Media’s portrayal of the Montgomery brawl is far from the race-baiting narrative they desire.

My absolute favorite piece ⁤of writing this week is ⁤by New York Times ⁣charity case Charles Blow, who watched the hysterically funny ‌Montgomery dock‌ brawl and was nearly moved⁢ to tears thinking about slavery.

For the ⁤uninitiated, there was a blowout mob fight on an Alabama riverfront dock ​last Saturday after a mini cruise boat captain attempted to move a pontoon parked in his vessel’s way. The guy⁤ reportedly tried to physically push ⁤the pontoon by hand after alerting its passengers that they were‌ in his ​commercial boat’s spot, and video shows them ⁢— roughly ​six people ​— responding by dogpiling ​the captain.

Because ⁢“diversity, equity, and inclusion” is all the rage, the event intensified by nature of the riverboat captain‍ being black and the pontoon passengers all appearing to be white. In video footage, witnesses ​are heard ​screaming, “Help your brother!” and, “They wrong for that!”⁢

More ​passersby, who were also black, came ​to⁢ defend the captain. ​One ‍black male, identified as a 16-year-old, was seen diving into the water from ⁣a separate nearby ‍boat and swimming to the dock, presumably to defend the captain ‍as well. Video ‍shows that eventually, black individuals outnumbered the white ⁣pontoon‌ passengers in the brawl.

The​ entire thing is hilarious,⁤ starting with the‌ riverboat captain’s ​animated toss⁢ of his hat into the air before barreling into his opponent. It spawned a billion memes, and the ⁢online consensus is that ⁣the pontoon passengers got what they​ deserved for ganging up on a ⁢man who was almost ⁣certainly ⁢just doing his ⁤job. Some of the whites are being prosecuted for‍ their‍ misconduct.

But it wasn’t⁢ funny for Charles Blow. He saw a ⁢historical comeuppance.

“There, the righteous indignation of⁣ a community found ‌an ⁣outlet when Black people came to the defense of a Black man under⁤ attack,” he wrote Wednesday. “There was therapy in ​it for many who saw it ‌— a sense of‍ historical correction.”

Blow added that there ⁢was⁣ a “bit of⁣ historical poetry, the brawl happened ⁣in ⁢Alabama” because of its “horrible history of⁢ slavery and notorious convict leasing system, which Douglas‌ A. Blackmon ⁣called ‘slavery by another name’ in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name.”

Sir, this ⁢is ‌a Popeyes. Can ‌I please ​take your order?

Black people on social media mostly⁤ seemed to find ‍it‌ comical, rather ⁣than historical, but so long as⁤ we’re talking about “historical corrections,” I hope Blow got to watch​ the video⁣ of the Middle Eastern 7-Eleven clerk using a ‌giant ⁤stick to beat the crap ⁣ out of ​a black man who ⁤was in the⁣ process of robbing the store.

That event happened a week before the Montgomery brawl, this time in Stockton,⁢ California. Video ​of the ordeal shows a black man with some kind of‍ blue cloth covering his face as he ‌shovels dozens and dozens of items off the ‌shelves into⁢ a rolling‌ trash‍ can.

“Shut the ​f-ck ⁤up,” he ⁣tells the clerk. “I’ve got a strap,” he says, meaning‍ a gun, as he motions ​toward his waist.

As ‍he tries to push toward the other end of the store, one man grabs him and pulls him to the ground while another man wearing a ‌turban comes at the‍ looter with a wooden⁢ pole, ​repeatedly ​wailing down at his legs, back, and behind.

Adding to the — what did Blow call it? — “historical poetry” of the matter is that the butt ‍bashing didn’t ⁤come ‍until after​ the​ man video-recording it told the clerk, “There’s nothing⁣ you can do, man, until you⁣ call the police.”

It turns out, there was something he could do.

This is‌ in the‍ context of retail⁤ crime — both theft and violence — up more than 25 percent nationally in 2021 (it’s at least double that in cities ⁤like New York and Los Angeles). We’re told we can’t do anything, that ​we​ have ​to stand by and watch, and ‍even ‌if a cop shows ⁤up, ​the thug will almost certainly ‍receive a “mental health​ evaluation”⁣ and then be set free.

Maybe it’s time for more “righteous indignation” of that variety when it ‌comes to shoplifting. Or does only one side get to feel ‍a “sense of historical correction” in a public beating?