Filed under: News, Race and Civil Rights
On August 30, 2010, the world was shocked when Bethany Storro (pictured), a pretty 28-year-old Vancouver woman, allegedly became the victim of a random and violent attack in which she claimed a stranger threw acid in her face, leaving her burned and scarred. It also seemed that it may have been a bias crime in that Storro described her assailant as a black woman in her late 20s to early 30s, with slicked-back hair in a pony tail. According to Storro, the attacker was wearing a green shirt and khaki shorts and had three piercings in her ear. Storro even provided enough details of this mysterious black woman so that a composite sketch could be generated to aid in her capture.Storro quickly became the object of sympathy and a profile in courage, after she held a press conference at Legacy Emmanuel Hospital and proclaimed how her faith in Jesus would get her through this ordeal and that she forgave her attacker. She was even booked to go on "Oprah" and tell her story.
But inconsistencies in her account to the police eventually were her undoing and she confessed this past Thursday that her story was a hoax. She admitted she threw or rubbed the acid in to her own face. Obviously, this was a woman who was not just scarred physically, but it seems she was scarred emotionally some time ago.
It is quite possible that she has Munhausen Syndrome, a mental disease where a person repeatedly acts as if he or she has a physical or mental disorder when, in truth, they have caused the symptoms. People with this kind of factitious disorder behave this way because of an inner need to be seen as ill or injured and get the attention of medical personnel, friends, family and in Storro's case even strangers.
The repercussions of this hoax go beyond that of revealing how emotionally troubled this young woman happens to be. Even worse is that it has affected so many others. Vancouver, in particular the Esther Short Park area, temporarily emerged as being an unsafe area, with an acid-throwing predator on the prowl.
Black people, in this case black women, who fit the description of the attacker came under suspicion by both police and residents. The stereotype of the black criminal who would hurt or kill innocent white women and or children, once again was resurrected, hurting all people of color.
But we have seen this before. As Dr. Boyce Watkins pointed out in his recent BV Blog "Did Woman Pour Acid on Her Face and Say a Black Woman Did It?" there have been so many instances where blacks were blamed and demonized for incidents or crimes that either were fictitious or that they had no involvement in whatsoever.
Among them was Susan Smith, the woman who drowned her two children and blamed it on a black man. There was the infamous incident in Boston nearly 20 years ago, when Charles Stuart killed his pregnant wife and said that a black man did it. There was the case this May, in which a Philly police sergeant, Charles Ramsey, said he was shot by a black man but actually shot himself. Lest we not forget Ashley Todd, the McCain supporter who claimed an angry black man (an Obama supporter) robbed her and then etched a B in to her right cheek. It later came out she was emotionally disturbed and perpetrated the crime against herself.
So from a psychological point of view, why does the blaming of black folks happen and continue to happen?
Quite honestly I don't believe the answer is because the alleged victims are necessarily racist. I believe it is much more insidious than that. Even though America has evolved emotionally from slavery, Jim Crow and civil rights struggles, there is still this conscious and unconscious racism that pervades much of our thinking.
Many of us are still afraid or threatened by the image of the angry black person who wants to exact revenge for the years of perceived mistreatment. I call it the Black Bogeyman phenomenon. If you are not careful or are unfortunate enough to be in their path of destruction of one of these angry black folks, you may pay with your life.
The so-called crime victims mentioned in this article thought they could make their stories more believable and get more sympathy by tapping in to the collective unconscious fear that harbors the Black Bogeyman phenomenon. Mel Gibson tried to instill fear of black men in to his girlfriend during one of his rants when he told her that she looked so slutty she deserved to be raped by a "pack of N*ggers."
The most infamous use of the Black Bogeyman, however, was the political advertisement in support of the candidacy of George H.W. Bush during the 1988 U.S. presidential race . The ad ripped Democratic nominee, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis for his support of a furlough program in which a black man, William R. "Willie" Horton, a convicted felon who while serving a life sentence for murder without the possibility of parole, did not return from his weekend furlough and ultimately committed assault, armed robbery and rape.
According to Bush, the message was simple and effective: Dukakis' support of the program would mean that he enabled and would continue to enable black felons to roam the populace and '"terrorize innocent people."
The Black Bogeyman phenomenon has now been used by right wing politicians to instill fear in voters as the Illegal Mexican Immigrant Bogeyman. This is epitomized by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer's comments about the factious "headless bodies found in the Arizona desert." It's probably more accurate to say that there may be a brainless governor that can be found in the Arizona desert.
The truth of the matter is that we are all becoming more sophisticated about these fantastical stories of dangerous black or brown, or whatever folks, committing dastardly crimes. The police seem to investigate more thoroughly and the public tends to be a little more skeptical. Maybe we all know something that as a shrink I have known for years: the enemy within (our minds) is often more dangerous than the perceived enemy without.
Dr. Jeff Gardere, better known as America's psychologist is one of the most sought-after experts in the field of mental health. In addition to having a private practice in New York City, he has garnered a reputation as being a top motivational and keynote speaker, empowerment and media coach. He now appears as the relationship expert on VH-1's 'Dad Camp.'