Cornell West On Sandy Hook: ‘We Can’t Just Shed Tears For Those On The Vanilla Side Of Town’

[dmallind]

78. Really? More false equivalency?

Two kids are shot to death every week - NOT counting accidents. The number of stories about, say, Gregory Erdmann (white) and Ta'Keith Russell (black) are very similar and very low. They only even raise to the level they do because there was something unusual about them - the execution style family hit and the stepfather involvement respectively. Most shot kids of any race are unlikely to get beyond small town newspaper articles or page C7 snippets in big cities because there is nothing unusual about them - unlike say a mother (allegedly) killing her own kid - not by shooting - and then trying to elaborately fake a cover story including news publicity. If the Anthony case made the news because a white kid died, why don't we hear about the dozens of other white kids who get murdered on non-stop all-channel sturation? Because unlike that case there is nothing new or unusual to hook hoi polloi's attention. Kids black and white are shot to death with dreadful monotony, and few indeed make the news beyond a brief article precisely because they are so common. To make a big media splash it takes something out of the ordinary....like 20 kids being killed at once. And yet you bring up a case with a black victim that WAS media saturated to pretend media attention is all because of race? Make your mind up! Why did Martin make the news at all? Because it was something different...not just another teen getting shot but getting shot by a vigilante wannabe. Hell we have some idiots saying the massacre was a false flag plot - Martin didn't get that! Of course racism exists - but that's bugger all to do with which murders of kids get media attention.