The New York Times recently posted an article about how racism is resulting in white people sending police after people of color. They provide several examples of this behavior. In each incident, the entirety of evidence of a racist motive comes down to the skin color of the people involved.
One high profile example was when a black college student fell asleep in a dorm's common room. A white student called the police. The reason this story has stood out to me is that all of the articles I have seen about this incident put race into the headlines. None of the articles provided any evidence that race was a factor.
Falling asleep is definitely a flimsy excuse for involving the police. I can certainly see that it could be due to racism. On the other hand, I can't rule out the possibility that the student who called the police doesn't take much before taking legal action.
I want to make one thing clear. It is entirely possible that every instance provided by the Times could have reflected legitimate racism. In a country of over three hundred million people, it is absurd to think that every single one is free of racist tendencies. With the rise of social media, six examples should be very easy to find. The six examples could all be legitimately racial, even though there is no evidence to back the claim.
The primary issue that I have with the Times article is that it assigns guilt based off of nothing but skin color. If someone who is white does anything questionable to a person of color, that is deemed sufficient proof of racist intent. The media is influential. If they establish that skin color is proof of racism, their readers of color are more likely to view any questionable act against them as racist.
The article includes one of the worst stats out there in regards to race relations. Half of the African-Americans who participated in a survey said they had personally experienced racial discrimination in police interactions. When the media convinces people that everything has to be due to race, of course most African-Americans will feel that race is a factor in such interactions.
What happens if we reverse skin colors in the stories being presented? Do these incidents happen? Without knowing anything meaningful about the people involved, I see no way for us to really know.
If these incidents would have happened with these reversed roles, how would these incidents have been viewed? If a black person called the police on a white person who fell asleep, there would be no assumptions made about racism. The media would not have covered the story.
If the media really wants people to stop racial discrimination, then they really should stop telling people to make assumptions solely on the basis of race. These kinds of articles aren't doing anybody any good. They promote racial division and fail to prove their own points. Racism still exists. Why do they have to fight it by promoting racial division?
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