*** Posted to the African American Group***

[pnwmom]

I can't help but wonder if a lot of the hate being directed at this traumatized mother who had to watch her toddler being tossed around by a gorilla has to do with this woman's color.

http://heavy.com/news/2016/05/michelle-gregg-photos-pictures-deonne-dickerson-cincinnati-mother-mom-little-blossoms-son-isaiah-facebook/

[Uponthegears]

1. Rec'd here too.

And thanks again.

[still_one]

2. Trying to be objective, I don't think that is the case. However, there are some folks who value

animals over humans, and some of those folks can be very judgmental.

The whole situation is a tragedy, but the zoo did the right thing in taking down the gorilla.

The zoo was negligent in the fact that the gorilla enclosure should not have allowed human access into it from the outside

Thank goodness the child was OK

[bravenak]

3. Of course

It happens every single time

[enough]

4. In the very recent situation in the zoo in Chile where a young man jumped naked into

the lion enclosure with the intent of killing himself, there was the same kind of reaction. (Two lions were killed and the young man lived, after leaving a suicide note.) I really don't think the reaction here is racist. To be explicit, the early photographs from the event showed a very "white" man engaging closely with the first animal. There was the same kind of global reaction to the killing of the lions in this situation.

[brer cat]

5. I have been trying to work through that as well.

Some of the shamers seemed unaware of her race at least initially. However, the harshness of the shaming and the arrogance of many of the people makes me feel like it is a factor. I have known some people who assume black=bad parent. It came out loud and clear with Michael Brown.

God, I hate this. I really appreciate that you are trying to keep a proper perspective, pnwmom.

[pnwmom]

6. You're welcome, brer cat. I was painfully aware as a parent of how easily,

in the blink of an eye, something could go terribly wrong. And I did my best but it could STILL have happened. And I think the people who are so certain they never gave their children less than 100% attention are just deluding themselves.

[radical noodle]

7. That might be but I don't think that's it

Remember how people reacted to the dentist who killed the lion? Some people are just over the top animal advocates who react almost violently if an animal is hurt, abused or killed.

[pnwmom]

8. I only learned about her race in the comments sections -- and people there

are posting that the dad has a criminal record (burglary). As if that has anything to do with the situation. This woman was just trying to have an outing with her kids, and something terrible happened -- because whoever built this enclosure thought a 3 foot railing and some bushes (that the small child couldn't see around) were enough of a barrier.

[MADem]

9. All of that was news to me, too.

I saw that video of the animal dragging the kid, but I didn't perceive race. The video was pretty blurry and I don't have HD tv.

I honestly thought, in my mind's eye, that old Becky was busy looking at her phone like a Kardashian and little Fauntleroy wandered off. Having not seen any family interviewed, I defaulted to a caucasian stereotype.

I really don't think race was an issue at the time of the initial outrage, certainly. It's devolved to that for reasons I don't understand. Is the zoo trying to toss some shade to muddy the waters, I wonder?

I agree with the people who say

a) They should have used a fast-acting tranquilizer gun;

b) The enclosure borders should be difficult for a child to breach; and

c) The parents didn't do a good job supervising their kid. The father's criminal past is not germane to discussion of that aspect, though.

All of those things can be true without name-calling, I think.

Bottom Line: No amount of recriminations will bring back the silverback or otherwise turn back the hands of time. Only thing to do is learn from this experience and use this unfortunate event to take steps to prevent this from happening in future.

[radical noodle]

10. The zoo was clear that they do not blame the parents

I heard a lot of terrible things said before anyone knew the family was AA. In fact, on my HDTV, the child did look white, although it never registered with me one way or the other until people began to wonder if race was a factor in the hate. I personally know some of those animal rights folks and the thought of any endangered species being killed is like a knife in their hearts. It wouldn't matter to them what color the child was. In addition, when the lion was killed by the dentist, they dug up everything in his history too, in order to try to use it against him. They put messages up about his dental practice to try to ruin him. This truly is not something I believe is based on race.

The zoos have tried to make the habitats of the animals as natural as possible for a realistic feel for the visitors and less of a caged feeling for the animals. The result does mean that people must watch their children more closely.

The mother has a management job at a daycare, so she should be accustomed to being around kids (not to mention that she seems to have four of her own). She was undoubtedly preoccupied with something else or one of her other kids and it gave the boy the time to slip away.

[Jackie Wilson Said]

11. It has everything to do with it IF the people in question are POC. If not, then no.

My response is in reference to this part of your comment

and people there

are posting that the dad has a criminal record (burglary). As if that has anything to do with the situation.