I'm really angry about social media and reporters' emphasis on the BMW instead of the people who were shot inside the BMW. Would they be focused on the car if it were a white person? I honestly don't think so. Hopefully, they find the shooter soon.
That gives a nasty new angle to something that's made me rage for years.
A few years ago, my violin teacher's younger daughter was killed in a single car accident while driving a Porsche. My violin teacher was a single parent with two daughters and some people set up a fund to help her with the expenses. I was looking for more information on it shortly after it happened (I think I was trying to find out where to send flowers) and I came across a website called mydeathspace.com which is apparently a forum to discuss deaths. There were several people who were making really nasty remarks to the effect of "How dare they set up a fund for her when her daughter was driving a Porsche?" and "I might feel sorry for her if it had been a clunker" and so on. The whole story was that she worked at a car dealership, the car was a 199 model, and her boss thought he was doing her a favor by letting her drive it because she was such a good kid. And her mother paid for that choice even more because she had to battle with the insurance who tried to claim that she had taken the car without permission. A couple of people tried to make people aware of these facts and they were completely ignored.
I still get upset over that and it's been six years ago. I didn't even know the daughter who was killed, but her older daughter was a classmate of mine and we shared a locker. There were days my violin teacher was in so much pain that just being around her was almost physically painful. The idea of either of them coming across those comments is just horrifying to me.
Her father was Palestinian, so she had a Palestinian last name (one person even made a joke about how they kept misreading it) and it had honestly never occurred to me that her last name might be a factor in those reactions. I just thought it was general horribleness, but now I wonder and it's making me hate people a whole lot more tonight.
That gives a nasty new angle to something that's made me rage for years.
A few years ago, my violin teacher's younger daughter was killed in a single car accident while driving a Porsche. My violin teacher was a single parent with two daughters and some people set up a fund to help her with the expenses. I was looking for more information on it shortly after it happened (I think I was trying to find out where to send flowers) and I came across a website called mydeathspace.com which is apparently a forum to discuss deaths. There were several people who were making really nasty remarks to the effect of "How dare they set up a fund for her when her daughter was driving a Porsche?" and "I might feel sorry for her if it had been a clunker" and so on. The whole story was that she worked at a car dealership, the car was a 199 model, and her boss thought he was doing her a favor by letting her drive it because she was such a good kid. And her mother paid for that choice even more because she had to battle with the insurance who tried to claim that she had taken the car without permission. A couple of people tried to make people aware of these facts and they were completely ignored.
I still get upset over that and it's been six years ago. I didn't even know the daughter who was killed, but her older daughter was a classmate of mine and we shared a locker. There were days my violin teacher was in so much pain that just being around her was almost physically painful. The idea of either of them coming across those comments is just horrifying to me.
Her father was Palestinian, so she had a Palestinian last name (one person even made a joke about how they kept misreading it) and it had honestly never occurred to me that her last name might be a factor in those reactions. I just thought it was general horribleness, but now I wonder and it's making me hate people a whole lot more tonight.
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