The email itself, courtesy of Fox25 Boston:
What no one has reported (yet) is precisely what got Barrett so exercised. A small amount of digging reveals this column by the Boston Globe’s Yvonne Abraham:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/07/the_gates_issue.html
And now the rest of Barrett’s email makes sense — and reveals a healthy dose of sexism and violence along with the racism. According to Barrett, Abraham is:
a hot little bird with minimal experiences in a harsh field. You are a fool. An infidel. You have no business writing for a US newspaper nevermind detailing and analyzing half truths. You should serve me coffee and donuts on Sunday morning. . . You need to serve a day with the infantry and get swarmed by black gnats while manning your sector. Or you just need to get slapped, look in the mirror and admit, “Wow, I am a failure. I am a follower. Who am I kidding?” Again, I like a warm cruller and a hot Panamanian, black. No sugar.
Fun times. Actually, this email is a perfect encapsulation of right-wing talk-radio groupthink in all its horrifying glory: a jambalaya of resentment, jingoism, anti-tax rhetoric, racism, sexism, and violence, especially against women and blacks, and especially when those women and blacks are, like Abraham and Gates, well educated, successful professionals. I can already hear the ringing defense of Officer Barrett from Howie Carr. He’ll undoubtedly decry the liberal media and the judgmental elitists who look down on guys like Barrett — even though Carr himself is a blue-blazered denizen of tony Wellesley, precisely the sort of limousine populist who tubthumps for the common man, votes to send guys like Officer Barrett to war, and then votes to cut veterans’ benefits when Barrett and his comrades return home.
The saddest part of this, though, is that the Boston Police Department and city government have done their darnedest to overcome Beantown’s ugly legacy of (and ongoing reputation for) racism. Unfortunately, firing Barrett won’t excise the stain this has caused to the city I’m still proud to call home.
