New Jersey Mall fight Reminds us that Racism (and Colorism?) is Still a Thing.
In more ways than one….
“It doesn’t take two cops to hold a 14-year-old boy down who’s not resisting, while the other boy is just kind of going free and still going off on my son. It just doesn’t make sense,” she said.
— Eboné
I was sitting at home minding my own business, when reality just came barging in, completely uninvited.
The news explained that yet another racist incident has happened in New Jersey, this time involving two teenagers.
It amazes me that some police around the United States still want to act like the whole George Floyd and Breanna Taylor incidents didn’t happen. Like we didn’t spend 2020 fighting the corona virus and police racism simultaneously.
Some interesting things about this story are how the media covers it.
First, I’m trying to understand why NBCNews has identified the name of the black teen and his mother, but the “white teen” (and we will get to why I’m using air quotes in a second) is not identified. Why? That is not good. Black people have been complaining for a long time about how black people will be identified in the media, while white identities are protected even when committing the same crimes. Yet, here goes NBC doing exactly that in a news report about racism!
It would be one thing if this was a little rinky dink news outlet, but NBCNews.com? Ya’ll know better.
Now I’ve read 3 different reports about this incident, and they are all three describing the “white” kid differently.
NBCNews.com describes him as white, another report I read describes him as “light skinned” and a 3rd refers to him as a “white passing Latino.”
This kid is getting less and less white by the minute! WOW!
Let’s stay focused, ya’ll. Whether he was white or light skinned, what the hell were those officers thinking?
As someone whose child is a black teenager, this kind of thing is disturbing. It’s the reality that he will still be treated differently in society than his white counter parts. Even post marching and rioting, and constantly calling attention to the issue in the media, things haven’t changed much.
All right, ya’ll let me know what you think, positive or negative. Let’s have it!
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