‘Hot’ fire after ‘Storm over Brooklyn’
Mural dedicated to Yusuf Hawkins. Wikipedia
Caribbean Life, Sept. 4-10, 2020 11
“The time is always right to
do what is right.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Urban radio station HOT 97
swiftly joined the Cancel culture
crowd when they booted
employee Pasquale Raucci who
was spotted in the documentary
“Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over
Brooklyn” as one of a gang of
white youths that lay-waited
Black teenager, Yusuf Hawkins
the Aug. 23, 1989 night he was
shot and killed.
Employed at the WQHT station
for more than two decades,
Raucci was recognized as
one of eight inciters charged in
connection with the murder.
At age 19 the Italian collaborator
faced charges of second
degree murder, manslaughter,
rioting, assault and other
charges related to the crime.
In 1991, Raucci was acquitted
of felony counts but four
years after the trial he was
hired by the popular hip-hop
radio station.
“The realization of this could
not be swept under the rug,
obviously and so he has been
fired,” a spokesperson for the
station reportedly said.
An explanation of the firing
detailed that the colleague:
“after watching HBO’s “Storm
Over Brooklyn” HOT 97 was
shocked and took swift action.”
Directed by Muta’Ali Muhammad,
the document retraced
how the innocent Black, teenager
and three friends were
ambushed by a group of Italian
agitators who believed Hawkins
was dating one of the neighborhood
girls.
Hawkins and his friends visited
Bensonhurst in order to
check out a used car they saw
in a newspaper ad and were
interested in buying.
He was unaware of the girl
or the plot to extricate Blacks
from the neighborhood that
night.
Fact is, Hawkins walked into
a danger zone.
Exactly 31 years later, on the
very anniversary of the tragedy,
Raucci was fired.
Apparently enlightened
by the ‘Storm’ his employers
posted a statement on Twitter
saying: “Paddy Duke is no
longer employed by HOT 97,
the march for social justice
continues.”
With prevailing demand
for fairness in the workplace,
and calls for reparation from
prior injustices, more details
from the station reasoned “now
more than ever we serve as
both a source of desperately
needed information and entertainment
and any conflict in
that relationship harms both
our stations and the communities
we serve.”
Depending on perspectives
gleaned from different generations,
some might perceive the
pop music outlet’s firing of the
deejay to be belated redemption
from actions Raucci might
have exacted when he and others
in Brooklyn’s Bensonhurst
set out to beat Blacks from his
segregated community.
Others might also contend
that justice prevailed despite
the fact 31 years elapsed with
justice denied to Hawkins after
Raucci and as many as 30 of
his pals armed themselves with
baseball bats to do bodily harm
to the unknowing teenager.
Raucci was acquitted of
murder but he was convicted
of menacing, possession of a
weapon and other misdemeanor
charges that contributed to
the crime.
Allegedly the deejay flourished
under the radar until
the cable channel aired the
anniversary commemorative
documentary, which offered a
nostalgic airing of the ill-fated
scenario, which caused such
uproar in NYC that Mayor Ed
Koch lost his foothold enabling
the history-making election of
David N. Dinkins, the first and
only Black mayor.
Catch You On The Inside!
Inside Life
By Vinette K. Pryce
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