DRAG-QUEEN CELEB A GAY-BASH VICTIM By JANA WINTER and LUKAS I. ALPERT June 11, 2006 -- A gay singer and performer who has penned several No. 1 dance hits was savagely beaten by a gang of youths in the East Village early yesterday. Kevin Aviance, 38, told The Post that a wolfpack of teens started following after he left the gay bar Phoenix on East 13th Street around 1:30 a.m., screaming, "F- - -ing faggot! Where are you going?" The teens then began tossing trash at him, and as he began to cross 16th Street at First Avenue, one of them sucker-punched him from behind, knocking him to the ground. They then stomped on him in the middle of the intersection. "I got kicked in my head 12 times. They kicked me in my back, They kicked in my knees. They just kept kicking," Aviance said from his bed at Beth Israel Hospital. "They kept yelling 'F- - -ing faggot!' I thought I would be dead. I really thought they were going to kill me." Aviance passed out. When he woke up, the teens were gone - having made off with his cellphone - and he was lying in the middle of the street. "I woke up and taxis were swerving around me," he said. A good Samaritan helped him walk to the nearby hospital, where he was listed in serious condition with a shattered jaw and severe bruises all over his body. His jaw was to be wired shut later yesterday. By early this morning, cops had arrested all four members of the wolfpack, an officer with the Hate Crimes Taskforce said. Gerard Johnson, 16, of Manhattan, Akino George, 20, of The Bronx, Jarell Sears, 20, of Newark, and Gregory Archie, of Manhattan, were all charged with a hate-crime assault. The officer said Johnson had confessed to assaulting Aviance after yelling out to him when he first walked past, "Do you think you're diesel [tough]? You're a faggot." Johnson also admitted to being a member of the Bloods, while the other three said they were Crips, cops said. Aviance, who hit No. 1 on the Billboard dance charts with his songs "Da Da Din" in 1997 and "Alive" in 2003, said he was doubly upset because he was scheduled for many performances during Gay Pride Week next week. "I'm supposed to be doing all this stuff. With my jaw wired shut, what can I do?" he said. Aviance, born Eric Snead in Richmond, Va., is a prominent figure in the gay club scene, following in the footsteps of singers like Sylvester and RuPaul with colorfully titled songs like "Rhythm Is my Bitch," and "Bitch, You Look." A strikingly tall, bald and flamboyant showman, Aviance became fast friends with celebrities such as Janet Jackson and Madonna and Tyra Banks, and has frequently appeared on Banks' television shows. He has performed at parties thrown by Whitney Houston and Lil' Kim. Aviance said he was shocked that the teens attacked him, because he wasn't in drag at the time, but was wearing a pair of Helmut Lang boots, black baggy shorts and a sleeveless hooded sweatshirt. "I've walked down the streets in heels, full-on drag queen in broad daylight and at night - nothing like this has ever happened. I mean, I was dressed as a boy," he said. "I had pumps in my bag. If they had seen those pumps, man, I would have been dead." http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly...lnews_jana_winter_____and_lukas_i__alpert.htm
The irony. But honestly Rictor, something like this is certainly more representative of America than the KKK stuff that LoZZZer posts each week. I've discussed this before but when whites attack "blacks" it's treated by the media as a man bites dog phenomena. Blacks robbing, beating, or killing whites happens daily. From a news standpoint it's hardly worth covering or mentioning. However the lack of confrontation by both the media and society of "black" crime rates has led to an increasingly polarized America. Very few whites hate people of color. But most whites know to fear people of color. Chicago is about 40% "black." Yet about 99% (literally) of all violent crimes there are committed by either "blacks" or Latino's. Naturally a "white" Chicagoan will view a black approaching him with an awareness that's different. Much like women will fear a man walking behind them more than they would another women.
Let's not talk about ole Beetlebrow, ok? Most of what you say is probably true. But "blackness" is not the causative attribute. Planetwide it is socioeconomic minorities that are the most criminal class, and they are without exception overrepresented in their nation's jails. Their skin color varies (here in Canada it is the "red man"). This holds through history as well. And it makes perfect sense because the majority class makes the rules for acceptance into their class. Long before North American blacks were the most criminal socioeconomic group, the rules of acceptance were firmly in place and sowing the seeds for the present reality. Yes, the rules of acceptance have loosened considerably, but we still have considerable historical inertia to overcome. Of course the media is biased. Most journalists are college educated, so have been heavily exposed to the arts and sciences. They don't believe a person's melanin count is causative either. Doesn't bear out in the laboratory, or in a review of history. Also, it's not news when the criminal class commits crime, we should expect that, right?
Few would suggest that violence is attributable to intrinsic or genetic racial traits. Yet the influx of dirt poor, uneducated immigrants who's crime rates while high are far lower than blacks, should cue us in to the immense cultural deficiencies as causation. Even when compared to samples of whites with the same income or education levels, blacks are involved in dramatically higher rates of criminal activity. So if we toss around the usual reasons i.e. poverty, education ect., we are still no closer to a solution.
I wish it were only "few" who would suggest that. I cannot recall ever seeing a "black" in my jail. The blacks who come to Canada have something different going on than the "reds", and so they do not commit as much crime. Your list of usual reasons (why put that in quotes? Understanding reasons, ie. causation, we can do something about our difficulties), is not quite long enough imo. At the least you have to consider beliefs and expectations too. Very powerful factors, particularly hope.
You're on the track I'm getting to. I've told you before how the tremendous depth of your reasoning sets you apart from most hacks on ET. Rather than focusing on intellectual or physical causations should we not focus on psychological impacts? Is there a self loathing that accompanies color? I can understand such implications in America or even in Brazil although why Africa continues to be extremely violent confounds me. Meaning that even absent whites, blacks for lack of a better phrase, under-perform.
I don't think self-loathing accompanies color, I think it accompanies socioeconomic status. Hobbes explains Africa pretty well, imho. Lack of central, strong government.