Let me introduce you to the Atlantic Beach Bikefest, more commonly called "Black Bike Week." It happens during Memorial Day weekend, when tens of thousands of black bikers descend upon an area just north of Myrtle Beach.
You might think that sounds innocuous enough. After all, it's a few thousand people on motorcycles going to a place where people tend to go during the vacation months in South Carolina. Myrtle Beach, after all, is a universally recognized seaside locale for people from around the country. Black Biker Week, though, stirs the soul of racial agitation in places like South Carolina.
For bikers, it is an opportunity to get together with like-minded people, checking out new rides and showing off one's own toy. It's a chance to celebrate Memorial Day and soak up some sun. For the local population, which is decidedly white, it's seen as a nuisance. Black Bike Week comes just after a highly popular biker rally in the area attended by mostly white bikers on Harleys. You might say that the public gets burned out by the large crowds. And in some sense, that's understandable. Bikes are loud, and when crowds flood into a place not generally arranged to handle those crowds, everything from traffic to restaurant reservations become more difficult.
But there's a nastier racist element to all of this, and as a person who has grown up in South Carolina and spent a significant amount of my childhood at that particular beach, I'm well aware of the racist roots of the criticism of Black Bike Week. The two bike weeks, at least in the circles I ran in when I was around 11, were described as "biker week" and "NON-biker week." NON? You mean, like they're not real bikers? Oh, no, that's "Nigg**s on Ninjas."
There's an ugly side to Black Bike Week, of course. Well-documented reports of irresponsible driving, public urination, disorderly conduct, drunkenness, drug use, and violence have marred the event in recent years. This culminated last weekend when three people were murdered in a local hotel adjacent to some of the event's events.
growing up we all heard of Hell's Angels and other White biker clubs who were nasty, drunken, dirty, disrespectful and scary. peeing on the street and trash are not present with the other group of bikers? we also know of the hyperbole that accompanies Black anything in the south the "well documented" atrocities perpetrated on those of color the proverbial yanking in the welcome mat.
this is not a one year wonder but i suspect money talks racist bigotry chills for the moment? these two murders wouldn't be the first time Blacks were accused of killing they didn't do.
Local hotels have complained that some of the week's patrons have trashed their rooms, causing damage. Some businesses have sought to close their doors during Black Bike Week, drawing the critical eye of the NAACP, which has successfully sued restaurants for Civil Rights Act violations when those owners wanted to close their doors only during this particular week. It's part of the reason why, each year, the NAACP leads Operation Black Bike Week Justice, where it watches to ensure that visitors to the beach are not discriminated against. Just as reports of lawlessness tend to flow during the days following the event, reports of discrimination are just as numerous.
so what is the reason to fight against it the racist electorate is coming up on Nov. 4th re-election time is that the real reason their seats aren't as safe as before appeasing the bigot appetite of your base helps insure their vote, just wondering. just for the record White bikers like rockers tear some crap up too and piss in the streets but obviously the reason for killing Black Biker WEEK HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE OTHERS, COULD THOSE OTHERS BE THE ONE'S WHO ACTUALLY TRASHED THE ROOMS AND THEY LET THEM IKE THAT BECAUSE THE NEXT VISIT WAS BLACK BIKERS WHO THEY THAN CAN BLAME IT ON?.
we need to hear from some of those who were there and get the real 411.
please read rest of article interesting stuff and maybe a perspective not covered by the residents. hard to tell whether that's Black or White trash don't you think?
