XPost: la.general, alt.politics.media, rec.arts.tv.comedy.colbert-report   
   XPost: dc.politics   
   From: nancy.pelosi.democrat.nambla.stooge@disney.com   
      
   https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/01/09/17/8321528-6573905-image-   
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   https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/01/09/17/8321230-6573905-image-   
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   Late Tuesday (Sept. 17) evening, news broke that Ed Buck, a   
   prominent donor to the Democratic Party, had been arrested on   
   charges including “battery causing serious injury, administering   
   methamphetamine, and maintaining a drug house” following the   
   near overdose of a man currently called Joe Doe.   
      
   Had this man died, it would have been the third death in the   
   home of Buck, who has avoided prosecution following the deaths   
   of two Black gay men, one in 2017 and one in early 2019.   
      
   Buck has become a shining example of how anti-Blackness,   
   vulnerable victims, homophobia and whiteness meet at a dangerous   
   intersection.   
      
   Buck first made headlines in July of 2017 when a 26-year-old   
   Black gay man named Gemmel Moore was found dead in his home of a   
   meth-induced overdose. The story started out as local news   
   before activist and journalist Jasmyne Cannick fought to make   
   the story national news.   
      
   Following pressure from social media, LA prosecutors finally   
   opened an investigation into Buck, eventually not charging him   
   with a crime.   
      
   Nearly 18 months later, a second Black gay man named Timothy   
   Dean was also found dead in his home of a meth overdose. Once   
   again, LA prosecutors refused to investigate despite growing   
   media attention, leaving many in the Black LGBTQ community   
   wondering what it would take for Buck to ever be held   
   accountable.   
      
   Although Buck has finally been arrested, many are still   
   skeptical, with just cause, as to whether this will lead to   
   actual jail time. We have seen those who harm the Black body   
   never face consequences for their actions long after the time   
   they should have been held accountable.   
      
   Look no further than the death of Eric Garner, killed on camera   
   by Officer Panteleo, who was able to keep his job for nearly   
   five years before finally being removed from the police force.   
      
   Buck’s whiteness, wealth and proximity to power has protected   
   him thus far, and there is no indication that it will not   
   continue to work in his favor.   
      
   A system can’t fail people it was never meant to protect, and   
   the case of Ed Buck is proof that there is no justice for Black   
   victims.   
      
   Although many will write off this story as simple fetishization   
   of the Black gay body from a gay White man with power, there are   
   several systems at play to create this perfect storm that allows   
   Buck to not only find these victims, but harm them with impunity.   
      
   Many of Buck’s victims experienced poverty, homelessness and   
   addiction — circumstances that made them vulnerable to Buck.   
   Buck was known for fetishizing Black gay men and picking them up   
   around the Hollywood area, bringing them to his home and   
   injecting them with methamphetamines, then having his way with   
   them for sexual gratification.   
      
   It was easy to attack the victim in these cases because many   
   associate homosexuality with sexual deviance and hypersexuality,   
   lessening the public outrage at the loss of gay Black lives.   
      
   Ed Buck doesn’t just exist in a vacuum. The system is just as   
   accountable for creating men like Ed Buck.   
      
   Although Buck is considered to be part of the marginalized LGBTQ   
   community as a whole, his Whiteness allows him to navigate   
   spaces and wield power over those in the Black LGBTQ community —   
   as racism and anti-Blackness exists in our shared “safe spaces.”   
      
   Buck's ties to powerful political candidates and prominence in   
   the community allowed him to not be seen as a predator, but more   
   as a conduit for bad actions that these victims would have done   
   whether Buck was present or not. Victim blaming is a tool used   
   often by those in power in an effort to show how people bring   
   harm unto themselves and absolve accountability.   
      
   The root causes that create Black victims must be addressed.   
   Black LGBTQ people experience homelessness and face poverty at   
   very high rates. This makes people from this community targets   
   for those with power and money.   
      
   These victims are trying to find a way out of no way and are   
   more inclined to participate in the use if it provides money and   
   a place to stay. It’s easy to look at the symptoms, but it's   
   hard to look at the set of conditions created by White others   
   that place us in vulnerable spaces from the start.   
      
   There isn’t a doubt in anyone’s mind that had the victims been   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)