Their True Colors

If a couple of Facebook friends hadn’t posted about it, I’d have missed it.

“It” was the bigoted rant posted to Facebook by Charlotte Lucas, co-owner of Lucas Oil, whose family name adorns the largest structure in downtown Indianapolis. WRTV’s Rafael Sanchez was apparently the only journalist to report on Lucas’ post. According to WRTV:

“I’m sick and tired of minorities running our country!” Lucas wrote in the post. “As far as I’m concerned, I don’t think that atheists (minority), muslims [sic] (minority) nor any other minority group has the right to tell the majority of the people in the United States what they can and cannot do here. Is everyone so scared that they can’t fight back for what is right or wrong with his country?”

How charming.

It’s interesting to note that no other local media outlet saw fit to report on this unseemly rant by a privileged member of this community. (The Star spent its column inches on important things like “Ten things to do in Indy this weekend.”)

Perhaps the local media didn’t consider the whining of yet another self-absorbed white Christian “victim” newsworthy.

These self-pitying tantrums have never been rare, and since Obama’s election, their frequency has escalated. I’ve heard similar sentiments (albeit not quite so blatant) from otherwise nice, well-to-do people who claim to support “diversity,” who donate to all the “right” causes, and who would never fire-bomb a mosque or burn a cross on someone’s lawn.

There is a lot of resentment below those polished and privileged surfaces. You can almost hear the indignation: how dare those “minorities” lay claim to equal treatment? Don’t “they” know their place? For goodness sake, I have a Jewish lawyer and I give money to the Urban League–what more do they want?

People like Charlotte Lucas and Donald Sterling and Daniel Snyder and so many others don’t hear themselves–at least, they don’t hear themselves as the rest of us hear them–because they live in enclaves populated by the similarly-situated–people who are like-minded and perpetually aggrieved. In their world, they are the victims.

In ours, not so much.

11 Comments

  1. And yet the far far right wing of the GOP is running the majority of the conservatives! Funny how that worked out.

  2. Still waiting for the apologies/disclaimers/repudiations from the male-dominated Colts’ organization with respect to Ms. Lucas’s racist comments. Appears their strategy is to let her twist in the wind.

  3. I did a Google on Charlotte Lucas and found a further quote on NBC from Charlotte responding, The post was deleted, but Lucas confirmed to RTV6 that she had written it.

    “I was very upset when I wrote that,” Lucas said. “I will not elaborate other than to say that there are certain people who are trying to make the whole world eat what they want to eat and do what they want to do. I don’t think it’s any of their business what I put in my mouth. Thank you.”

    Yes you are right Charlotte it is nobody’s business what you eat. (Side bar I would draw the line at endangered species.) Old saying though, You are what you eat. Perhaps you can arrange for Cliven Bundy to sell you some choice cuts of meat from his herd of cattle.

  4. I guess these people don’t realize that if you add all the so-called minorities together they are
    now the majority or close to it.
    My fellow white citizens seem to be in denial about this turn of events or not. Perhaps that’s why we’re seeing some of these racist rants.

  5. Our law says that speech cannot by restricted by the law. Mr Lukas’s rants are no exception. Our law also says that laws are ultimately put in place by majorities. They are our responsibility though the process gets pretty complex. Our law also demands equal treatment for everyone. Everyone.

    Mr Lukas is free to try to obtain a majority to pass laws that change society as long as they apply to everyone equally.

    What laws do you suppose he has in mind given those caveats?

    I suspect oligarchy.

    Ignore him. We have real problems to deal with. Like the waste products of his business causing us unaffordable expenses. That should be the headline everyday.

  6. While no one tells me what and when to eat….Every time I buy food and beverages in this county I’m forced by the govnm’t to pay a tithe to Jim Irsay in support of the stadium of which Charlotte’s surname graces conspicuously upon the taxpayer subsidized edifice.

    Come to think of it,the taxpayers are still paying the principal for the former stadium (Hoosier Dome) which has now been razed for years.

  7. The data being collected and published on these folks is interesting, significant and long-standing. They are “protected” from the majority, a situation that produces an isolated echo chamber, and a distorted reality, in which they only hear “friends” who agree with them and serve to confirm their biases. They actually believe that they are somehow in the majority and that their perspective is just like everyone else who is “deserving and worthwhile”. We we call that arrogant or narcissistic, but they think it’s reality. If that weren’t such a dangerous situation–for them and the rest of society–we could dismiss that sort of perspective and get on with life . Actually, she could really be changed very simply by serving as the cashier at some of her own stores, getting to know the people and visiting their homes, people who could help her re-define “rich” and “worthwhile” and “high quality”, among other things. She might discover the real meaning of minority status and how her unfortunate craven attitude is so destructive for her and the society. Instead of contributing to the common good, she is a detriment. And she thinks the criminals a ruining society! As Joseph Stiglitz has observed, the 1% eventually come to appreciate the significance of the 99%, but it’s usually too late.

  8. I find it rather interesting that after calling it a “white, Christian “victim” mentality”, two out of the three people the author mentions in the article, are actually Jewish, not Christian.

    And, compare Pamela Geller, of Atlas Shrugs comments about one of the same minority groups Ms Lucas complained about. Whose comments are worse? I’d say Ms Geller’s, myself.

    Maybe it’s just an “I’m rich, so I’m better than everyone else” mentality?

    Or maybe it’s just making a mountain out of a molehill, so we’ll all be busy looking over there, while something really important gets swept under the rug!

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