We’re currently witnessing a media firestorm as it relates to coverage of the shooting of Michael Brown, the subsequent protests and unrest. What we are also witnessing is a tradition by elements in the mainstream media that blames black male victims for their untimely deaths by those in authority. We witnessed it with Trayvon Martin; meaning that because he was suspended from school or “looked” a certain way on social media, his death was his responsibility because of his possible thuggeries.
Nick Wing of the Huffington Post wrote a revealing piece comparing how the media characterizing black male victims contrast to white male suspects and killers. Below is an excerpt.
News reports often headline claims from police or other officials that appear unsympathetic or dismissive of black victims. Other times, the headlines seem to suggest that black victims are to blame for their own deaths, engaging in what critics sometimes allege is a form of character assassination. When contrasted with media portrayal of white suspects and accused murderers, the differences are more striking. News outlets often choose to run headlines that exhibit an air of disbelief at an alleged white killer’s supposed actions. Sometimes, they appear to go out of their way to boost the suspect’s character, carrying quotes from relatives or acquaintances that often paint even alleged murderers in a positive light.
Here are a few examples:
WHITE SUSPECT
That’s how the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal chose to present the story of Amy Bishop, a former college professor who eventually pleaded guilty to killing three colleagues and wounding three others at a faculty meeting in 2010.
BLACK VICTIM
And that’s the headline AL.com ran about the shooting death of a 25-year-old black man in Alabama earlier this year.
WHITE SUSPECT
This is how the Staten Island Advance covered the case of Eric Bellucci, a mentally ill New York man who allegedly killed his parents.
BLACK VICTIM
Meanwhile, NBC News ran this headline during ongoing coverage of the Trayvon Martin killing.
WHITE SUSPECT
This Fox News headline quoted friends shocked that 15-year-old Jared Michael Padgett had entered his high school heavily armed and killed a classmate, injured a teacher and took his own life.
BLACK VICTIM
But in Florida, this headline in the Ledger focused on a police account that made the death of a black 19-year-old seem somehow expected, or at least unsurprising.
WHITE SUSPECT
In the wake of the mass shooting in Santa Barbara, California, earlier this year, the Whittier Daily News offered a headline showing one man’s disbelief that Elliot Rodger could have committed such a crime.
BLACK VICTIM
Earlier this month, the New York Daily News ran this headline, carrying comments by the Ohio attorney general that appeared to defend police after killing a black man at a Walmart.
WHITE SUSPECT
This was the headline given to an Associated Press story at Mlive.com about an Ohio teen who later pleaded guilty to a school shooting in which three students were killed and two were wounded.
BLACK VICTIM
But when an unarmed father of two was killed by a police officer while entering a vehicle that contained his own children, the Los Angeles Times served up this claim from officials.
WHITE SUSPECT
In 2008, 18-year-old Ryan Schallenberger was accused of plotting to bomb his South Carolina high school. Ohio’s Chronicle Telegram wanted readers to know that he was a straight-A student, running an AP story with this headline.
BLACK VICTIM
And according to the Omaha World-Herald, this is what you needed to know about Julius B. Vaughn, a 19-year-old gunned down in Omaha last year:
WHITE SUSPECT
Kerri Ann Heffernan was charged in 2012 in a string of bank robberies and stores. This headline at Wicked Local wonders how she’d come so far from her days as a smart high school student.
BLACK VICTIM
Of 22-year-old black man Deon Sanders’ killing in Ohio earlier this year, WKBN’s headline said “gang member,” and that apparently was enough.
You can read the full version of the post here.
Infuriating
Not the least surprising (but no less infuriating, as put by Hannibal). That’s how this country works. The Media controls the minds of “The Sheeple”. In actuality it’s a brilliant system (fucked up as it sounds). After decades of dumbing American Society down with inane advertisements/products, intelligence draining TV Shows, visual (obvious and subliminal) perpetuation of the villainization of anything not white (Or Asian. Those messages were detoured to utter ridicule of the Asian populace while still allowing them the opportunity to assimilate), the Media is now able to completely control the way the better majority of Americans see the world. Just like whomever thought up the idea of using a religion to control the public, whomever took the reigns of the media and morphed it into the manipulative machine it is today is a fuckin genius.
Such a tragic situation developing. I don’t know if I’m on the verge of tears from
1)anger- bcuz of the blatant inequality & that they think we’re too stupid to recognize it.
2)sadness- at the devaluation of the lives of anyone considered as “THOSE PEOPLE” by the 1‰…. Usually, the negras’
3)fear- for the lives of my two sons
This judicial(?) system has lost its fuquin’ mind!!
It’s like there’s a bonus points system that earns tax breaks or something:
-kill a black, get 100 pts
-kill a Mexican, get 50 pts
-kill a white, get EXECUTED!
It’s still amazing how we can still see white supremacy live and well. It shows us whose life we value. There is still this underlying narrative that black men and boys lives are worthless.
It just really sucks that this is the way America is. Black parents now more than ever tell their children how to act, dress, etc because they don’t want their children to be targets of violence.
I noticed this too.It’s like the press is trying to say they had it coming. It almost amazes me that many white people can still think profiling is an exaggeration.
The reality of being a black man (person) in this country…
This really pissed me off!
I remember seeing a story about this comparison on YouTube. And do you know what the most frustrating thing was? There were so many comments that said some of the most racist, hateful things, and in the same breath would then say that racism doesn’t exist. This is a problem that exists not just in our laws and our media, but through just about every aspect of our culture.
It’s disappointing, that many whites believe things are better for blacks in America. I guess it depends…..compared to 1950, sure. But, compared to whites in 2014….not really. I understand that the Police feel that profiling is a valuable tool. But whites also commit crimes. I wonder what the % is of whites being pulled over compared to blacks? If most prisons are any indications, whites aren’t caught as often as blacks and hispanics. Maybe 50 yrs from now, things “may” be better…who knows.