The Onion Network did a spoof on race on their satirical internet news show.  A pretty young 16-year old white girl stabs her classmate to death with a screwdriver.  The judge declares that she is to be tried as an adult 300 pound black man.  Her mother replies, “We’re going to make sure that Hanna is treated with the sympathy and sensitivity that she as a photogenic white girl deserves.“ Her father laments, “Nobody deserves to be treated as a black man!“ They went on to say if she had to be tried as an African- American, at least make her a celebrity or a “stunningly beautiful Filipino.”  FUNNY? INSENSITIVE? CREATIVE SATIRE? ENTERTAINING PARODY? EDUCATIONAL? INFORMATIVE? {NOW, BE AWARE: THIS IS NOT TRUE} But it does make you think, doesn’t it?

Please comment and tell me what you think.

While the above satire is not true, many incidents of race are.  The above fake story on the Onion network had about 1000 tweets and 137,941 views in just two days of its release on January 23rd when I looked at it on the 25th.  From, some of the comments after the Youtube video (which had over 71,000 views), some people actually thought it was true and were admittedly very angry about it.  But, why, incite anger?  As I’ve said before, “If you don’t want people playing the race card, then take it out of the deck!”   I’m trying real hard to not think of race, but when I see reminders of reality through realistic faux news like this, and REAL stories like, NAACP fears another lynching in Mississippi, and the Governor of Maine tells the NAACP to “Kiss my butt,” and a Louisiana Judge Refusing an Inter-racial Marriage,  it causes me to go hmmm.  But, what’s your take?  Now, to be fair, these are three instances that cause alarm, we have even more examples of us working together, colorblind, in unity.  So, to balance the story, please share stories of where race unity is working too and racism does not exist!

I’m Barbara Talley, the poet who speaks and inspires.  To find out more about me check out: What Does Barbara Do? or visit  my website.