Race-baiting

Afternoon Americans, 
Following the events that unfolded over the past few months in Ferguson there has been a drastic increase in media attention, especially online via social networking sites, to violent crimes; usually ones resulting in death. These incidents often involve police officers or have race based implications, many of which it would seem are creating a sort of 'wake' of coverage in the aftermath of the tragedy in Missouri. 

More often than not these stories comparing violent crime to the shooting of Michael Brown ask questions involving the level of public response to these relatively unnoticed events as compared with the riots and nation wide protesting that occurred as a result of Darren Wilson's use of lethal force. This story made Fox News' front page today. This one made CNN's and USA Today's. This story published by CBS and NBC makes no mention of the events in Ferguson but dwells on police violence with racial undertones. This story published by the Washington Times outlines a

discrepancy in a race-reversed situation almost identical to Michael Brown's. The list goes on. In any case it seems as though the attention being paid by the media to stories of a racial nature, especially ones involving a clash between whites and blacks, has increased dramatically since the violent events following the Grand Jury decision not to indict Darren Wilson.

The saturation of coverage of racially charged events and crimes by the mainstream media is nothing new. News outlets love to publish stories that grab people's attentions and the racial divide in America has always been an easy go-to for a "juicy" story. Nothing could be further from helping the apparently deepening racial tension between blacks and whites in America. If we are to heal the festering wound that Dr. Martin King Jr. once called a "starless midnight of racism and war..." then we have to stop placing race and the controversial events that result from what essentially amount to cultural differences under a microscope. Kevin Hart may have put it best in a Tweet from November 25th stating, "Not all cops are bad. Not all black people are criminals. And not all white people are racist. Stop labeling. It’s 2014 let’s get equal."

  
I really liked this video of Ben Carson discussing the "media circus" involved in coverage of racial events like this, pointing the finger at sources that he says may be considered "politically incorrect."


This is another informative video that I found interesting involving the methods of stereotyping and race-baiting in modern news media. The video is semi-lengthy but I found it intriguing.