There were two car accidents recently in which a person died. One of the accidents was caused by a white man, Chris Soules, with a strong belief in Jesus as his savior who also happens to live in rural Iowa. The other was caused by a black woman, Venus Williams. She doesn’t speak of her religion and lives in an urban environment. I find the general tenor of the comments on the two stories to be incredibly telling. First let’s look at the accidents.
Soules purchased liquor at a store. He smashed into the back of a tractor sending it into the ditch and killing the driver. Soules then reported the accident, waited for paramedics to arrive, but then fled the scene before police arrived. He went home and when officers came to question him he refused to come out for five hours. Open liquor containers were found in his car.
Venus Williams attempted to make a right turn but traffic prevented her from moving forward. She was stuck in the middle of the intersection, which is her fault. She shouldn’t have made the turn without it being clear. Another car didn’t notice and ran into her vehicle from the side. One of the passengers was an elderly man who was taken to the hospital where he eventually died two weeks later.
Now that you know the circumstances of the two accidents can you guess the general thoughts in the comments sections? Williams is a murdering scum who deserves to be put in prison. Soules is a poor unfortunate who hit a tractor that probably didn’t have its lights on and maybe cut in front of him and possibly he was tired and it was going to take the police a long time to get to the scene so he just went home. He was asleep so when the police were yelling at him to come out and calling his phone for five hours, he just slept through it. He feels terrible about the accident and has been punished enough. What purpose does it serve sending him to prison?
If you aren’t disgusted by the stark contrast between these two reactions there is something wrong with you.
I’m not saying everyone is exonerating Soules and eviscerating Williams but I am saying that the majority of comments on both stories are exactly as I’m portraying them.
I’m not sure how much of it is a black and white thing or a belief in Jesus thing but it is most definitely a thing. And it is horrific.
I’m not saying Williams is completely innocent or Soules is totally guilty of a crime. I’m just saying the reaction to both is out of proportion and based on things other than actual facts.
I really don’t have a whole lot to add. There is something seriously wrong with the critical thinking skills of people in this country. There are many people in this nation who are filled with unjustifiable rage against people they perceive as different. I don’t get it. I never will. But I can speak out against it.
Tom Liberman
Tom,
You hit the nail right on the head, “There is something seriously wrong with the critical thinking skills of people in this country.” Our schools are producing sheeple and have appeared to have removed all critical thinking from the curriculum. On one side, public schools teach socialism is the only way to Utopia and on the other side, Christian schools teach that God and following His laws is the only way. Both remove the ability of students to think for themselves and as we are consistently seeing at school graduations, those students that do think for themselves and try to speak out, get cut off and escorted from the stage. I honestly don’t know and don’t understand why such the shift from Capitalism to Socialism. From my perspective, Capitalism gives everyone with a desire and drive to change that possibility, whereas with Socialism, only the government and those in power wins. I could be wrong, but that is my experiential perspective. I have been all around the world and seen first hand the results of various governments. Democratic Socialism is NOT as favorable as it appears on paper and why anybody would support that is beyond me.
Anyway, I’ve gotten off topic and turned your original post into a political debate. My apologies.
I had not read/heard about either of the accidents until reading your post. For Chris Soules, his blood and urine were both tested and there were no traces of alcohol in his system. Even with 5 hours lapsed from the time of the accident until the drawing of his blood, if he had consumed any alcohol – or at least enough to be determined above the legal limit – then at least trace amounts would have shown up. According to the reports, there were zero trace amounts. Why did he leave the accident? No idea. Only he knows that for sure. He is being charged with a felony for leaving the scene. He does get some points from me for at least calling for help and checking on the driver; however, he should have stayed until the police either released him or arrested him. I personally think he was afraid of getting arrested and fled because of his actions after the police arrived at his home.
As for Venus, I deeply feel for her. I’ve been stranded in the middle of an intersection making a turn before as well. No, she probably shouldn’t have attempted the turn; however, she apparently felt she had an opening that quickly closed for whatever reason.
It appears to me that both accidents were just that – accidents. Why people choose to vilify Venus speaks to the core of our country’s problems with race and sex. She has both going against her.
Thank you for the comment, Bret.
One correction. Depending on the type of test given to Soules there is every chance he would test 0.0 for alcohol five hours after drinking. There are more detailed tests but they will show alcohol present from a month or more before. That’s why they don’t do those tests in these situations. The blood test they use basically would read 0.0 for five drinks if you waited five hours. If you add the time from the accident, waiting for the ambulance, and the time it took officers to get to his house he could well have been drunk at the time of the accident.
Tom
I really do feel for Venus, because honestly this type of thing could happen to anyone – who among us really haven’t made a right turn like that? If we’re lucky we just end up with a traffic ticket and nothing more, I can only imagine what she’s going through right now. There will always be an underline double standard between someone like Soules, a white male, and Venus, a black woman, and its very possible that if Soules were – say – DeMario Jackson, he would not have been able to politely turn the police away until they came back with a warrant.
But, what I’ll also say is that – from what I saw and from my perspective on social media at the time – there was also a lot of rushing to judgement and ugliness pitched towards Soules, much of it revolving around “Bachelor is going to prison and pretty boy’s gonna get donkey-f**d in the showers,” “white trash farmer was drinking all night and fled the scene of the accident” etc. I think its just human nature for society to be fascinated and even derive enjoyment out of seeing public figures disgraced and even imprisoned, just like society always gets a kick out of seeing beautiful people become old/fat/ugly.
And because of Soules’ record from about 10-155 years back, I think people immediately jumped to conclusions and thought the worst without waiting for all the facts to come in. In a way, Soules himself occupies a “trailer trash” stereotype that has followed him around, even though he’s always come off as very respectful and he seems like a good, hard-working guy whose built a very successful brand for himself, overcoming some serious problems for himself, and I do respect that. The hate towards Venus was probably greater in volume and more racist in tone, but I think both have been condemned in the realm of public opinion before even getting a chance to defend themselves.
I’m with Bret in that I really think that both situations were just that – accidents – but only Soules knows for sure about his state at that time (I’m willing to abide by the blood/urine test, although I’m taking into consideration what you’re saying about more conclusive tests – from everything I’ve read about the lead-up to the accident I honestly do think that he was sober at the time).
I’m sure you know that the 10-155 years was meant to be 10-15 years and was a typo, but I’m not able to edit it lol
Facts are in already. Camera proves she made a normal turn. Correct your racists article bro.
I think perhaps you misread my article. Please read it again.
https://www.cnn.com/2017/12/21/us/venus-williams-fatal-accident-no-charges/index.html