Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Bad Headline

So some cops in someplace called Ferguson USA, shot an UNARMED black teenager about eight times, killing him. Apparently it escalated from the young man and his friend walking on the road on their way to the young man's grandmother's house.

There's been protests and rioting and, in an unexpected turn, hacktivist community "Anonymous" has hacked the city's computers to look for some actionable filth.

Anyway, the CBC has a story based on this ongoing tragedy. And the headline just rubs me the wrong way: "Michael Brown Shooting. Why Blacks in the US believe they're targeted by police.

They "believe" they're targeted?????

Why is it beyond the CBC to simply state "Why Blacks in the US ARE targeted by the police"? Because at this stage in the game, it's pretty fucking obvious that they are. It's simply a fact.

Then, I read the first comment under the story:
why is this turned into a race issue every single time? where the outrage over the hundreds of african americans gunned down every day by their own colour?
sammy yatim was Syrian and the cop that killed him was white. Where was the outrage from the Syrian community over this killing? i mean the cop was white so that shooting had to be racially motivated, right?? sigh.
Perhaps it's for shitheads like that that compel the CBC to hedge its bets and pretend as if racism among the police is still a hypothetical.

6 comments:

Scotian said...

Notice the commentator also misses the point about it being an UNARMED black male being shot and killed by a white ARMED POLICE OFFICER for no apparent reason other than he didn't like his attitude. Since when is it ok for cops to shot people for attitude issues alone WHATEVER the respective colours involved?!? That alone raises it above the bit about how people of the same colour are killing each other and shows that reasoning to be utterly moronic on yet another level than the one(s) you already pointed out.

Anyway, you are almost certainly correct as to why CBC wrote the headline that way, well that and to avoid potential liability risks, and for that matter to try and respect journalistic integrity by not going beyond facts into commentary (yes,
I know, not like I really believe it either, but it used to matter so I chucked it in as much to show just how far we've fallen).

thwap said...

Yeah, as bad as that headline was, the article itself is enough to explain to that idiot why "race" is a relevant factor.

The level of anger that I feel when I encounter such blatant stupidity and right-wingness is getting higher and higher as the years go on.

Scotian said...

Now that feeling of rage towards such stupidity, THAT I can relate to. My wife listens to me vent a lot at times over such crap, but then I remind myself of my favourite expression (because it is the closest thing to a universal truth I know), never underestimate the power of human stupidity.

The only reason why I don't get more angered is because I was raised by someone who was a rager and I saw from early on just how self destructive that is, and I made a decision for myself to not follow that path. Feel anger yes, let it consume me, no, at least as much as I can prevent it, when my wife was raped by a family member it took several months for my killing level rage to settle, but those examples are few and far between for me. I also am big on forgiveness, forgetting, not so much, and the forgiveness is for my sake much more than the target of it. Otherwise I would have allowed myself to become totally toxic from all the various things around me that cause me to feel anger, outrage, frustration, and bitterness, and I refuse to allow my quality of life to be dragged down by such, it isn't much but it is something I have control ability over.

The downside I think is that I can come off as somewhat detached in my comments, I'm not really, I do feel, I just try to not let it come into my comments too often or too much because it makes it that much easier for critics to dismiss what I say. There are times worth exceptions for, and that piece of arrant stupidity you cited for this post was definitely one of them.

thwap said...

My strategy these days has been to avoid reality. Not a very good one.

Beijing York said...

"Let's not play the race card" - f*ck I hate that phrase.

My local drive home CBC Radio show had a native of St Louis and current director of the U of Winnipeg's Jazz Music Program on to comment on this and the recent scandal of a mayoral candidate's wife having posted an extremely offensive and definitely RACIST rant on Facebook in 2010 about Aboriginal homeless people.

This guy was good and the interviewer timid. He said that there was overt racism as what happened in Ferguson and no different than what he experienced in race riots of the 60s and early 70s and passive aggressive racism that people of "no colour" fail to recognize around them or even in themselves. He said that Aboriginal people in Winnipeg may not be going to the street as with the Black residents of Ferguson but that doesn't mean they don't recognize the inherent racism that surrounds them and inflicts pain on them daily.

So glad he this guest took the opportunity to answer beyond the safe questions lobbed his way.

thwap said...

Police brutality is police brutality.

There's a lot of "white on white" violence.

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2012/04/whiteonwhite_crime_it_goes_against_the_false_media_narrative.html

It's no secret that people are going to get killed more in the communities they live in and in the connections they make.

Nobody should have to add police racism to the mix.