Black people LOVE finding out that a criminal discussed in the media is not BLACK!!! There is a collective sigh of relief when you don’t hear the words, “The subject is a Black…”.
Watching television news is a unique experience in the Black community because of how African Americans are portrayed. “The suspect is a Black male, X years of age, seen wearing…”, If I had a dime for every time I’ve heard of a Black suspect, I’d be rich. If every other Black person could do so as well, we wouldn’t even think of reparations. LOL
I loved when Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine” broke down how the coverage of Black criminals is disproportionate to actual crime. This coverage perpetuates the stereotype that Blacks are criminals and breeds a fear of Black men as a threat to public safety. That fear contributes to the number of Black men in jail and dehumanizes them.
White serial killers
White moms killing their children
White teachers sleeping with youngsters
All of these things are horrible, very very horrible. No one race is without it’s criminals, this is a given. However, I will say what every other black person knows. When we hear about white people doing terrible crimes we sigh and thank God that a Black person is not on the TV screen. We feel bad for the families involved and all that…we’re not heartless, but we hate to hear about African American doing some crime. We know that for a lot of people viewing that news coverage the whole of Black America is judged by the actions of a few of our brothers and sisters.
NOTE: We were totally shocked that the DC Snipers were Black. I live in DC, and I’m telling you, brothers and sisters were amazed.
12 responses so far ↓
1 brownie // Feb 29, 2008 at 1:03 pm
lol @ cereal killers.
naw, but since you might have haters, you might wanna change that to ’serial’ because then they will be saying “black people can’t spell” or some other such nonsense.
2 Me // Feb 29, 2008 at 4:44 pm
So true! Every time I hear about a crime on the news, I’ve got my fingers crossed until they reveal the mugshot.
3 Jilla // Feb 29, 2008 at 4:56 pm
I feel you on this one — but as a black person, and as someone who loves helping black people (another thing black people love), I’ve got to point out that you mean “serial killers” and not ‘cereal.’
4 amaka // Feb 29, 2008 at 5:37 pm
uggh…sorry. Wrote that early in the morning. Black folks can spell, it’s just that sometimes I can’t. Thanks guys!!!
5 YHT // Mar 1, 2008 at 1:00 am
very very true. i can give the time and place when i found about the dc snipers. i had to cry myself to sleep
6 GirlGriot // Mar 1, 2008 at 2:07 am
Oh, absolutely true! My mom’s the same … but, creepily enough, she pegged the DC snipers (she’s in Montgomery County). Early on, she said it would turn out to be a black man … and she said the killings would be used to throw the police off the track when he finally killed the person he was really after. We all dismissed her theory, then just had to stare at her in amazement as the facts of the case came out. Sometimes she freaks me out entirely too much.
7 wynsters the tigress // Mar 8, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Why were you amazed that the anipers turned out to be black…?
8 tanyetta // Mar 10, 2008 at 7:55 pm
yeah DC had a lot of people on pause!
great post
9 Haters? // Mar 14, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Black people LOVE saying that.
10 www.anythingblack.wordpress.com // Mar 16, 2008 at 8:48 pm
yeah its very satisfying
11 jonolan // Mar 19, 2008 at 11:09 am
I was shocked too that the DC snipers were Black. Blacks don’t fit the profile for that sort of criminal behavior. Sniping has been a consistently White method of “rampage” killing, whereas Blacks have - when doing that sort of thing - tended to prefer a more up-close and personal methodology.
12 Single Black Male // Mar 24, 2008 at 11:43 am
I completely agree with this one. I let out a sigh of release every time.
After the snipers turned out to be black, I think no type of crime is out of the question now.
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