Factual Dispatch #57 - Alabama Riverboat Revival Review

Montgomery, Alabama is occasionally referred to as the “Birthplace of the Civil Rights movement” (mostly by Alabama tourism folks), and saw itself the site of another incredible moment in American race relations last weekend. So it makes sense to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop, the weekend when DJ Kool Herc spun a back-to-school party in the community room of a Bronx housing project, by reflecting on how the Riverboat Brawl shows us how far we’ve come.

For those not familiar, a black riverboat co-captain found a privately owned pontoon boat parked in his spot. When the riverboat captain asked the private boat to move, they were flipped off and ignored. After the co-captain took a second boat to shore, and attempted to move the private boat, that was the spark. He was assaulted by its owners, a white father & sons, who must have paintings of them looking as young as the day they were born in their attic somewhere.

After the co-captain was assaulted by half a dozen Plebs in Boat Shoes, multiple black ferryboat riders came to his aide, Avengers Assemble-style. One even swam over from a different dock to help, which has spawned dozens of “Move over Momoa, we got a new Aquaman” memes. After more than a dozen came to the co-captain’s aid, the fight swung decisively against the white family. The brawl even included a folding chair being used as a weapon, which…is what happens when you fight outside and chairs are available. But this is where the story gets progressive (in the sense that time has passed, not that some lady on meth is going to pop up to sell me insurance).

When the cops arrived, they didn’t treat the black citizens like animals. No dogs, no water cannons, no riot gear, no gas grenades, and the people arrested were actually at fault. The Sheriff, and Montgomery’s first black mayor (yup, only in the last three years no less), were quick to point out that justice would be done and that those at fault would be arrested. Which, they were. Even one of the white ladies only kind of involved in the brawl, was arrested and charged after she turned herself in. 

Also, who knew the folding chair was patented by a black man?! But seriously, 100 years ago, 50 years ago, heck, if this happened during the BLM protests in 2020, how much violence would the state have done to that co-captain in the name of “Law & Order?” How many of those black citizens would have felt comfortable defending the co-captain against multiple white attackers? How many cops would have honestly tried to de-escalate and calm the situation, vs. getting their own shots in and playing a “Birth of a Nation” type hero.

This is happening while Jason Aldean’s “Try That In A Small Town” continues to chart, with the message muddled by media grifters and extremists. The “tell me you like cops without telling me you like cops” theme of Aldean’s video is both a descendant of Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue,” and a “pushback” to the invented “Old Towne Road-ification” of country that right wing media has been bloviating about. But thanks to this incident, it’s also a punchline, as the cops did the exact opposite of what Aldean’s Blue Lives Matter heroes do in the song.

Did they do it out of the goodness of their hearts? Probably not, given the city’s push to move “past” its history as the Bass Pro Shop Pyramid of Bigotry, as the AP reminds us:

What does this mean for race relations in the USA? I’m not sure, but it seems as if the places might be trying to grow out of what they were, while the people seem desperate to go back to what they used to be. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have fun at the expense of people who fucked around on the wrong side of history and found out.

Keep Your Head Up,T

P.S. If that last one sent you, here’s the best screencap from it.