The story of the brutal murder of Little Rock news anchor Anne Pressly caught my attention right away. I try to ignore crime stories for the most part, but the slaying of this beautiful young reporter resonated perhaps because of my past profession as a network journalist and the fact that she fought her attacker with so much force and resolve. And when police arrested a black male suspect in Pressly's case, I had two immediate thoughts. My first reaction was relief that law enforcement had taken an allegedly depraved individual off the street and hope that Pressly's family and loved ones would find some comfort in having her alleged killer behind bars.
My second reaction was a mixture of anger, sorrow and frustration that a black man may have committed this crime -- and a rape linked to his DNA -- and then that race would be an issue at all.
Here is one of the first comments I read on AOL's coverage of the arrest:
ItsaGirlThing5Cross racial crime is tough terrain in the discussion of race relations in America. The image of "the scary black man" is hyper-propagated on sites like Stormfront and New Nations while white-centric spokesmen like David Duke use exaggerated crime statistics to spread fear of black men and black people in general. In October, NPR's Michel Martin interviewed David Duke on her show "Tell Me More." Duke quoted a statistic, that although later refuted by the U.S. Department of Justice - listen here - is the bedrock of many racist claims about "the nature" of black people and black men in particular. He said:
02:47 PMDec 01 2008
Duh. Why are they bringing race into this? Show me the last time a white man stalked and killed a black woman. It happens, but not nearly as much as this. Why we are surprised a black man did this is what's so amazing. What a bunch of dumb asses.
We have a vast disproportionate crime rate in this country, at 37,460 white women who are raped or sexually assaulted by black males, as according to the United States Justice Department.
Again, these numbers were refuted by the US Department of Justice and you can click on this link and then 'DOJ Responds' to listen to that interview.
Still, it does appear that more white women are assaulted by black men, than black women are assaulted by white men. Most crime victims overall are of the same race as their attackers. And it is an uncomfortable societal imbalance that when white people commit awful crimes against black people or other people of color, the perpetrators are seen as malevolent exceptions whereas when black people commit awful crimes against white people, that is seen, at least in some corners, as a call to action (arms?) of some sort. I don't fully understand it to be honest.
Should race matter when we discuss crime? Why or why not?
Comments: (125)
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By: linda on 12/03/2008 8:28AM
this is so terrible...and my prayers go out to the families involved...victim and victimizer...the sad thing is that a "black man" did this...the even sadder part is that any man would take the life of a woman/man/child etc...to do this is definitely not something that can come from a loving heart...as for the race issue well...any man that can do this is less of a man to me...black/white or whatever other color...and we should be no more disgusted about this crime than we are with all of the other crimes...however it is a known fact the attitudes/anger of most of us goes through the roof even more when it is a crime of this nature...media is biased and always has been...but what i find even more frightening is that when something of this magnitude happens...versus when a crime has taken place and it is blamed on a black man...where are those disgruntled folks then...we have disparity in our reactions...when the black/white card is played by "whites"...then all the hatred of centuries comes to the forefront...when a situation happens where a "black" plays the race card....then we need to get over it...and we all know what "it" is...well we as people cant have it both ways...we are either going to be disgusted when crap like this happens irregardless to the color of the victim/victimizer or we wont be bothered by it...we need to make a human choice and then come to a unified decision to do what is necessary to help each other past the horrible state that we've gotten to...and stop destroying each other...this is terrible(the crime)...but it is terrible on all fronts...not just black/white...the real issue is another life is gone...actually two...one forever and one forever to rot in jail...as it should be!!!
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By: Chase on 12/03/2008 9:30AM
Yes race should matter. I say that reluctantly. We all should be very alarmed and concerned when someone does something this evil. However society (media)has put a value on the lives of individuals seemingly based on race. Most of the national high profile murders seems to be of early to middle age white women but are they the only ones being killed? Race shouldn't matter but it does and the main stream media needs to step up to the plate and serve society with less bias. We as a community should practice loving ourselves and caring for each more and walk hence forward with a sense of new found pride and most importantly STOP THE VIOLENCE
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By: Written by a Black Woman on 12/03/2008 9:30AM
I have followed this case since it began, and when the suspect was caputured I was disappointed that he was a Black man. Furthermore, as a Black woman I felt much sadness for the victim as I would have for any victim under similar circumstances regardless of her racial indentity or socio-economic class as the media seems to place such high regard for humanity. Likewise, when I read some of the responses from the White centered version of AOL, the comments were centered on suspect's and victim's racial identity. Thus, the people wrote racist and evil comments about about the ENTIRE Black population for the crime of one Black person within a population of millions.
Henceforth, those who have made such negative and displaced comments were not aware that many Black people feel the same sadness and regret that they feel about this crime. In closing, their comments taught me about their limited knowledge of Black people in general and their special interest in crimes when the victim shares their racial indentity which shows a lack of knowlege about humanity and places a low value on life which is also criminal.
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By: Vickie Greene on 12/03/2008 1:58PM
My prays go out to the family for their loss. I am a Black African American women personally I don't care "what race" the criminal is the bottom line is this criminal who happens to be "Black" is a rapist, and a murderer.... The guy is a cold hearted criminal and the punishment should fit the crime.
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By: Boyddollar on 12/03/2008 10:31AM
4. Race issues will rear its ugly head at every turn. The Election of Barack Obama will not stop bad Race Relation between Black and White in this county and through out the world.
Historically, when a Black Man did a crime for Capital Murder against any White person the whole race took a hit.
This scenario will continue for generation to come.
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By: Senait Fuller on 12/03/2008 11:50AM
This man is an evil criminal. If he was a white man, he would still be an evil criminal. I pray that the family of this woman gets justice.
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By: buttercup on 12/03/2008 11:50AM
To reiterate poster #2, I also agree that the media is biased. I remember years ago when I was living in NYC and there was an incident regarding a central park jogger where young black and Latino boys raped a white female jogger. During about the same time, a latino women was raped and thrown off the roof of the building. To this day, I cant remember all the details surrounding the latino women because it was mentioned once and poof...never heard of it again. The crime was just as heinous if not worse then what occured to the central park jogger. Yet the incident regarding the white jogger was plastered on the front page of every NYC newspaper for months.
In my opinion, the media is the main player of the the 'race card'. An overwhelming amount of whites get the information regarding blacks through the media which in turn shapes the perspective. Some statistics that they need to report: whites kill whites, blacks kill black. The number one victim in America are black males between the ages of 16-29. The number one killer of white women in the country is the white male.
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By: georgia on 12/03/2008 12:33PM
crime is crime....no matter who does it.... you people need to stop with the race crap... it is getting oldddddddd....really old and this is from a black woman....everyone bleeds red unless you are a straight up alien.... cut the race thing already... my God.....all of you and everyone else...find Christ....
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By: roscoegino on 12/03/2008 12:23PM
It's unfortunate. When a white woman clutches her purse or acts nervous around us, I can't alaways blame them. It's not always racism per se. Many of them are plain scared or tramatized. The niggerism needs to die so black folks can take over.
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By: Angela McCord on 12/03/2008 1:21PM
I think it's sad that he's a black man but remember our color is just a shell. If you took away the shell
what kind of sprit would you see. The ture colors are
on the inside colors of good and evil. Stright up criminal he's nothing more than that, the worst kind infact. What kind of parents does he have? How was he raised ,because these kind of criminals are made nodout.
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