Weaver - Burning crosses

Ethics

Hated symbol doesn't provide hoped-for effect

Kansas City Star leader

First published August 3.

It is the calling card of cowards who haven't the capacity or intelligence to confront openly their intended targets.
The burning cross needs no explanation. Left sizzling outside a home with screaming children inside, it speaks for itself. It is the calling card of cowards who haven't the capacity or intelligence to confront openly their intended targets.
Originally intended to frighten black people, it has been used against other nonwhites and sometimes whites who don't, as the racist language goes, "stick to their own kind."
The impact of the burning cross retains its potency all these years after the Night Riders took torch to cross in the South. Back then, the lynching of black people usually followed.
Someone recently left a burning cross outside the Argentine home of a black Kansas City, Kan., family. Initially, the act had the intended effects. It provoked fear, suspicion and vulnerability. The burning cross probably would have set fire to the family's home had not some neighbors warned the people inside.
If it's one thing that upsets cross burners, it's not getting their way. Their targets are supposed to retreat at high speed out of neighborhoods or towns where they "aren't wanted." Their neighbors, especially the white ones, are supposed to cower inside their homes and isolate themselves from the victims of this racial hatred. As a whole, the community is supposed to become divided as chaos prevails.
Well, that didn't happen this time.

The community is supposed to become divided as chaos prevails. That didn't happen this time.
Instead, the Clergy Against Race Violence went to the home and joined the family, friends and neighbors in prayer outside, right where the cross was placed. Instead, Mayor/CEO Carol Marinovich publicly condemned the hate crime and the Unified Government Board of County Commissioners issued a resolution doing the same.
So instead of dividing the community, the cross burning brought it together. Nothing ruins a racist's day like irony, especially when it has the potential for fostering racial harmony.

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This page updated September 26, 1998


	It is the calling card of cowards who haven't the capacity or intelligence to confront openly their intended targets.	The burning cross needs no explanation. Left sizzling outside a home with screaming children inside, it speaks for itself. It is the calling card of cowards who haven't the capacity or intelligence to confront openly their intended targets. Originally intended to frighten black people, it has been used against other nonwhites and sometimes whites who don't, as the racist language goes, "stick to their own kind." The impact of the burning cross retains its potency all these years after the Night Riders took torch to cross in the South. Back then, the lynching of black people usually followed. Someone recently left a burning cross outside the Argentine home of a black Kansas City, Kan., family. Initially, the act had the intended effects. It provoked fear, suspicion and vulnerability. The burning cross probably would have set fire to the family's home had not some neighbors warned the people inside. If it's one thing that upsets cross burners, it's not getting their way. Their targets are supposed to retreat at high speed out of neighborhoods or towns where they "aren't wanted." Their neighbors, especially the white ones, are supposed to cower inside their homes and isolate themselves from the victims of this racial hatred. As a whole, the community is supposed to become divided as chaos prevails. Well, that didn't happen this time.
	The community is supposed to become divided as chaos prevails. That didn't happen this time.	Instead, the Clergy Against Race Violence went to the home and joined the family, friends and neighbors in prayer outside, right where the cross was placed. Instead, Mayor/CEO Carol Marinovich publicly condemned the hate crime and the Unified Government Board of County Commissioners issued a resolution doing the same. So instead of dividing the community, the cross burning brought it together. Nothing ruins a racist's day like irony, especially when it has the potential for fostering racial harmony.