"What if the woman had been black?"

I'll do my best to honor the restrictions on this story. Here's the caveat: "This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed." Pretty heavy restrictions, no. Now, I don't think you can copyright a headline, so I'm going to lead with it:

Woman Accused Of Spitting On Deputy
44-Year-Old Hurled Death Threats, Racial Slurs, Officials Say

Tantalizing stuff wouldn't you say. Go here to read the entire story, and please return to discuss it with me. I thought long and hard about an appropriate angle from which to present this story. The story is unusual primarily because of the racial angle, and the attempt at power usurpation, using a familiar nemesis of blacks, the dreaded, and feared KKK. At least, those are the emotions the woman hoped the very mentioning of the Ku Klux Klan would evoke for this black officer.

Apparently, it didn't work. She's in jail, with a hefty bail around her neck, and monetary leg irons in the amount of thousands of dollars restricting her movements. In short, she's not going anywhere, anytime, soon, unless her KKK father is one of those big bonus-receiving CEO's on Wall Street.

Okay, let's get the preliminaries out the way. The woman may be suffering from a mental illness, and missed her mandatory meds that's keeping her mentally balanced. Mental illness is not a subject I treat lightly. I've known several people over the years who have struggled with schizophrenia, and, without regular medical intervention, or treatment, could spend days, even weeks doing some rather bizarre things.

And her father could be an Imperial Wizard of the KKK. That would go a long way toward understanding the outrage she felt when ticketed by the black officer, and ultimately arrested by him. I suspect that it's the former, though, but one can never be sure. More information will have to come to light in the days ahead, before we can fully know the reason for her bizarre behavior.

But give this some thought: What if this caught on? The use of intimidation to stop blacks from acting, whether as officers of the law, or as potential candidates for local, state, or federal office.

How many blacks are now eager to run for the presidency witnessing the threats against President Obama and his family? Could this be one of the Republican's schemes: To discourage another black from seeking this nation's highest office again, unless he's Republican? Or to discourage President Obama from seeking a second term?

Colin Powell was this nation's first star-quality black to be considered a shoe-in for president. If not a sure bet, at least a candidate with a real chance: Both blacks and whites had mad respect for Powell (at least for a time). Black democrats would have embraced him, unlike many black Republicans, who attack President Obama with as much gusto, or more so, as any white Republican. Of course, they trumpet their reasons: He's for abortion; He's an empty suit (whatever than mean); He's the wrong black at the wrong time (He'll fail so miserably at the job, that a really qualified black, in the future, won't even be considered.) This call for a black presidential candidate to have the qualifications of God before he or she can run for this nation's highest office, is a little perplexing to me.

But it is part and parcel of the black American experience, and part of the pathology that says we've got to be better in every category to be taken seriously by whites, and, if we fail, we give them more ammunition to level against us, if and when we try again.

One writer sees it this way:

"It should be remembered that thirty years ago the mere suggestion of a black candidate running for the presidency would have made liberals wistful, moderates edgy, and conservatives heatedly indignant. Besides, the probability of a black president living out his term of office was as remote a possibility as a man walking from the earth to Pluto. It seems pragmatic to think that, under such glaring political and media scrutiny, every decision Powell made would be called into question. The president would spend more time defending old positions than creating new ones, as the sad case of former New York City Mayor David Dinkins immediately brings to mind. Perhaps Powell wanted to avoid such a fate, and who could blame him?"

This writer's assessment would be more true for President Obama, than for a President Powell. I don't believe that Powell would have met a similar fate: No Birthers, Tea Baggers (I understand Republicans find the term offensive, hence, the use), or health care reform, or verbally explosive Town Hall meetings, or gun-toting loonies, Hitler references, or "I want my country back" sad cases. And if Powell had been controversial in some way, Democrats wouldn't have attacked him with the same vitriol with which President Obama has been attacked, nor would his life be threatened to the same extent. Sure there would be some white supremacists who might attempt something, but that wouldn't be because of his politics, so much as for his race and his color.

Julie Hubbard, if a Republican, might have accepted Powell as president, but I'm thinking not. She was too quick to threaten the black officer with the vengeance of the KKK. And let's not forget all of the other things she did: cursed him, spat on him, and urinated in his squad car. This does not sound like a woman who would accept any black man as president, whether Republican or Democrat.

This is America, after all, and I'm always reversing these incidents. Many blacks do it. I'm no exception. I think I may blog about this one day, to examine why we do it. We're often called out for it. But that's too bad. We didn't create the propensity. It was foisted on us by too many white on black situations that left us scratching our collective heads: "What if the woman had been black, and she cursed a white officer, threatened him, used racial epithets, spat on him, and urinated in his squad car?"

I wonder if the parrot found in the back seat of Hubbard's car can be called as a witness? And if called, would he spill the beans, or should I say, the bird seeds?