Lynching, Then and Now: A Sociocultural Examination

BIG BOY GOES HOME: The White Lynch Mob Then and Now

 Written in 1995 after reading Richard Wright's "Reader."

          They were four buddies: Lester, Bobo, Buck and of course Big Boy. They were out having fun and one glimpse of a white woman ruined it for all of them. Again, history is best qualified to reward our research. While studying, look up the case of the Scottsboro Boys or, better yet, ask your parents. They will well remember.

          While this story is somewhat different, the scenario is so familiar, and it clearly demonstrates how the white woman allowed black men to be hounded, killed and chased in her name and did little, if anything, to prevent it.  And not only where black men murdered.

          So were black children.

          After frolicking, wrestling and basically bullshitting around all day the boys decide to go for a swim. They took off their clothes, as is customary in the country, and jumped in. All was going fine until their luck changed:

"Oh!" They looked up, their lips parting. "Oh!" A white woman, poised on the edge of the opposite embankment, stood directly in front of them, her hat in her hand and her hair lit by the sun. "Its a woman!" whispered Big Boy in an underbreath. "A white  woman!" They stared, their hands instinctively covering their groins. Then they scrambled to their feet. The white woman backed slowly out of sight. They stood for a moment, looking at one another. "Les git outta here!" Big Boy whispered. "Wait till she goes erway,""Les run, theyll ketch us here naked like this!" "Mabbe theres a man wid her.""C'mon, les git our cloes, said Big Boy. They waited a moment longer, listening. "What t hell! Ahma git mah cloes," said Big Boy. (p. 27)

          Because of the twin mythology of the black rapist and sacred white womanhood, young people like this have to go through inordinate changes. They couldn't even ask the woman to toss them their clothes while they waited in the water, because of the mystique about sex and race. And because of this social foolishness, people have to die:

Big Boy was climbing over the edge of the embankment. "C mon," he whispered. Bobo climbed after.  Twenty-five feet away the woman stood. She had one hand over her mouth. Hanging by fingers, Buck and Lester peeped over the edge. "C mon back; that womans scared," said Lester ... Big Boy stopped and looked around. His hands hung loosely at his side. The woman, her eyes wide, her hand over her mouth, backed away to the tree where their clothes lay in a heap ... Black and naked, Big Boy stopped three feet from her. "We wannt git our cloes," he said again, his words coming mechanically. (pp. 27-28)

          She had seen the mythical black penis, at least two of them, and her mind fed into what she had heard from her racist peers and parents. This still happens today and if you don't believe it, just note where the white female's eyes are at when you're in your trunks at the swimming pool.  And because of his unnecessary fear of four black boys, this woman's entire life will probably change. But at least she would have a life. Two of the kids would not:

"You go away! You go away! I tell you, you go away!" Big Boy stopped again, afraid. Bobo ran and snatched the clothes. Buck and Lester tried to grab theirs out of his hands. "Les go!" said Bobo, running toward the woods. CRACK!  Lester grunted, stiffened, and pitched forward.  His forehead struck a toe of the woman's shoes ... CRACK! Buck stopped at the edge of the embankment, his head jerked backward, his body arched stiffly to one side; he toppled headlong, sending up a shower of bright spray to the sunlight. The creek bubbled. (pp. 28-29)

          In defense of the white woman, the white man invariably had bought into the twin myths as well. It was his duty, the white man, to defend the 'honor' of his woman -- even against black kids:

Big Boy and Bobo backed away, their eyes fastened fearfully on a white man who was running toward them. he had a rifle and wore an army officer's uniform. He ran to the woman's side and grabbed her hand. "You hurt, Bertha, you hurt?" She stared at him and did not answer. The man turned quickly. His face was red.  He raised the rifle and pointed it at Bobo.  Bobo ran back, holding the clothes in front of his chest. (p. 29)

          Big Boy got close enough to grab the rifle, but the white man was bigger than he was:

The white man, taller and heavier, flung Big Boy to the grond. Bobo dropped the clothes, ran up, and jumped onto the white man's back. "You black sonofabitches!" The white man released the rifle, jerked Bobo to the ground, and began to batter the naked boy with his fists. Then Big Boy swung, striking the man inthe mouth with the barrel. His teeth caved in, and he fell, dazed. Bobo was on his feet ... "Give me that gun, boy!" Big Boy leveled the rifle and backed away. The white man advanced. "Boy, I say give me that gun!" ... The man came at Big Boy ... CRACK! He fell forward on his face. "Jim!" Big Boy and Bobo turned in surprise to look at the woman ... "Yuh done killed im," mumbled Bobo ... (pp. 29-30)

          The fear of being lynched immediately set in. The rest of the story is about preparing these young men for flight. They had to leave. The black people in town well knew how white people were: white life was so precious that if one was taken, usually more than one black person had to pay the price.

          The real concern, as Big Boy's parents and Bobo's relatives share information, is that the entire thing involved a white woman. It didn't help to know that thed Peters ranch, where the boys had been swimming, was the domain of a man who "don like us niggers none." 

          The plan was for Big Boy and Bobo to hide in one of the deep kiln-like holes they had dug, next to Bullards Road. Will, a friend of the family, passed there often and he fcould get them out of town. Big Boy packed and was on his way:

"Run fast, Big Boy!" Big Boy raced across the yard, scattering chickens. He paused at the fence and hollered back: "Tell Bobo where Ahm hidin n tell him t cmon!"

          As Big Boy waited in one of the kilns they had dug in the ground, he reflected and thought about killing white people,about how he would go down in a blaze of glory and the newspaper headlines would tell how he killed nineteen or twenty whites before they finally got him.  He had to fight a six foot snake for the hole, but got rid of it. But in the meantime, this young man was thinking in what former Black Panther founder Huey P. Newton would call "revolutionary suicide."

          Then he heard the voices of white men, and what they talk about and the manner in which they go about the manhunt is important enough for me to interject some information following the end of this review. However, note for now that when one black is accused of or has actually committed a crime, the entire black community, area of neighborhood must suffer:

"She said one of em wuz named Big Boy, or somethin like tha.""We went t his shack lookin fer im.""Yeah?""These niggers stick tergethe; they don never tell on each othe.""We looked all thu the shack n couldn't fin hide ner hair of im. Then we drove the ol woman n man out n set the shack on fire ... " "Jeesus! Ah wish Ah coulda been there!""Yuh shoulda heard the ol nigger woman howl ... " (pp. 45-46)

          After humiliating even the old black elders, white men on such a vendetta must justify it in their minds. And, as we find throughout my evidence, the sanctity of the white woman is the first excuse they use, justified or not. Big Boy continues listening to the growing group of men from his hidden position in one of the kiln-holes:

"Ah tell yuh they still here, somewhere ... " "But we looked all over!" "What t hell! Wouldn't do t let em git erway!" "Naw. Ef they git erway notta woman in this town would be safe." (p. 46)

          As they sing some ditty called "We'll hang ever nigger t a sour apple tree," the men then announced the news: they had found Bobo. Can you imagine the raw fear that is running through the mind of that young boy as he is being dragged, not off to court, not to a jail, but into a field where he can be tarred, feathered and dismembered?  And this is what I want the young black men and women reading this book to remember: all of this was done in the name of the white woman who sat back and allowed it to be done!  And don't think she wasn't involved:

There were women singing now, Their voices made the song round and full. (p. 48)

          And remember too that the lynching bees, which I will discuss later in this section, were a family outing; usually taking place on Sunday right after church.

          Now comes the dismemberment ritual. Here is a race which prides itself on Christianity, but when it came to distributing their brand of justice on black people, their true nature came to the surface.  Ralph Ginzburg documents these kinds of dismemberings, castrations and tortures in his book, 100 Years of Lynchings. But for now, take note of what they did to Bobo:

"LES GIT SOURVINEERS!" He saw the mob close in around the fire. Their faces were hard and sharp in the light of the flames.  More men and women were coming over the hill.  The long, dark spot was smudged out. "Everybody git back!""Look! Hes gotta finger!""C MON! GIT THE GALS BACK FROM THE FIRE!""He's got one of his ears, see?" "Whuts the matter!""A woman fell out! Fainted, Ah reckon ..." The stench of tar permeated the hillside. The sky was black and the wind was blowing hard. HURRY UP N BURN THE NIGGER FO IT RAINS!"

          Bobo was butchered and died. Again, to enhance the shock value and bring this piece of explicit fiction to life, remember: these kinds of actions took place tens of thousands of times in American history. At a time when black people had no rights that a white man was bound to respect. And also remember that this was not a century ago: this is the 1940s, just over half a century ago!  How soon we all forget how the innocent were butchered. For nothing!!!

          Big Boy had to strangle a hound dog who wandered too close, lest the dog give away his position. The following morning the young man met the truck, as planned, and off he sped, northward.

LYNCHING AND THE 'MANHUNT TRADITION'

          As promised earlier, in order to understand what Big Boy, Bobo, Lester and Buck went through, and in order to understand the relationship of this kind of "chase" to the issues of sex and race, it is important that we briefly explore "the manhunt tradition."

          As Bobo and Big Boy arrived back at their respective homes following the shootings of Lester and Buck, this was the beginning of the manhunt, comparable to what Oliver C. Cox outlined in his masterful study, Caste, Class and Race.  In the section on this tradition, Cox outlined the mob frenzy and of the actions which actually constitute a lynching.  I now take time to record Cox' comments on lynching and juxtapose them with the treatment accorded Bobo and the other boys in "Big Boy Leaves Home."

          Let us first begin in the middle by offering up the purpose and function of what Cox outlined more than 35 years ago:

"Both the overt threat of lynching and prevented lynchings function to maintain white dominance. They provide, in fine, the socio-psychological matrix of the power relationship between the races." (Cox, 1948: 551)

          Little has changed because the power relationships between blacks and whites are, essentially, the same. A shift in appearance  does not mean that there is a positive or profound change in the essence  of racial relations.

          Now, an operational defintion of lynching and the tendencies which demonstrate that Juice is, indeed, being lynched:

"Lynching may be defined as an act of homicidal aggression committed by one people against another through mob action for the purpose of suppressing either some tendency in the latter to rise from an accommodated position of subordination or for subjugating them further to some lower social status." (ibid., 549)

          The chase down the interstate by the police was most reminiscent of the "slave chases" during antebellum slavery. The conditions were somewhat different because Juice was given "special consideration." But again, this "tom" benefited from black power; Los Angeles had already experienced one major riot, and black people were still tense about the verdict in the Rodney King beating case. The police department could not afford another chase-and-beating scenario.

          But the officer in charge after the chase did make it clear to the media (and therefore to America) that the situation was going to end at the house following the case, "one way or another." This may well be interpreted as the "homicidal aggression" of which Cox speaks and which has become most evidence when police must confront black people.

          So the police followed the white Ford Bronco, Juice and his buddy at the wheel, Al Cowlings. But the "mob action" of note is that of the media, which sent out its helicopters to "get the story" and, as a result, documented how O.J. had a gun, was considering suicide and while waiting out the situation, the media ran background information about O.J., his history and even his relationship with Al Cowlings, the man who was driving the white Bronco that O.J. was fleeing in.

Lynching is an exemplary and symbolic act. In the United States it is an attack principally against all Negroes in some community rather than against some individual Negro.  Ordinarily, therefore, when a lynching is indicated, the destruction of almost any Negro will serve the purpose as well as that of some particular one. (ibid., --emphasis added-MCS)

          "Any negro," true. But our society no longer resides in backwoods, rural little villages. We now live in major urban areas and the media is therefore needed. Therefore, there is now a need for a highly visible negro to "lynch." In doing so, you influence all the black people that this individual influences or who believe in this individual. Like the white politician approaching the black minister, by paying that minister off, you can have that individual influence the masses of the people who do, indeed, attend church. The days of "one-on-one proselytizing" are long gone.

          By dogging out high profile niggas like Tyson, Michael Jackson and now, the Juice, the white man can establish his authority and deliver a clear message, similar to the one that Chief Justice Taney delivered in 1857 in the Scott v. Sanford case (also known as the Dred Scott case): "A black man has no rights a white man is bound to respect."

          What is most impressive is what Cox calls "the lynching cycle," and how applicable said cycle is to what is taking place before, during and since the arrest of O.J. Simpson. The cycle, which also includes the actions and reactions of the black community, is an important one for analysis at this juncture. I have listed only the key components of the definition:

(a) A growing belief among whites in the community that Negroes are getting out of hand -- in wealth, in racial independence, in attitudes of self-assertion ... or in reliance upon the law.

          For some time now, Minister Louis Farrakhan, either rightly or wrongly, has been monitoring the white man and his actions toward certain black celebrities, Michael Jackson in particular. According to the leader of the Nation of Islam, the white man saw Michael becoming richer and richer and feared that one day, Jackson might wake up with political maturity and awareness. Hence, the "move" to charge Michael with child molestation and to embarrass him in the media.

          In defense of the Juice, the Minister spoke out on a number of issues during a major presentation at a recent "Men Only" meeting, attended by over 10,000 Black men. As it was reported in The Final Call  newspaper,

"Minister Louis Farrakhan blasted media coverage of the O.J. Simpson murder trial and corporate exploitation of athletes and entertainers ... 'It is not for sure that O.J. did it. Supppose he gets off because you don't have enough evidence to convict him? What are you going to do with O.J. then?" ... Min. Farrakhan expressed sorrow over the deaths but criticized sensational reporting and corporate America for deserting their "heroes and role models" at any accusation, not guilt ... " (Muhammad, 1994: 2)

          Whether one supports Minister Farrakhan or not, one thing is clear: he is the only black man in a national leadership position who isn't beholden to white people and to Jews, in particular. That is why he can speak his mind and, to date, he is to my knowlege the only black leader in this nation who can fill any stadium or conference center in this country, no matter how large. And the white man knows it.

          Here is what I believe: I believe that the white man is a hypocrite and that his greed would cause him to sell his own mother for a wooden nickel. Because of this greed, he pays black athletes millions of dollars per YEAR, but then turns around the generates that much in a matter of weeks or months.

          For instance, take the Juice. He was, at one time, the highest paid athlete in the National Football League. But what he was earning was a mere pittance when we look at how much money the white man made, and continues to make, off of the Juice. Let me show you just a few  of the avenues in which this is possible and most apparent.

          The Buffalo Bills attendance skyrocketed when Juice was their prize running back. That represents ticket sales of more than a half a million each weekend that the Bills play at home.  That does not include the concessions, where again, Juice's magic on the field brings in people who get hungry and purchase beer, hot dogs and the like. Then there's the memorabilia: you go to a game and most people buy a program as a souvenir. What about the Buffalo Bill pennants? And the photos of the team, which include the Juice? What about the photos of the Juice alone? In the latter two cases, the photos are the domain of the photographer and the team, and both get the money. Not O.J.

          Then the Hertz commercials. O.J. made some money, but look what Hertz must have made: people renting cars for more than $50 per day all over the nation and the world! This means millions each week!  What Juice got was chump change compared to what Hertz generated.

          When Juice appeared on talks shows, that generated revenue for that particular television network. His appearance on the cover of Ebony magazine (at least twice) generated millions for John Johnson, the publisher of that black magazine. When he was in the announcer's booth at Monday Night Football and later for NBC, he got a great salary, but generated ten times that much for the network in terms of audience viewership. He helped sell ads on two of the most popular football programs in the history of the world: and, in particular, the beer companies made a mint.

          Finally, do not forget this important point: what O.J. was paid, he turned around and spent in in the white man's businesses. Black people do not sell Ferrari's (like the matching white ones he purchased for himself and Nicole), black merchants do not sell expensive mink coats like the ones he showered Nicole with. Black people do not sell mansions, like the $5 million one he and Nicole lived in or the multi-million dollar beach home. O.J. worked and spent the money with and one white people. The whites who made money off of him, including the Buffalo Bills, NBC, ABC and others, made money which was reinvested and which ultimately serves to enable white people -- who took no body blocks, tackles or carried one football -- to earn a hundred times the money that Juice earned.

          Now, he will spend what he's got with Jewish and gentile attorneys trying to keep his ass out of prison. He will spend it with them and, because of the publicity behind the trial, he will live out his life as if he was a pauper. He is making more money for the National Enquirer, the Globe, The Star, and the other smut tabloids, not to mention the "specials" that television programs are airing and selling advertising for. Everyone is getting rich from this black man's obsessive actions. And he's not getting a damn penny from any of it.

          So what the black athlete earns is mere "chump change" compared to the billions, and, in the final analysis, the trillions of dollars, which are spread around and about the white community, based upon his touchdown runs, his slam dunks, his home runs and Olympic accomplishments.

          It would figure then, that the white man would defend this "nigger" who is making them money. And in O.J.'s unique case, the concern is not about his personal wealth because the white man understands that he controls that. Juice's agents, attorneys and advisors are all white men. But Juice is a "special case" because, indeed, these "negroes" are getting out of hand in terms of their salaries. And they're getting out of hand in the central cities ala L.A. riot. And they're coming into the country clubs and the golf courses, places where the white man once felt segregated and therefore, safe.

          The "negroes" of today are printing newspapers and doing talk shows on radio and raising issues on black cable access. The white man, for the most part, is being exposed. The wealth of black people is still under control, but gradually, there is information getting out that the white man, at one time, could easly control or diffuse.

          We are suing him and winning. We are taking him before his own courts and, because his acts of hate and racism are so blatant, even his OWN people often rule in our favor. We are embarrassing him in the major sports where quickness, speed, leaping ability and athletic skills carry a premium. And we are doing it in front of his women and his children. He can no longer ban us from sports and then lie to his women and children about how he is the greatest in the world. We have exposed his lack of comparative athletic ability in boxing, football, basketball, baseball and now, even in Olympic events. He only has tennis and golf left.

          We are more self-assertive and are excelling in areas where he could formerly keep us out of. Now, the "inferior" black man is kicking his ass. He has to make an example out of somebody. Hence, the public humiliation of Michael Tyson (for alleged rape), Michael Jordan (for gambling), of Michael Jackson (alleged child molestation), and now O.J. Simpson, for murdering two white people.

         

(b) Development, by continual critical discussion about Negroes among whites, of a summatory attitude of racial antagonism and tension.

          If I can make the kinds of observations noted earlier, then surely the white man sees it. He has to censure Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder for saying that blacks were athletically superior because of the way we were "bred" during slavery; he had to censure Ann Schott for referring to several of her star black athletes as "high priced niggers," and he's had to go on record after being sued promising not to practice his racism in public. He takes this personally. A verdict leads to the burning of one of his largest cities. The shootings of black youth lead to embarrassing public protests and pickets. He views all these as antagonism because we were supposedly "trained" to fear him. But we do not fear him any more because we are too busy begging and scrounging to be a part of his system. Even in that, he interprets such movements as being "uppity" and, as a result, there is both perceived and actual "tension" at both ends of the racial spectrum.

          Furthermore, it doesn't take much to whip white folks up into a "summatory" attitude that is anti-black. Merely look at who they blame when their economy gets bad; look at who they blame for the welfare mess; look at who they blame for the deterioration of the central city and the rise in suspensions, expulsions and arrests of black youth. They blame us for problems that they created the conditions for. And then, they take that blame and generate billions of dollars and creates thousands of jobs for their own people in the name of "solving the problem."

(c) The rumored or actual occurrence of some outrage committed by a Negro upon some white person or persons. The ideal act is the rape of a white girl. But if the tension is very high, whites will purposely seek an incident with the Negroes.

          This is where the Farrakhan comments come in. There can be no doubt that the white man sees black people excelling despite his attempts to eliminate us from the streets of his cities. He sees creativity in spite of criminal epidemics, excellence in the face of "no exits," and development even as he uses our communities as objects of debasement. Therefore, to make an "example" out of those held in high esteem is the best way to teach an object lesson and, furthermore, to influence or re-direct the thinking of the masses of black people by inundating us with daily reports on O.J., how the white lawyers are trying to "save him," and how his actions against Nicole are "so common in America."

(d) The incident having occurred, the white mob comes into action, lays hands upon the Negro, and lynches him. He is burned, hanged, or shot in some public place ... and his remains dragged about the Negro section of the community ... There is usually a scramble among the mob for toes, fingers, bits of clothing, and the like, which are kept as souvenirs of the lynching occasion.

          The "action" of the mob started with police believing that Juice did it, handcuffing him, removing the handcuffs and then letting him go perhaps knowing he would try to flee. When Juice decides to make a move, he leads policemen on a 50-mile chase. Upon being arrested, O.J. is then figuratively lynched as whites use TV, radios, newspapers and magazines to "expose" the Juice, to "analyze" the information. to "document" the circumstances which lead to the murders and to otherwise "kill" any life that O.J. has now that a white man and a white woman are now dead.

          Juice's "remains" are dragged before us each day: his "past" alleged drug use, womanizing, violent outbursts and so on; brought before us looking depressed and tired, sitting in a courtroom taking notes and basically looking lifeless and impotent, undoing his once virile and athletic appearance which made him the envy of white men and certainly the object of the fantasies of a lot of women, white and black.

          And as a final affront on his (most tommish) character, even Hertz, who he made so much money for, dropped him as a spokesman in the face of the charges. They abandoned him during his time of need. Keep this in mind, black folks.

          Moving on:

(e) During a lynching all Negroes are driven under cover. They are terrified and intimidated ...

          Because of TV and radio, those who are "driven under cover" can watch the trials and O.J.'s degradation from the safety of their own living rooms and say in private that which they do not have the guts, gumption or gall to say or the commitment to back up, in public.

(f) Within about two or three days the mob achieves its emotional catharsis. There is a movement for judicial investigation, and some of the "best white people" speak out against lynching...

          In this case, you can view almost all of white society as a "mob," because most of them appear to be responding in the same way: negating the issue of the fact that O.J. was black and Nicole was white, with very few recent exceptions, and instead, using a backdoor approach to lynch him: the issue of spouse abuse and how it must be punished and how the lawmakers can and must do more to bring it to a halt.

          The movement for "judicial investigation" is the stage where the lawyers appear and make motions and call for suppression of certain evidence even as the police continue to comb O.J.'s house and the entire community for "clues." This is a double lynching of sorts: in court the Juice is rendered impotent (one could call it ideological castration) and a white man is forced to speak for and defend him. At the same time, miles away, an entire organization of whites are violating any search and seizure rights Juice might have by walking in and out of his house when they choose and by taking testimony from other white people on what they may or may not have seen or heard the night of the murders.

          Who are the "best white people." Paula "Polo" Barbieri,  heretofore an unheard of model, is given prime time on television to plead Juice's case, as are a number of his white buddies; Tom Brokaw who pleads with America that Juice "is innocent until proven guilty"; famed attorney Jerry Spence who talks about how he feels sorrow for O.J.'s situation, knowing full well that the feminists and the womanists and the rest are going to charge him with sexism for saying so. And the others, individuals who wouldn't give an "average" black person the time of day and who, in fact, moved to the suburbs so that they wouldn't have to interact with any blacks at all, suddenly giving O.J. Simpson, the former football star, the benefit of the doubt.

          New era, same method of operation.

(g) There is a new interracial adjustment. Negroes become exceedingly circumspect in their dealings with whites, for they are not thoroughly frightened ... few will dare even to disagree with white persons on any account whatever. The man who does so is not considered a hero by the majority of Negroes; rather he earns their censure.

          Farrakhan. Each time he links a contemporary social issue or controversy to the need to separate from the white man, the white man, through the Jews, lambastes and seeks to devalue his commentaries. He is the only individual with the guts to disagree with the white man, and he is the only individual with enough economic clout and backing to have an impact on the way that we, as blacks, must begin analyzing what is taking place around us. He is therefore censured, not only by the white media and the Jews, but by those "negroes" who we consider our leaders but who, in reality, are on the payrolls of white corporations, philanthropists, and the system, in general.

(h) In a more or less short period of time Negroes begin to smile broadly and ingratiatingly over the merest whim of white men. They are eager to show that they bear no malice for the horrible past. The lynching has accomplished its purpose, social euphoria is restored, and the cycle is again on its way...(ibid., pp. 550-551)

          This is the result of the conditioning that we have undergone for the past four hundred years. We are taught to run and hide and forget the negatives; we are programmed that the problems of other black people are not our own. We are force-fed the belief that the white man's ice is colder than our ice. As scholar LaRue Nedd has said on a number of occasions, in a game that he controls, the name of the game being played is "I win, you lose."

          Finally, Cox in his profundity defines what I alluded to earlier when I spoke briefly about the "manhunt tradition" and, once again, this fits what took place when Juice was on the proverbial "lamb" with the cops hot on his trail during a 50-mile chase.

"The manhunt tradition rests on the assumption of the unlimited rights of white men and the absence of any rights on the part of the accused Negro." (ibid., p. 553-554)

          That's why most of the people doing the talking in the tabloids and on the television (a video tabloid when it comes to dealing with the controversy surrounding the Juice) are white people. Neighbors down the street, a man who owned a dog who walked through the blood, the woman who was coming around the corner who claims she almost ran into Juice, hotel personnel, individuals at O'Hare Airport, bar owners, psychiatrists, attorneys, and the list gets longer each week: people who, in daily life, ain't shit.

But in the final analysis, they call came forth to get their fifteen minutes of fame and fuckin' glory -- at Juice's expense.