In what seems to be a batch of ugliness all around, Anthony Cumia of Opie And Anthony fame claims to have been attacked by a woman and five others in Times Square while taking pictures. He documented it all with an angry, racist rant on Twitter.
Cumia was taking pictures of the area, many you can see on his Twitter feed, when the lady in question confronted him and allegedly hit him several times. He responded by calling her a c*nt and that prompted others to get involved.
The incident then led to a very long Twitter rant that probably took a turn for the worse around the time Cumia brings up race and refers to people as “savages” and “animals.” Most of it is NSFW, so I’m not going to post it here, but you can take it all in on Cumia’s Twitter feed.
Cumia also ended up referencing the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Acts during the tirade and many of his fans got involved with their own thoughts on the subject, some more volatile than his own:
It’s hard to say that there is a silver lining here or a right side. Just a lot of poor reactions and bad behavior, with the photography being the only good thing to come out of the whole mess.
Attacking and striking people because you disagree with them is wrong. It happens, but it is wrong. At the same time, referring to other races as savages and touting your status as a “white legal gun owner” isn’t on the right path either.
Thankfully Cumia had a cool enough head at the time and nothing terrible happened. At the end of the day, violence doesn’t trump words, no matter how ugly they might be. That said, I doubt this would be the kind of issue that gets coverage on all these sites if race wasn’t brought into the matter. I don’t understand why you can’t be mad at the person instead of the race?
Keep a look out tomorrow for follow-ups on this story and any consequences it might hold. Cumia is obviously no stranger to controversy and he’s standing by what he said, so it’ll be interesting to see what response, if any, happens.
(Via Anthony Cumia / Gawker)