Jerks at Sea

And yes, all the social media joking was hiding a fear that today's political climate has left racists emboldened to attack a Black man in broad daylight for doing his job.
Eric Deggans. "I've spent my career explaining race, but hit a wall with Montgomery brawl memes" National Public Radio. Thursday 10 August, 2023.

This reminded me of something that I've said here before:

For any single interaction, the difference between a racist and an asshole is negligible.

Then, as now, I'm not questioning the idea that there are racists in this country, or that they would attack someone in broad daylight for the color of that person's skin. But the Montgomery docks incident wasn't a matter of people making it clear they had a problem with someone who was Black. Remember, this whole incident started out as an argument over an unmarked parking space, for a boat. (Although things are clearly marked in the one photo I've seen.)

Damien Pickett was a co-captain of the [sic] Harriett II, a riverboat carrying over 200 passengers that needed to dock but couldn't. A much smaller pontoon boat was wrongfully docked in the Harriett II's designated space.

The occupiers of the pontoon boat were white men. Instead of moving their pontoon, they decided to hit Mr Pickett.
Tears. Shock. Joy. Why viral Alabama boat brawl matters

Sure, there is an element of race; racial slurs (three guesses which one) were shouted, and the video I've seen of the fight tends to break down along racial lines, with other White people rushing in to attack Mr. Pickett, and Black people coming to his aid. But the Montgomery police have said that they don't believe the crime was racially motivated. Sometimes, White people, like everyone else, are just assholes. The pontoon boat could just as easily been a boat full of Karens.

I understand, given the history of the United States, that it's easy to presume that the White boaters held some animosity towards Black people, and that's why the brawl started. But it's also easy to look at the recent history of the United States and come to the conclusion that these were just a bunch of people who decided that they didn't want to move their boat, and anyone not in an obvious position of authority was going to make them do so. Given the general behavior of people since the recent SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to think that the boaters would have assaulted a security guard or police officer if they thought they could have gotten away with it.

When I was young, the well-meaning adults in my life set out to teach me to find racism under every rock. And I understand why. Modern Americans tend to treat the days of Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement as if they were ancient history, these are events that happened in living memory. Part of the concern that came out of the Dobbs, State Health Officer of the Mississippi Department of Health, Et al. v. Jackson Women's Health Organization Et al. decision was that if the Supreme court was willing to overturn the 50-year precedent of Jane Roe, et al. v. Henry Wade, District Attorney of Dallas County, nothing would stop them from going after the 54-year precedent of Richard Perry Loving, Mildred (Jeter) Loving v. Virginia. One of the things that I think that a lot of people have difficulty wrapping their heads around is just how tenuous many Black people in the United States believe their position to be. Or the degree to which they understand widespread overt racism to be biding its time, as opposed to dead. I suspect that many would paraphrase William Faulkner, and say  "It's not even past."

But not dead though it may be, that doesn't mean the past is a pleasant place to live. If for no other reason than it lends that unpleasantness to the present. And, if one is not careful, to the future. I'm not calling for people to deny that racism exists, because it does. There are people who understand themselves to be of higher character, more deserving and/or simply superior to others, based on nothing more than the color of their skin. But not everyone who picks a fight with someone whose skin tone differs from their own falls into the category. A lot of the time, people are simply assholes. Maybe that's something that we need to be harder on, as a matter of course.