Our Viewpoint Editorials
Racism had nothing to do with daycare crime

This week, Jasper once again trusted in the public ridicule when the news spread of the arrests of two individuals for endangering a child charges at a local daycare.

The story was picked up by the Associated Press and sent out worldwide, television and newspapers in Houston even picked up on the story that shook Jasper.

The allegations stemmed from a reported incident in which two individuals allegedly taped the ankles and wrists of a four-year-old child and dangled him over the trash dumpster in a policebelieved attempt to scare him into acting right while at the daycare center.

The crime, if proven to be true to in the court system, is horrific in nature.

As parents, we all believe our children should be safe when they are at school or left in daycare centers. We trust that these institutions are there to act in our stead for the time our children have to be there.

But this week, those dreams were shattered when news broke of the arrest of these two individuals.

When the arrest hit the outside media, memories of the James Byrd Jr.'s murder also came flooding back. Many tried to come to Jasper and attempted to make a racial issue of the event as the suspects in the case are white and the victim is black.

As rumors of the investigation circulated through Jasper, the races of the suspects and the victim fueled the hints of racism. Many believed that the police were proceeding slowly with their investigation because of the race of the victim.

That couldn't be any further from the truth.

When dealing with a sensitive investigation such as this, authorities needed to make sure that all avenues of the case were investigated. By teaming with Child Protective Services, the investigation proceeded cautiously in coming up with its end result.

When the arrests were announced, some turned over the race card once again in an attempt to add more fuel to a simmering fire.

This is not an attempt to state that racism doesn't exist. No matter what is done or can be done, racism is a part of our society as it is a part of every society in this country.

No part of this world is free of some form of racism. We can turn our backs to it and we can act like it doesn't exist in our backyards, but racism is there and needs to be addressed by a community as a whole.

Outside communities like to point a crooked finger at other areas and say "boy, racism is bad in that town." Most of Southeast Texas falls into that category. But if these areas look at themselves they will see it as true for themselves as well.

It's easy to blame any issue on racism. It's an easy scapegoat. Don't bother looking into issues, just blame it on the color of someone's skin.

We can do little when outsides forces want to say we are racist is nature. But, when we start pointing fingers at each other, we all lose.

This daycare allegation is not a racist issue. Stupidity, ignorance, yes, but racism no.