Interested Participant relates a shocking tale of the media bias surrounding a horrific race-related criminal tradiation in one Cleveland middle school:
(Cleveland, OH) Imagine this scenario. Every year on the 1st of May, white kids at a middle school perform a ritual event. They select a black girl to attack and administer a beating. The beating causes her to suffer from psychological trauma and blackouts from blows to the head. She is forced to transfer to a different school.
The white kids go to trial where the judge disallows any testimony or evidence indicating the racial motivation of the perpetrators. Charges are dismissed for most of the offenders.
Now, imagine the media fallout. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Maxine Waters, and other black activists would be featured on every news program denouncing the judge and the school system. The headlines of most major newspapers would broadcast "Racial Violence at Grade-School." There would be demonstrations. Op-ed pieces would call for someone's head. And, ultimately, someone would be fired.
As believable as the scenario is, it did not happen recently in Cleveland. However, if one replaces "white" with "black" and vice versa, it did happen. Without emphasis, the Cleveland Plain Dealer website reported the occurrence on 9/30/03. There is no mention of the event on the 10/01/03 Plain Dealer website report.
Since the attack occurred in May (and apparently occurs every year), isn't it odd that nobody is reporting on it? NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, and MSNBC have not pushed the story. The WaPo and the Times don't seem to think it's important. Could it be that the major media has a bias against acknowledging that wanton bigotry exists on both sides of the racial divide?
Seems so.
I've reprinted Interested Participant's posting here in it's entirety because he captures the vicious absurdity of the situation so well. There does seem to be some confusion over whether this tradition really exists, but some school officials believe it does:
Prosecutors say another girl attacked Melissa to settle a personal beef, but the fight grew into a pile-on because "May Day" has long been reputed in some racially integrated schools as a day for minorities to beat up white students. Melissa is white and her accused attackers are all black or Hispanic...
Two school officials and two Cleveland police officers testified that authorities anticipated May Day problems.
"Since I've been at Wilbur Wright, I've taken every May 1 seriously, just because of the potential of what could happen," said school Principal Michael Murawski, who helped break up the brawl. "Everyone was on heightened awareness."
Regardless of whether this is a real tradition, or just an urban legend, the lack of press surrounding it is appalling. This sort of double-standard perfectly illustrates why I have always opposed the legal minefield that is "hate crime." In our society, some hates are more acceptable than others.
Posted by kswygert at October 8, 2003 01:58 PM