ACID HOAX!

BREAKING NEWS: An arrest warrant has been issued for Bethany Storro, who splashed acid on her face and claimed a black female had attacked her. Yesterday, Clark County Deputy Prosecutor Tony Golik filed three felony theft charges against Ms. Storro.

SURPRISE!  The woman who claimed a black woman attacked her by throwing acid in her face, has now admitted that her story was a fabricated hoax!

28-year-old Bethany Storro captured the hearts and attention of a sensitive world, when she told the sad tale of an unproved attack in her hometown of Vancouver, Wash. According to Storro, she was on her way to a local Starbucks nearby her home, when a pretty black woman suddenly approached her and threw a cup of acid in her face.  It was an unthinkable crime, done without provocation.  But 2 details of the crime stood out early:  that the attacker was black and Bethany Storro is white.

Almost immediately, the media jumped all over this story and the hunt was on for a mad black woman attacker. Residents grew leery of heading into downtown Vancouver (where the alleged attack took place) out of fear for their safety.  The small black population of Vancouver felt a genuine sense of unease, particularly middle-aged black women who even vaguely matched the description Storro provided police.  And there was an incredible outpouring of sympathy for Storro, with thousands in pledged cash donations from people who may have been hurting, but still dug deep into their pockets to help her.  Storro even took the high road in a televised interview conducted while she was still hospitalized and wearing a face full of bandages.  She told the world that even though this anonymous black woman attacked her, she forgave the woman and was already looking forward to rebuilding her new life.  WOW, what a saint!

But soon, Storro’s story began to unravel.  And by the end of last week, police called a swift press conference to make a grotesque announcement:  Storro’s acid attack was self-inflicted.  She had done it to herself.  It was all a hoax.

Immediately and while eating a hearty helping of crow, the world was shocked and amazed that they had been so easily duped.  But why? Any white person blaming any black person of any crime has been the widely accepted norm since the beginning of time.  During slavery, countless black men were hanged just on the false accusation that they had raped or even looked at a white woman. The same thing happened during the turbulent 60’s civil rights era, when blacks were not only killed over any unproven accusation by a white person, but their bodies were burned or dragged through the streets as a racist taunt.  And remember the case of Susan Smith — the white woman who claimed a black man stole her car and kidnapped her 2 children in the back seat, only later to discover that she actually drowned the children herself and blamed a black man to cover her tracks?

What type of society are we that we still instantly believe a white woman’s wild claim regarding a black crime, without even thinking about it?  What type of woman is Bethany Storro to choose a black woman as her make-believe attacker, instead of a Chinese, Latino, or even white woman? Why did she need to specify an ethnicity at all?  And why were we all so quick to race to judgment and support this woman with compassion and cash?  Haven’t we learned anything yet from the 1860’s or the 1960’s?