6/22/00 5:00 p.m.
All Tuckered Out
Let's get race out of it — and work together to address the behavior.

Robert A. George is an editorial page writer
for the New York Post------------------------------------RAGGEDmail@aol.com

ould that I had the fortitude of William Tucker to chat with a cabdriver to learn more about such a dangerous occupation. Unfortunately, I can never get a taxi to stop to pick me up.

But seriously, folks, at the risk of turning the NR site into a "did not/did too" sandbox, I present here what hopefully shall be the last in the continuing series between myself and Mr. William Tucker on the important — or not — role of race as a factor in assessing the Central Park assaults two weekends ago.

Mr. Tucker is perplexed that the initial comments on blacks in his NRO Interrogatory could be "construed" as targeting blacks in general. Let us count the ways. Mr. Tucker first says that "Puerto Ricans are getting a bad rap because a bunch of black kids came in and disrupted the whole thing." Moments later, Mr. Tucker adds, "We're four doors away from a technical high school, which draws mostly black kids from everywhere in New York. And everyone in the neighborhood lives in fear of them. I've seen them threatening storekeepers over a candy bar or something. There's a constant possibility of violence." Hmm...Black kids from everywhere in New York? Everyone in the neighborhood lives in fear.… A follow-up statement where Tucker assumes that a Times reporter was assaulted by blacks demonstrates the (to resort to a cliché) "slippery slope" upon which we are about to embark.

In his NRO Dissent, he amends the point he made in the Interrogatory: It's actually "barely civilized" Hispanic and black youth that are the problem. Mr. Tucker rejects the observation that the 1999 Woodstock fiasco contained many similar elements that occurred in Central Park — young men, intoxicated with alcohol and drugs, running rampant, assaulting women willy-nilly. The only thing different, of course, is the basic color of the individuals. Raising this point is considered going "far afield." Of course, Mr. Tucker was the one who originally brought up the 1935 Harlem riot as an example of what might have happened had the cops done anything to prevent the post-parade assaults: the Puerto Rican Day Riots of 2000.

Mr. Tucker can go to great lengths to discuss an event that occurred 65 years ago, but the comparison of two very similar events one year apart is going "far afield"? Actually, it is Mr. Tucker's allusion to the rape of a retarded girl by several high-school athletes in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, that is off-point. It is a clever way to avoid discussing the possibility that this specific outburst of urban chaos might speak more to reckless drug- and alcohol-induced male behavior rather than being, in Mr. Tucker's words, a "black and Hispanic" phenomenon. Which, one supposes, is Mr. Tucker's point.

What is disappointing about Mr. Tucker's views is that, interestingly, minority leaders are stepping forward to condemn the behavior of the assailants in Central Park. Puerto Rican leaders held a press conference within days of the attacks. Even Al Sharpton, perhaps shamed by the images on the videotapes (as the Post's Andrea Peyser notes) has actually issued sharp rhetoric that, for a change, condemns the actions of the perpetrators. Sharpton, surprisingly, also helped pay for the funeral of one of the victims of the Wendy's massacre earlier this month (perpetrators and victims were all minorities).

As far as taxicabs are concerned, almost all of the recent incidents involve livery cabs, which a) did not have protective barriers in them until very recently and b) are, for security reasons, not supposed to pick up individual fares on the street. The difference is that the "yellow" cabs Danny Glover was trying to hail are, by law, supposed to pick people up on the street. Listening to Mr. Tucker's cabdriver, it sure doesn't sound like he's just threatened by "some" black men: "These black people in New York City…You pick them up, you take them where they want to go, you get there they don't want to pay you. You argue with them, they kill you….I don't pick them up." Does a Danny Glover fit the racial age-cohort which Mr. Tucker identifies as "the problem"? Or is it just plain discrimination? Is Mr. Glover wrong to complain? Are law-abiding black citizens in general wrong to object? Is the mayor wrong to respond to the objections of law-abiding citizens, and enforce regulations stating that cabdrivers are required to pick up fares?

Mr. Tucker complains that the New York Times does not mention that the parade assailants were primarily black and Hispanic. What would that have added to the coverage of what happened? Does the fact that both the Daily News and the New York Post put photos on their covers balance the Times's omission? Exactly in what context does Mr. Tucker want the racial information conveyed? Is Mr. Tucker suggesting that the races of all people arrested must be part of any story? I thought conservatives believed race was too overplayed in society.

In certain cases, such as the story Cristopher Rapp brought to light on this site, if a black group targets victims because they are white, it should be made into as much of a story as a white-on-black or straight-on-gay "hate crime." But, in general, are we now preparing for a time where liberals obsess on race in everything except in crime statistics, while conservatives such as Mr. Tucker want to dwell on race only when it comes to crime? If so, it guarantees that race will remain the diabolus ex machina of all social explanation. The goal of a society in which we are all judged as individuals will remain a pipe-dream.

Mr. Tucker offers no solution other than publicizing the "problem" of young minority men. Perhaps he might suggest that the mayor of New York City identify the minority leaders with whom he can craft a working relationship, and ascertain if something can be done to address the "problem." The mayor doesn't have to surrender to feel-good ideas such as "summer jobs" and the like. He doesn't even have to include Mr. Sharpton — a partisan who would push his own agenda — in such a venue. But there are others: Rev. Floyd Flake, Rev. Michael Faulkner, Manhattan Borough President Virginia Fields, Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer. Such a forum could bring both the police and respected minority leaders together. Considering that women of all races were victims in Central Park, there is some possibility for common ground here. It is only through de-racializing the rhetoric associated with incidents such as Central Park that either the city of New York or America in general will manage to move forward.