Our problem with this is twofold. The first is that it has nothing to do with anything else in the paper. The Bel Air police blotter is just as long as Edgewood in today's paper.
The second, is why does the African-American woman have to say, "'cept the guns.." Because she's African-American and assumably living in Edgewood does she have to speak in slang?
Edgewood is not perfect and that's not what we're saying. It has nothing to do with that. It has to do with the fact that there are so many stereotypes in this one small political cartoon it is mind-numbing. People who talk about the liberal media bias need just to look at this cartoon. There is no such thing in Harford County.
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8 comments:
Very well said. Somebody needed to speak out against the mindset around here. It's getting pretty ugly.
I am so sick of the prejudice in this county, veiled as concern for crime. Heaven forbid my child be exposed to some diversity. My son graduated from Edgewood in 2008 and has wonderful friends and memories of the school. My opinion has always been please move if you don't want to attend our schools. We call it middle school flight, 5 houses for sale right now. Sorry I didn't see the cartoon, but the route 40 corridor schools are used to bad press so we stopped subscribing to the Aegis.
... as you refer to one person by the color of their skin and the other by their ethnic origin. Nice.
I suppose if the skin colors of the subjects were reversed, you'd have a comment about the stereotypical big-eyed "Negro" characterization.
If you want to find racism, you can find it anywhere, especially where it does not exist. And kudos for the unnecessary slam against the Right in the first sentence; never let an opportunity pass you by.
To Sheesh, we discussed race as a description for the benefit of those who didn't see the cartoon. Also, the assumption was made that the invective we were describing came from the right. It comes from both sides. Thanks for reading!
This IS the Aegis, after all. I saw that cartoon. This rag hardly qualifies as a newspaper. It's really an ugly cartoon. The Aegis is known for concentrating on Edgewood whenever there is crime. Big headlines like "Murder In Edgewood!" are pretty commonplace. When there is a murder elsewhere other than Route 40, they emphasize how seldom it happens and how safe everyone feels. Remember the recent murder in Bel Air recently?
That's right, Larraine. They need to stop picking on Edgewood.
Oh, by the way, the murder victim in Bel Air was from Aberdeen (but formerly lived in Edgewood).
The main suspect was involved in a gang beating in November 2007 (in Edgewood) of the victim's stepfather, pleaded guilty to second degree assault, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
When are they going to clean up those crime-riddled streets of Bel Air? They're dragging down the positive, safe image that the rest of the state has of Harford County.
When the Bel Air murder happened, the reporter for the Sleegis - 'er I meant to say the Aegis, sorry - emphasized how safe everyone felt! I thought that was really kind of an interesting take on a murder. Now someone got into a fight at the Wawa in Bel Air. It's becoming a regular old crime wave there!
Hey Sheesh, maybe we can put a fence around Bel Air to keep the Aberdeen and Edgewood folk out, and the murder victim was from Aberdeen, so if he had lived somewhere else he wouldn't have been murdered? Please stay on your side of the fence.
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