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A horrific school bus beating and racial politics

By Scott Tibbs, August 12, 2013

The video was shocking: Three fifteen year old boys attacked a thirteen year old classmate on a school bus. The thugs rained down punches on him, stomping on him as he tried to hide under the seat. No one intervened - not even the school bus driver - to a savage attack that left the boy with a broken arm and two black eyes.

He could have been killed.

There are a lot of things that we can say about this attack and what it says about our culture, but do we really need to turn it into an example of racial violence and use it as an example of racial politics? Despite the fact that it was three black teens beating a white teen, the answer is no. From all indications, this was not a racially-motivated crime.

The three perpetrators attacked the younger boy for telling school officials that one of them had tried to sell him marijuana in the school's bathroom. They were attacking him for being a "snitch." They were not attacking him because he was white - he just happened to be white. Even if race had been the motivation, would a barbaric attack somehow be worse than three criminals attacking someone who did not want to buy drugs?

Racial tensions are very high right now. There is no reason to make this into some sort of racial issue when it is not a racial issue. There is no need to "call out" Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton for not speaking out on this crime. Yes, these two (especially Sharpton) have a long history of shameful race baiting, but this is not the case to use to criticize them. If conservatives are legitimately unhappy with race hustlers, the answer is not to become race hustlers ourselves.