Who's Watching Who? by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Who’s Watching Who?

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The Needed Outrage at B&B’s Witnessed

The non-watchers amongst us have their personal experiences to draw from. For Ranney, this included direct interaction with the B&B’s from a bit after birth to age 21. It was nothing to be proud of; nothing he would have wished for, yet a fact he had to learn to deal with. The dumb, violent B&B bums had relocated from southern states where they were still kept in line to northern cities where they were gradually allowed to run amok with impunity. Ranney’s K-8 grammar school was half populated by them, his district being defined to include those who lived three blocks away, a big deal and worthy of a Carnival Cruise Line chimpout. Nonetheless it was a sad ass reality he adapted to, an acquired taste, imposed upon a five year old.

He instinctively knew, but he didn’t know exactly why, his life would begin to be horrid, the first day his mom trudged him off to kindergarten. Upon entering class, he took a seat at the front, but kept having to turn around to see and hear the wisecracks, insults, and threats issued by the B&B group, who all sat together, when they weren’t jumping up for emphasis. Ranney did not feel welcomed, and from day two forward he always took a seat at the back, so that he could keep an eye on the perpetrators of insults and threats.

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The more visible White kids took the brunt of the B&B’s “games,” taking punches from behind, being ridiculed, having their lunch stolen, etc., fookin’ etc. Ranney stayed relatively safe in back, but always felt guilty for not helping his White mates.

He was not immune, however. He had his days of abuse, Like when B&B nutjob, Tommy Wright, with whom he had no prior experience, came running up on him from behind as he was walking home from school, and punched him in the back; hard, and kept running. The pain was excruciating, but it passed in a minute. The worse part was that Arthur Parmes, a B&B “friend” with whom he was walking just laughed, and said; “I thought he cracked your back.” Arthur didn’t stick up for Ranney one little bit, making Ranney see that the B&B bums stick together against Whites, no matter what. Ranney wanted to tell his father, who in pre-school days had let Arthur use Ranney’s metal skates, but for some reason decided not to.

And the “joke” is that with all this type of information known the B&B’s and their dumb White supporters jump all over the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The old Christmas uplifting standby is now charged with being “all racysis an sheeeit” because it has White people playing jazz (Ostensibly B&B’s don’t

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know they did and do.) and the only B&B in the movie is a maid. (I suppose it’s a humiliating misrepresentation to show a B&B. with a job)