Commenter “Winter Santiaga” Is The Reason The Upstate Family Reunion is A Really Bad Idea
If the name Winter Santiaga sounds familiar to you it’s because you no doubt are aware that it is the name of the main character in an “urban fiction” book called The Coldest Winter Ever by known racist and Communist Sister Souljah. For those of you that don’t know, “Urban fiction” is the publishing industry’s attempt to market sub-par writing to Black Americans, who they think don’t read the same kinds of books as everyone else. Thus “urban fiction” publishers find people to write stories in pidgin English (or the mythical Ebonics) that glorify self-segregation and ghettoization (as well as misogyny, bigotry and criminality) then make a hefty profit convincing people the genre is written and produced by “the community” when in fact White liberals are pushing this intellectual apartheid onto Black youth.
So it came as no surprise to me that someone using this pseudonym on my recent post about the Upstate Family Reunion left a comment that seems like it came from a caricature of a Black person, and not a real one:
Winter Santiaga on July 26th, 2010 2:04 am
personally i think it is a good idea to keep the family reunion goin there are plenty of other events that take place each year and nobody complains about it so why should the family reunion be cancelled. is it because of how many african american or black people i may say are in one gathering. im sensing that is the problem. not taxes or anything else, any local events there will be crowds and i think i speak for alot people….why be concerned about the trash if your not the one who has to clean it up…im just saying!!
Really? Let me start of by saying I didn’t alter this “sentence” at all but left it in it’s ungrammatical glory, random ellipses and all. I was confused as to how a person could be a African-American or a Black person but then I realized the Blacks this person speaks of may not be American. But why are Black Americans called African-Americans while Haitians, for example, are still called Blacks? Racism I suppose.
The main point here though is that “Winter Santiaga” suggests that no one should care about all the trash strewn everywhere because they don’t have to pick it up. I suppose a trash fairy comes around to clean up after Winter but the rest of us end up paying overtime to workers to do this, and with city budgets tight I don’t see how Simpsonville can justify the expense, which was my point in the original post.
Since the race card was thrown down let me just say this: I’m Biracial, I grew up in an all-Black family and we were taught to clean up after ourselves. It’s low class to do otherwise.
Now here’s the rub. Let’s say that only 1 percent of Upstate Family Reunion attendees share the view of “Winter Santiago” that you you can drop trash where you will and not worry about it. last year there were 35,000 people, so Simpsonville would be looking at 350 people who were throwing trash on the ground all weekend. But having seen the park the day after last year I know it isn’t 1 percent.
“Winter Santiago’s” comment is one of the best cases I’ve seen for canceling the event. Hopefully next year Simpsonville will come to their senses and say no to the Upstate Family Reunion.
Simpsonville Holding Another Upstate Family Reunion Is A Really Bad Idea
The Tribune-Times ran an article in yesterday’s edition titled “Reunion’s return eyed warily” (re-titled “Family Reunion returns to Simpsonville, some residents worry about crowds” on their website for some reason) which downplayed the damage and concerns about the annual Upstate Family Reunion festival. Last year attendees to the event damaged property, trespassed, destroyed residents yards and left Simpsonville’s Heritage Park looking like a war zone.
Residents are said to “have concerns” about this year.
35,000 people showed up last year and more may be coming this year. City officials are coordinating with event organizers and promoters to try to make things more orderly, including having 50 police on hand and the city many of which will be state troopers moonlighting and paid by Simpsonville.
It’s unclear who will be handling the massive clean up. Let me venture a guess – you. As in taxpayers who are footing the bill for a event too large to be handled by the meager resources Simpsonville has at it’s disposal anyway. It’s a waste of money, pure and simple.
There comes a point when whatever imaginary gains a city has for hosting an event is outweighed by the hundreds of thousands of real dollars it takes to hold it. And having witnessed the garbage strewn wasteland Heritage Park was transformed into last year first hand I think hundreds of thousands of dollars is a conservative estimate. How many businesses really benefited from the Family Reunion last year? How many of the vendors and bands were Simpsonville locals? Simpsonville is spending money so that people who don’t contribute to the city can make a quick buck and stick taxpayers with the mess.
I’m not the one running the cost benefit analysis but frankly, this just seems like a bad idea. Simpsonville residents got burned last year, and now the people who run the town are asking you to stick your hand back in the fire, because they’ve thrown more of your money into it so it’ll feel different.
This was a bad idea, and holding it again after the disaster of last year is a really bad idea. Simpsonville City Administrator Russell Hawes claims that if there’s problems similar to last year the event won’t be asked back. Let’s hope that’s true.
But since they didn’t learn their lesson last time I doubt it.
Bomb Hoax in Travelers Rest
The Greenville County Bomb Squad was called to 100 Morrison Drive in Travelers Rest today when a package was found on the doorstep with bomb threat attached. Investigators are now saying it’s harmless and they believe it was a prank by children or teens although they are not saying why they came to that conclusion.
WSPA is following this developing story.
UPDATE: Two girls, 11 and 12, are charged with leaving the package. The girls will be charged with conveyance of an explosive device, although police admit there was no explosives found at the scene. Overreaction?
More Information About the Asheville May Day Riot
WSPA has a nice round up. They also provide a link to the site which is raising money for the vandals arrested so they can post bond. Great what kids learn in college these day, eh?
May Day Riot in Asheville White Washed by WYFF
WYFF is claiming the motive is “unclear” for upwards of 20 black clad rioters who destroyed windows and property on Saturday, which just happened to be the communist holiday May Day. This May Day saw scenes of violence across the country and the globe.
And even after reporting that Denver Anarchist group Black Cross called the rioters, who were clearly participating in a Black Bloc protest, comrades WYFF claims a motive is not known for the mayhem. The motive for the protesters is easy to divine, spoiled rich kids radicalized in college have little else to do with their time and were raised to feel entitled to “expressing” themselves in any way they see fit. Their motive is to destroy things because they like doing it and use Anarchism and Socialism as a justification for what is essentially misanthropy fueled by elitism.
What’s more interesting is the motive of people who bend over backwards to avoid pointing out this truth. These kids are criminals, many are drug users, and every May Day they will gather in large numbers for drug fueled orgies of violence which have absentee parenting and a culture that artificially inflates self-esteem as their root causes.
The notoriously liberal residents of Asheville are confused as to why they were targeted since they “aren’t corporate” as one woman in the WYFF video report puts it. Again, that’s easy to answer. You encourage these “radicals” to flock to your town, get high on your streets, and then present yourselves as passive targets who will not only be unlikely to fight back, but will side with the criminals against police. This is like people who put bells on their cats complaining that the coyotes kill their pets. Stop being a doormat and people will stop walking all over you.
The Asheville Citizen-Times has a good report on the escalating violence of May Day. Maybe WYFF should send a reporter over there to see what the motive of anarchists rioting on May Day could possibly be.
I’m surprised this didn’t happen in Greenville.