Six months after the death of Eric Garner and five months after the death of Michael Brown, protests, rallies, and riots are still occurring. Events have progressed to the point of threats and fatal violence against the police. All of this is happening on the grounds of racism, but it doesn’t have to be.
If you did not already know the events surrounding Garner and Brown’s deaths, you’d have no way of knowing, by what I just wrote, that they were black men killed by white men. You would only know that two men died and that the police were somehow involved. This in itself is tragedy enough without the added sting of racism, but that is not how things were reported. The headlines were all variations of the same—“Black Man Killed By White Cop.”
The fact that the men were black and the police officers were white should have nothing to do with anything. There should not be more concern over a black man being killed by a white man than there should be over a white man being killed by a black man, or vice versa. Both are equally terrible. Yet every day we see headlines perpetuating what their following articles claim to fight—racism.
Early in December I saw a suggested article on Buzzfeed, the popular news and entertainment website. The shortened title was “Unarmed Black Man Killed By Police,” and the full title was “Unarmed Black Man Killed by Phoenix Police Officer Who Thought Pill Bottle Was Gun.” I read the article to see if the man’s death was actually racist, as the headlines had implied, but there was nothing in the circumstances that indicated that the police officer had killed the man because of race. The differing colors of the officer’s skin and the victim’s skin were irrelevant. The article could just as easily, effectively, and truthfully been written without the word “black” in it.
Taking the word “black” out of–or inserting the word “white” into–either the short or the long title does not make the event any better, and it should not make people less upset. It is horrible every time a person dies, whether at the hand of a scared cop, a malicious murderer, or a racist. Unless an event is a hate crime, race should not matter in the reporting of the event. Whether a person is killed by a member of their own race or of another should not matter.
Throughout the riots and rallies resulting from the deaths of Garner and Brown, the media has sided with the protesters against the police. They have continuously forced the public to see a racial distinction between the victims and the officers involved while simultaneously claiming to protest racism. Unfortunately racism does still exist, but it may not be so strong or prevalent if it wasn’t constantly on the front pages of the news. If it wasn’t always talked about, it would die out much more quickly. But as it is, it is not being allowed to die.
We look to the media for information and for news. That is their job. But maybe it’s the media that’s making the country racist. Maybe, despite what they say, they are the most racist group among us.
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