UPDATED: A Time Of Reckoning

 Most have probably heard about or seen the video of the violent confrontation occurring in Montgomery, Alabama the other day. A riverboat was unable to dock because a group of white louts took up its berth. After 45 minutes of trying to get them to move their small vessel via the ship's PA, the Black co-captain of the riverboat went ashore and tried to untie the vessel. It was at this point that fisticuffs ensued.

Was this a racially-motivated group assault? I don't know if it necessarily started that way, but other than the possibility that those responsible for the misplaced craft were simply poor white trash doing their thing, it would seem that they took exception to being told to do something by a Black man. 

Once they began pummelling him, several other Black people came to his assistance, and the melee ensued. The following video is a powerful statement as to why so many came to the beleaguered co-captain's aid. It is well-worth watching, and is a potent reminder of the racial violence that pervades American history and culture, as well as the sense of community evident as people rose to the co-captain's defence.

If this topic interests you, I strongly recommend a Vox article that first looks at the dog-whistle, racist C&W song, Try That In A Small Town, sung by Jason Aldean; it then juxtaposes the song's sentiments with the brawl. Aldean's defenders say the tune is simply about promoting a sense of community and defending its people and values; the song's references and venue (the latter a site of lynchings) belie those sentiments. 

The writer then looks at the sense of community that surfaced as the Black co-captain was being pummelled by the white thugs. It would seem Aldean's song was never intended to include the safety and community of Black people.

Feel free, of course, to draw your own conclusions.

UPDATE: Damien Pickett, the Montgomery riverboat co-captain, explains what he experienced:

Pickett told police that the captain had asked a group on a pontoon boat “at least five or six times” to move from the riverboat’s designated docking space but they responded by “giving us the finger and packing up to leave”. Pickett and another deckhand eventually took a vessel to shore and moved the pontoon boat “three steps to the right”, he wrote.

He said two people ran rushing back, including one cursing and threatening to beat him for touching the boat. Pickett wrote that one of the men shouted that it was public dock space, but Pickett told them it was the city’s designated space for the riverboat. He said he told them he was “just doing my job”. Pickett said he was punched in the face and hit from behind.

“I went to the ground. I think I bit one of them. All I can hear Imma kill you” and beat you, he wrote. He couldn’t tell “how long it lasted” and “grabbed one of them and just held on for dear life”, Pickett wrote.