Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Race and Propaganda


When is a crime not a crime?

If the media fail to report it, the police refuse to investigate it and the prosecutors refuse to prosecute it, is it a crime?

On the other side of the question, if the media call it murder, the police say it was a crime, and the prosecutors issue an indictment, is it a crime?

In Virginia, when a group of blacks beat up two white journalists, the authorities ignored it. By ignoring it they must have believed that they could decriminalize it. 

Thomas Sowell explains:

When two white newspaper reporters for the Virginian-Pilot were driving through Norfolk, and were set upon and beaten by a mob of young blacks — beaten so badly that they had to take a week off from work — that might sound like news that should have been reported, at least by their own newspaper. But it wasn’t….

Similar episodes of unprovoked violence by young black gangs against white people chosen at random on beaches, in shopping malls, or in other public places have occurred in Philadelphia, New York, Denver, Chicago, Cleveland, Washington, Los Angeles, and other places across the country. Both the authorities and the media tend to try to sweep these episodes under the rug.

Sowell continues:

In Milwaukee, for example, an attack on whites at a public park a few years ago left many of the victims battered to the ground and bloody. But when the police arrived on the scene, it became clear that the authorities wanted to keep this quiet.

One 22-year-old woman, who had been robbed of her cell phone and debit card, and had blood streaming down her face, said, “About 20 of us stayed to give statements and make sure everyone was accounted for. The police wouldn’t listen to us, they wouldn’t take our names or statements. They told us to leave. It was completely infuriating.”

The police chief seemed determined to head off any suggestion that this was a racially motivated attack by saying that crime is color-blind. Officials elsewhere have said similar things.

The authorities have the best of intentions. They are trying not to incite racial violence. They want to promote social harmony and comity.

But then, when George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin, the authorities, led by the media, declared it to be a crime.

They told the world that a racist Zimmerman had hunted down and executed an innocent Trayvon Martin.

Of course, the interpretation fir with an historical narrative that the media hold to be dogmatic truth. In the past night riders did persecute and murder innocent blacks.

To the media and the public authorities, it’s still happening. And if it isn’t happening, it is good for the public to know that it still could happen.

In the case of Trayvon Martin no one thought twice about racial harmony. Media, police, prosecutors, and race hustlers were out in force calling for George Zimmerman’s head.

Conveniently, everyone forgot that Zimmerman was entitled to the presumption of innocence.

If we are to believe Alan Dershowitz, the prosecutor’s indictment of George Zimmerman for murder was a travesty.

By now, the public’s attention has moved elsewhere, so the facts are beginning to come out. This morning we read that, in his encounter with Trayvon Martin, Zimmerman had suffered a broken nose, two black eyes, and two lacerations on the back of this head.

We also learned that Martin’s knuckles had been bruised.

Eventually, the case will be decided in court, but, here again, we are increasingly living in a country where the media, the police, and prosecutors have taken it on themselves to create reality.

They believe that a crime is a crime when they say it’s a crime. When they say it isn’t a crime, it isn’t a crime.

Gone are the days when the media sought to report objective facts. Now the media has set itself the task of interpreting facts so that the public will be more likely to draw the conclusion that the media wants it to draw.

In the past this used to be called propaganda. It was the province of despots and demagogues.

Now, it has gone mainstream, even afflicting the criminal justice system.

Sowell recognizes that, when it comes to black-on-white violence, those in charge might have a good motive. They do not want to incite further violence.

In his words:

It may be understandable that some people want to head off such a catastrophe, either by not reporting the attacks in this race war, or by not identifying the race of those attacking, or by insisting that the attacks were not racially motivated — even when the attackers themselves voice anti-white invective as they laugh at their bleeding victims.

When these same authorities play up the racial side of the Trayvon Martin case, they are also using that case to de-criminalize any future black-on-white violence.

Sowell responds that when the authorities conspire to deny reality they make it impossible for anyone to deal with reality. They are trying to forestall a white backlash, but, in effect, are making it more likely.

In his words:

If and when that pressure leads to an explosion of white backlash, things could be a lot worse than if the truth had come out earlier, and steps taken by both black and white leaders to deal with the hoodlums and with those who inflame them.

When the public comes to believe that the criminal justice system has chosen to ignore a certain class of crimes, it might become more likely to take matters into its own hand.

On the other side, if blacks are relieved of responsibility for their actions, then they are being told that when they beat up a couple of reporters in Virginia or a soldier in Tampa, they are not committing crimes.

Sowell wonders whether blacks are being done a favor by being showered with so much empathy and understanding. Isn't it a bit patronizing?

He answers:

 …it is no favor to anyone who lags behind to turn their energies from the task of improving and advancing themselves to the task of lashing out at others.

Forcing the experience of African-Americans into a grievance narrative distracts them from the task at hand. It tells them that it is futile to work at improving and advancing because America will always see them as criminals.

To Sowell this ideology is inimical to the best interests of the black community. The media is not just lying about the black community; it is lying to the black community.

He concludes:

Those who automatically say that the social pathology of the ghetto is due to poverty, discrimination, and the like cannot explain why such pathology was far less prevalent in the 1950s, when poverty and discrimination were worse. But there were not nearly as many grievance mongers and race hustlers then.

9 comments:

n.n said...

It is a bitter irony that good intentions without accountability have served to corrupt individuals and society, the intended beneficiaries, the service providers, and advocates.

As for the propaganda, it has achieved exactly the opposite effect. This is entirely predictable and calls into question the motives of the individuals and cooperatives who support it.

It is a selective history, science, and reality. It is selective nonsense and it is punitive. I wonder how much longer Americans will tolerate it.

Comment Monster said...

When the Trayvon/Zinmerman case happened I thought Trayon was a victim and Zimmerman criminally overstepped. As the facts keep coming out, it looks like I rushed to judgment. Let the courts decide.

My wife and I are trained to carry. Zimmerman wasn't well-trained or he didn't pay attention in class and likely didn't practice. We thought he was wrong based on our distate for people who carry but aren't well-trained or who don't drill before they carry a gun outside their house.

I don't know how this case will turn out. But it's not just racist black people and those trying to get their votes clamoring for Zimmerman's head. I'm kind of pissed at him too for violating basic rules and common sense. But it's looking like he was justified. Two idiots collide and one survives.

Pete the Streak said...

I don't see anything specifically that makes him an idiot, but perhaps you're privy to more info than I.

It doesn't seem he was brandishing the weapon, and yelling movie lines; it seems he followed the guy, then got followed himself and attacked.

If anything, maybe he should have had the weapon out a bit quicker, but I doubt we'll ever know every detail.

I'm 56, been shooting since age 5, and been carrying for over 30 years. I just don't see the idiocy you're referring to.

Dennis said...

This was nothing more that a Sharpton "Twana Brawley" (sp?) moment. He saw the chance to be something he is not, a media hero and the man to go to for all things racial. Aided by a press that has become race hustlers. I have to agree with Pete. If anything Zimmerman waited too long.

Dennis said...

An Aside. At what point do people in New York see the NYTime as a as very poor example of reporting and so political driven that it dissembles and lies? What's it stock selling for, $5 plus a share? At least the market is indicating what its true value is? Talk about mind numbed robots.

Stuart Schneiderman said...

I consider this to be one of life's great mysteries-- most educated New Yorkers still read the Times and still think that it reports the news. The only bright sign is that more and more people, by my informal survey, are supplementing it with the Journal and even the NY Post.

Amazingly, even though most of the Times columnists are complete mediocrities... and people still think that they are deep thinkers.

Dennis said...

I used to go through the newspaper with a red pen and circle the words that had no value to the story or were meant to leave an impression that did not exist. Understand that I used to be a a number of these events. After a few times of doing this and seeing almost nothing except a bleeding red rag I suspected that maybe, just maybe something was horrible wrong in the "Media."
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me more than that and I may not being using my own intellect to seek the truth.
I note that the NYTimes is still pushing the race hustle even though the more evidence that comes out the less it flies. Calendar(sp) set the standard and the NYTimes has not strayed from it.

Malcolm said...

Here is another story you might find interesting


http://www.examiner.com/article/star-ledger-admits-to-censoring-race-savage-post-concert-mob-attacks

Comment Monster said...

@Pete the Streak

I'm going to defer to your view on it. More and more, it looks like you're right. Trayvon Martin deserved to get shot. Can't trust even basic facts anymore from the media.