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egbertowillies

(4,058 posts)
Wed Jul 31, 2013, 11:32 PM Jul 2013

What if white violence was covered like minority violence?


It is ironic that just after Bill O’Reilly and Don Lemon generalized and castigated the black community for violence and bad behavior without the proper socioeconomic narrative that a riot erupted in Huntington Beach California. What is more ironic is that THE Taiwanese Animators behind the infamous Tiger Woods animation, caricatured the riot as a ‘white riot’. Within the animation they had the statement “A wave of violence hit Huntington Beach Sunday night at the end of the Vans U.S. Open Surfing reminding us that whites can riot too.” The not too subtle message from foreigner’s looking in is evident.

Don Bon, a commenter on the YouTube video had an interesting tidbit. He said, “I like how there’s no racial slurs when it’s whites rioting. If itwas black rioters, the comments would be full of them.” Many believe a double standard in coverage and in persecution of bad acts skews both perception and statistics that have provided cover for Bill O’Reilly and Don Lemon to provide a certain level of skewed truths with a flawed narrative.

Tonight Chris Hayes had a segment intended to be a joke that castigated white violence and behavior as is similarly done when minority youth are involved. It was based on a piece written by Cord Jefferson at gawker.com titled “Video of Violent, Rioting Surfers Shows White Culture of Lawlessness” . In the article Cord writes,

Many people don’t want to hear this kind of tough love, of course. They’d like to bury their heads in the sand and pretend that all white children are as sweet and harmless as Taylor Swift. But the reality is that the statistics tell a different story. For instance, according to research from the Department of Justice, 84 percent of white murder victims are killed by other white people [PDF]. Similarly, white rape victims tend to be raped by other whites [PDF]. White-on-white violence is a menace to white communities across the country, and yet you never hear white leaders like Pastor Joel Osteen, Bill O’Reilly, or Hillary Clinton take a firm stance against the scourge.


MSNBC must have gotten a lot of flak for the piece because inasmuch as at the end of the video Chris Hayes gave a disclaimer, the image at the top of this post was inserted in front of the piece though it was not originally there. Yet, as Chris explains, that is exactly the type of coverage minorities get many times when violence is conducted by one with similar pigmentation.

Chris Hayes commentary immediately after the segment said the following.

If you watched that segment and thought that’s an absolutely ridiculous premise and an absolutely terrible way to talk about millions of people who share nothing, nothing except their general broad pigmentation, you are correct. And remember that the next time you hear those same arguments but with a different word in the place of the word white.


Chris appeal for empathy is commendable. Cord Jefferson congruent language comparison is also commendable. They are both, just like O’Reilly and Lemon, not expanding on a narrative that is necessary to solve the problem. There is a problem with violence. There is a systemic class and race problem. An economic system is marginalizing many leaving them without hope and outlet. Violence is generally an outcome of that irrespective of race. Minorities are disproportionately jailed or given harsher sentencing by the justice system, which has a direct effect on that family’s economy. Minorities still face discrimination in hiring whether for the job proper or wages. This furthers the generational down spiral.

One must hope that systematic analysis on a platform visible to most in an entertaining fashion (TV) is presented soon. One can find valid statistics on the various government data sites to corroborate but most people simply don’t have the time or are not willing to study dry statistics online.
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What if white violence was covered like minority violence? (Original Post) egbertowillies Jul 2013 OP
this is awesome. I have a underthematrix Aug 2013 #1
Most violence is covered as violence. Igel Aug 2013 #2

Igel

(35,383 posts)
2. Most violence is covered as violence.
Fri Aug 2, 2013, 07:00 PM
Aug 2013

Some black violence--"riots"--are covered as such because that's what it is. The LA riots weren't post-playoff/championship hooliganism, which has happened several times and has been described as post-playoff/championship riots. Usually those of the same race just watch the footage and think, "How could they do that? The idiots, there's no justification for that." In the LA riots it was a specific group rioting in response to a specific race-based perceived provocation. Judging from the punditry, while the response was excessive there was a lot of commentary about "authentic anger" and "justified grievances" or some such rhetoric. In other words, a call for sympathy. Instead of "How could they do that? There's no justification!" we got "The response was excessive, but it's understandable." Thus the analogy fails once you get beyong the surface-most level.

Black-on-black violence is described as such in two contexts that I'm aware of. The first is academic and public policy: Black-on-black homicide occurs at something like 10x the rate of white-on-white homicide and accounts for something like 94% of black homicides. It ranks as a serious factor in the lower life expectancy of black males. It's a problem that needs to be understood and solved.

But BonB violence also is discussed because white-on-black violence persistently gets a lot of media attention. However among stranger homicides (those in which it's not known that the killer and victim knew each other) for a recent year the black-on-white murder rate was something like 2 1/2 x the white-on-black murder rate. It usually hovers around that mark. While black males account for something like 6-7% of the population, they accounted for over half of the described perps in stranger homicides for that same year. Yet BonB and WonW stranger murders were still the norm.

Once upon a time when there were white-on-black murders the black-on-white murder rate was brought up. This was deemed insensitive--truth notwithstanding--as well as fueling prejudice. It was more sympathetic to point out the BonB murder rate. Even racists are more PC these days than they used to be.

Whenever there's a prominent WonB murder, news and commentary about the BonB rate increases. Think of it as blowback, or "fair and balanced." This is primarily true when the racist portion of the crime requires having history provide the interpretation. When it's a cases that pretty much speaks for itself--dragging an African-American behind a pickup truck, for instance, and killing him because of his race--then I don't think you see it as much.

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