Although Montgomery Police have no reason to suspect a racial component behind the Montgomery Riverfront melee over the weekend, a columnist for AL(dot)com is suggesting the brawl is akin to the struggle black people face today.
In several videos, a group of white people can be seen attacking a black deckhand next to the Harriot II, a famous riverboat that traverses the Alabama River, while a group of black men come to the deckhand's aid and fight the original attackers before an all-out brawl breaks out.
The boat's captain said the group of white people had caused trouble before and downplayed the role race played in the fight.
In a column for AL(dot)com, owned by Alabama Media Group, a subsidiary of New York billionaires Donald and Samuel Newhouse’s Advance Publications, Roy Johnson wrote, "Not today, white people."
"Not today, or any day," he continued. "Not in Montgomery. Not anywhere. Not anymore."
Johnson went on to tout the black men who "quickly disembarked the riverboat and came to the defense of the brother."
"As we inhaled, marveled, and, yes, cheered the protective Black wall in the ubiquitous videos that filled our social media timelines, DMs, and mailboxes, many of us, many African Americans, we were those Black men (well, not the brother wielding the chair.) who came to the aid of one of our own," he wrote.
"We were on that dock. Not today, white folks," Johnson continued. "We were on that dock not just rallying to the defense of a brother under attack—but to the defense of all of us. All of us under attack."
The columnist went on to go after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) "and his ignorant minions" for Florida's efforts to ban Critical Race Theory teachings, the U.S. Supreme Court for "brazenly" seeking to "whiten already-PWIs (Predominantly White Institutions) by stripping race as an admissions factor while privilege (a.k.a. legacy) remains a powerful box in the process," Mississippi "good squad" cops and "Alabama Republican lawmakers, who are all-but-daring SCOTUS to tell them again that their gerrymandered U.S. congressional district lines doused Black voting power."
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email trent.baker@1819news.com.
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