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Media coverage of gang violence sure looks different when the perpetrators are white - Vox
Over the weekend, a shootout between three rival biker gangsat a bar in Waco, Texas, left at least nine gang members dead and 18 others hospitalized with gunshot and stab wounds.
It was a huge, devastating tragedy. The New York Times reported that law enforcement sources called it "the worst violence in the Waco area since the siege on the Branch Davidian compound in 1993 that left 86 people dead."
With the Waco incident, we got just the news — not the racial pathology
Those who are using what happened in Waco to start conversations about stereotypes and media biases against black people aren't complaining about the tenor of this weekend's media coverage. They're saying something a little different: thatby being pretty reasonable and sticking to the facts, this coverage highlights the absurdity of the language and analysis that have been deployed in other instances, when the accused criminals are black.
"9 killed in Waco biker gang shootout - where are the white leaders decrying this white-on-white violence?" #stuffthemedianeversays
Hey @CNN and @FoxNews: Are you gonna talk about white on white crime tonight. Waco is plagued with biker gang violence.
I blame Sons of Anarchy for glorifying white-on-white biker gang violence. #Waco #TwinsPeakShooting
Where are Dick Cheney and Newt Gingrich when their country needs them? This white violence must cease!!! #StopWhiteOnWhiteCrime
Another line of commentary that's predictable in media coverage and commentary surrounding violence involving black people has to do with black cultural pathology.
Politicians and pundits are notorious for grasping for problems in African-American communities — especially fatherlessness — to explain the kind of violence that, when it happens in a white community, is treated as an isolated crime versus an indictment of an entire racial group's way of life.
Has Rand Paul blamed the fatal shooting in Waco on the "lack of fathers," for in that community, yet?
Over the weekend, a shootout between three rival biker gangsat a bar in Waco, Texas, left at least nine gang members dead and 18 others hospitalized with gunshot and stab wounds.
It was a huge, devastating tragedy. The New York Times reported that law enforcement sources called it "the worst violence in the Waco area since the siege on the Branch Davidian compound in 1993 that left 86 people dead."
With the Waco incident, we got just the news — not the racial pathology
Those who are using what happened in Waco to start conversations about stereotypes and media biases against black people aren't complaining about the tenor of this weekend's media coverage. They're saying something a little different: thatby being pretty reasonable and sticking to the facts, this coverage highlights the absurdity of the language and analysis that have been deployed in other instances, when the accused criminals are black.
"9 killed in Waco biker gang shootout - where are the white leaders decrying this white-on-white violence?" #stuffthemedianeversays
Hey @CNN and @FoxNews: Are you gonna talk about white on white crime tonight. Waco is plagued with biker gang violence.
I blame Sons of Anarchy for glorifying white-on-white biker gang violence. #Waco #TwinsPeakShooting
Where are Dick Cheney and Newt Gingrich when their country needs them? This white violence must cease!!! #StopWhiteOnWhiteCrime
Another line of commentary that's predictable in media coverage and commentary surrounding violence involving black people has to do with black cultural pathology.
Politicians and pundits are notorious for grasping for problems in African-American communities — especially fatherlessness — to explain the kind of violence that, when it happens in a white community, is treated as an isolated crime versus an indictment of an entire racial group's way of life.
Has Rand Paul blamed the fatal shooting in Waco on the "lack of fathers," for in that community, yet?
