Bush Making Big Return To White House
Annette Insdorf: The Central Park Five Premieres in Cannes
My best friend Greg was shot in the head in 1996, nearly the same time the rapper Tupac Shakur was murdered. Greg was a good man and a good father but he was also a black man, which made his murder seem typical. The media didn't find much interest in my friend's death. His story was covered in the back of the newspaper, in print small enough to be a low-budget classified ad.
The same week, a white mother of three in the same city (Louisville) was murdered on her way to a bank in the suburbs. Her murder was, for several days, the lead story on every TV channel, radio station and newspaper. There was a $25,000 reward issued for information leading to a break in the case. The police held regular press conferences announcing that they wouldn't sleep until the killer was found.
The good people of Kentucky were going to protect their damsel in distress at all cost. The entire city had become a group of Nancy Grace clones, obsessing over every nook and cranny of the case, crying for the woman's orphaned children and holding candlelight vigils. None of this was done for my best friend's daughter, since her daddy's death was just not all that intriguing.
My friend Greg was "only" another dead black man. His daughter, Jasmine, was just another fatherless black girl. In the eyes of the media, her suffering was not as important as that of the little angels from the suburbs who'd tragically lost their mother.
I thought about Greg when reading about the case of Bonnie Sweeten, the Philadelphia woman who claimed she and her daughter were abducted by two black men. Turns out that she wasn't abducted at all: she'd taken a trip to Disney World.
The Bonnie Sweeten debacle reminds us of the case of Charles Stuart in 1990. Stuart, a Boston resident, murdered his pregnant wife and said that a black man was the perpetrator. For weeks, black men were victims of tremendous persecution on the part of local police They were strip searched, taken into custody and humiliated in front of their families. That story was also fabricated.
Photo: AP
Sweeten's sweet little lie makes us ask the following questions:
1) Why is the public so quick to believe it when black men are blamed for violent crimes? Black males are six times more likely to be incarcerated when arrested, even when they commit the same crimes as whites. In the cases of those men who are innocent, one only wonders if the justice system is also swayed by the very same stereotypes that made the public believe that two black men kidnapped Sweeten and her daughter.
"Ever since Susan Smith, it has been fashionable for white women accused of crimes to blame it on black men," says Dr. Christopher Metzler, author of 'The Construction and Re-articulation of Race'. "We hardly live in a post-racial society."
2) Why does the media zoom in on such cases more frequently than when black families are victimized? There are a shocking number of child murders taking place in Chicago right now, but the murders are receiving very little national media attention. If these children were not black, chances are that the media would be all over this epidemic. Does the blonde damsel in distress always get more attention than she deserves?
"Despite her mental illness, Sweeten had a clear understanding of two key components to a national tragedy: distressed white woman and violent black assailants," says Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, a Columbia University professor. "The public's deep interest in rescuing white women in distress stands in sharp contrast to the black women, like Latoya Figueroa from Philadelphia, whose abductions go unnoticed."
3) Perhaps we should not go overboard in our discussion of the racism inherent in this case? One must give law enforcement credit for doing a thorough enough investigation to determine that this woman was lying. Had this been another part of the country, say, the same location as the cases of Jamie and Gladys Scott, justice may not have been served. Although there is much work to do, not every police officer wants to incarcerate all black men.
The bottom line is this: It's clear that Sweeten needs psychiatric help. She is currently under investigation for allegedly stealing $300,000 from her former employer, and she hardly represents the typical white female. But we must become conscious of the fact that America overreacts when someone hurts a white woman and underreacts when the victim happens to be black. To think that this perceptive bias is not related to 400 years of racial conditioning would be silly. Nancy Grace and the rest of us must keep in mind that a black life is just as valuable as a white one, and perpetrators come in all ethnicities.
Michael Vick Update
A security guard wearing a shirt with the word "Support" and a photo of suspended NFL player Michael Vick moves traffic cones in front of Vick's home in Hampton, Va., Thursday, May 21, 2009. Vick was released from prison early Wednesday and arrived home Thursday morning. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
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A caravan of vehicles escorting the van carrying suspended NFL player Michael Vick arrives at his home in Hampton, Va., Thursday, May 21, 2009. Vick was released from prison early Wednesday. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
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A van carrying suspended NFL player Michael Vick arrives at his home in Hampton, Va., Thursday, May 21, 2009. Vick was released from prison early Wednesday. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
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Neighbors linger in front of the home of former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick in Hampton, Va., Thursday, May 21, 2009. Vick was released from prison early Wednesday and is due back at his home in Virginia for home confinement. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
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Members of the media stand in front of the home of former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick in Newport News, Va., Wednesday, May 20, 2009. Vick was released from prison early Wednesday and is due back at his home in Virginia for home confinement. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
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Members of the media stand in front of the home of former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick in Newport News, Va., Wednesday, May 20, 2009. Vick was released from prison early Wednesday and is due back at his home in Virginia for home confinement. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
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A private property sign is posted at the home of former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick in Newport News, Va., Wednesday, May 20, 2009. Vick was released from prison early Wednesday and is due back at his home in Virginia for home confinement. The suspended quarterback served 19 months in prison on the dogfighting conviction that capped one of the most astonishing falls in sports history, one that stole his wealth and popularity. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
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The media is camped out at the entrance to the home of former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick in Newport News, Va., Wednesday, May 20, 2009. Vick was released from prison early Wednesday and is due back at his home in Virginia for home confinement. The suspended quarterback served 19 months in prison on dogfighting conviction. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
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Nineteen month old London Vick points to an unidentified man, right, as she arrives at the home of her father, former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, in Newport News, Va., Wednesday, May 20, 2009. Michael Vick was released from prison early Wednesday and is due back at his home in Virginia for home confinement. The suspended quarterback served 19 months in prison on dogfighting conviction. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
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Former Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy speaks at a workshop for ex-offenders seeking jobs, in Indianapolis on Wednesday, May 13, 2009. Dungy is busier than ever, even though he's no longer coaching the Colts. In the past few weeks, he has met with former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick at a federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan., been involved with an education project in St. Louis and attended a Fellowship of Christian Athletes function for flood relief in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
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Dr Boyce Watkins is a Distinguished Scholar Affiliate at The Barbara Jordan Institute for Policy Research at Texas Southern University. He is also the author of 'What if George Bush were a Black Man?' For more information, please visit www.BoyceWatkins.com. To get Dr. Boyce commentary delivered directly to your email, please click here.
Comments: (196)
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By: lotus on 5/30/2009 4:45PM
PLEASE, JUST BE QUIET. JUST PLEASE.
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By: John Dailey on 5/28/2009 2:02PM
I notice that these fake reports -- what I call the "Scary-Black-Man" stories -- of helpless white women being attacked by black males are more easily detected by the police when there are black detectives working the case,either alone, or with white colleagues. This underscores the importance of blacks being adequately represented on the police force.
As an example, take the young white volunteer McCain worker in Pittsburgh last October, who reported being attacked by a mugger for having a "McCain" bumper sticker. Her white fellow campaign workers lapped the story up, as did the white press -- the chorus all shouting, "reverse discrimination". The black detective assigned to the case, however, was not so easily fooled. First of all, he reasoned, how many muggers give a shit about politics? Second, the supposed victim had claimed that her spiteful, and politically motivated, black attacker carved "BO" (for Barack Obama, presumably) on her face, "to teach the bitch a lesson". She was so dumb, however, that when she was working on herself in the mirror, she carved the letters backwards, as they appeared to her in the mirror!!! The detective got the girl back in the police station by telling her that they "needed her assistance to produce a police artist sketch of her attacker", and then grilled her. Her story fell apart in a few minutes.
The McCain campaign official, who had been so quick to scream "reverse discrimination", was predictably not at all contrite, saying merely, "we are sending this obviously disturbed young woman home to Texas, and hope she gets the treatment she needs." How's about the white campaign workers and gullible press getting the "treatment they need"?
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By: lotus on 5/30/2009 5:06PM
SOMETIMES THINGS THAT HAPPEN IS ABOUT MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE. AS I READ YOUR POST, I THOUGHT WHAT HATRED THAT PERSON HAD FOR OBAMA. ALSO, THE THINGS WE DO, HAVE A TENDANCY TO REFLECT ON THE GROUP OR PEOPLE WE ARE FROM. IN THIS CASE, SHE REFLECTS THE PURE UNADULTURATED RACISM THAT EXISTS IN MANY WHOM SHE REPRESENTS. THAT PERSON THAT CARVED THE INITIALS IN HER FACE, REPRESENTS THE EPITOMY OF ALL THAT IS EVIL, RACIST, TERRORIST, AND MENTALLY SICK IN HER CULTURE.
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By: jen on 5/28/2009 2:10PM
I can relate to Dr. Waltkins, my brother was killed in Memphis, the police stated that He was victim of a apparent robbery, no one has been identified as a suspect, My brother was a hard working young man that would give you the shirt off his back, I did not want people to just see this as another typical black man getting shot down in the streets,there are so many people getting gunned down and there is never a ideal of what kind of person they are, sadly many are productive citizens that have lived a good honest life and there loss is overwhelming! I wish the police and media would give the same attention to those that are of color, I know without the shadow of a doubt they might escape the law of the land but they will not escape God's judgement.
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By: debbie on 5/28/2009 2:15PM
It is a terrible thing when people lie about a violent crime. As far as color goes that can go either way. Atleast this womwn had a psych. problem.I distinctly recall a very well publicized story of a black girl being taken not only by a group of white men,but very prominent white men whose names were given.Everyone was in an uproar.Turns out to be false!It was Twana Browley+Al Sharpton.The official liar and troublemaker of the century. Everyone went on a hunt to find those people and charge them.Nothing happened to either one of these liars,even though this girl did a lot of damage to their lives.So I guess maybe the truth is sometimes things don't always go the way we want,and what we call injustice doesn't seem it to everyone.
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By: shanika on 8/04/2010 7:48AM
THANK YOU FOR MENTIONING THIS! Al Sharpton is a racist and a crook. He got off way to easy with this one. Excellent point.
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By: Ronnie Simone on 5/29/2009 11:34AM
I'm a Outreach specialist for SAMSHA @ The Wright House Wellness Center IN Austin Texas and over half of the popuplation in Travis county (african American Popublation) that i deal with on incarerated and when relesead there is nothing to referal them to and the field of HIV pervention is even worse how i know i'm in the field and also a client
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By: Yvette on 5/28/2009 3:09PM
I too am so sick of whites always falsely accusing black men for the crap they do. I have to disagree with you that "Bonnie Sweeten needs psychiatric help". The heifer was well aware of what she was doing and she couldn't be that mentally ill if she could come up with a way to embezzle over $300,000 before getting caught. Let that had been a black person who had fabricated such a story and stole money, see if mental illness would have been even considered in the equation. The heifer need to be arrested and jailed just like anyone else.
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By: Blackyacht on 5/28/2009 3:00PM
At my age all I can say is "It never changes"...It was like this than and now...I was in Boston for the Charles Stuart incident and it passed with nothing real done concerning the tactics used...Now its 19 years later and there's another incident which I'm sure will go the same way....Again I say "It never changes" and add "Only in America" I'm really tired of it,,,really...
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By: JS on 5/28/2009 3:13PM
the FACT is and the DIFFERENCE is that the white woman was heading to thebank, an innocent bystander so to speak, she was murdered. Now you freiend...let's be HONEST..tellus the circumstances of his shooting in the head...just a GUESS to say he was probably not as innocent as the woman on the way tot he bank...you act like this ISNT real...the FACT is that if a black guy gets sho tin the head in a city chances are -not always, but usually- he was involved in something...hard to say that the average black male that is shot is "innocent"..it sucks that i tis that way, but that IS the way it is...
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