Race Baiting in the 1980s

Let's face it: Racism in the 80s reached disgusting levels. All you have to do is watch Sixteen Candles, if you can stomach it, to see how blatant racism was back then.

So, political opportunists, or just misguided and unconscious people, wasted no time back then to create political hay and fear over the issue of race.

This article examines four incidents in which race baiting was exemplified in the 1980s.

Willie Horton Campaign Ad Against Michael Dukakis

George HW Bush was losing against Dukakis back in 1988 until some of his supporters put out an ad that implied that Michael was soft on crime. They used the image of a murderer rapist that was given a weekend furlough in which he wreaked horror on a couple, killing one partner and raping the other; Dukakis was said to have supported weekend furloughs for dangerous criminals.

Willie Horton, the dangerous criminal used in these ads, happened to be black; which I think was no mistake. Anyone fearing black crime was not going to like Dukakis much after those ads and the campaign runners knew it.

As you might imagine, Dukakis never lived it down. But I don't think Bush did either.

Central Park Jogger

Back in the late 80s, a woman jogging in Central Park was savagely beaten and raped. The incident created a firestorm and incited much racial tension. The story went that a group of young blacks and Hispanics ganged up on the victim and left her for dead.

The young men were imprisoned for many years until the real perpetrator of the crime came forward to admit to it, saying he acted alone; and, turns out, DNA evidence supported his claim. The men, after having spent more than ten years in prison, were released. Recently they were awarded a settlement.

Problem is, the case did nothing but reinforce images of minority youth being animalistic criminals constantly laying in wait for their next victims. Seems it's taken NYC many years to overcome and heal the wounds left by this tragic case.

Old school racism from 1899, published in Harper's Weekly. The illustration was meant to show the superiority of the Anglo to blacks and the Spanish and Irish.

Tawana Brawley Hoax

The story went, that she, a teenage black girl, had been kidnapped, raped and tortured by a group of white cops and a lawyer. She then, the story went, was covered in feces and put in a bag and dumped in the street.

The case caught a lot of media attention and was impetus for Reverend Al Sharpton to catapult his activist endeavors.

But it turns out the story was totally untrue.

More racism from back in the day, 1866. Lots of fear and loathing

Bernhard Goetz

Back in the 80s, Bernard Goetz shot a group of black youth in New York City that were trying to mug him. Fact is, Goetz was more than a little tired of being physically attacked on the street and he took the law in to his own hands; well, it's just a matter of self-preservation.

Of course, the public and media don't necessarily see it that way, and the Goetz case is another example of a racially inflammatory incident in the public's eye.

The 90s turned out to be a much more kind decade, with an easier attitude in which people were getting along generally and race didn't matter anymore and people were otherwise more conscientious and cognizant of any kind of racial insensitivity. And, of course, we now live in an era in which we've learned a lot of lessons about this issue and people are hip to the tactics of race baiting. Let's hope we make no backward swing to the era of the 80s with its blatant disregard and racial tensions.