I deplore racism in all forms. I realize that it is going to exist no matter how many laws we pass or how "woke" anyone gets. The good news is that for the most part, racism is socially unacceptable and is kind of something that if you feel hate towards another group of people, you better keep it to yourself because there is very little chance that people are going to jump up in support of you.
I realize that racism does, and likely will always exist in some people - you can't legislate away stupidity. However, I do believe that this world is significantly less racist than it has ever been in my lifetime.... and the media is likely not very happy about that.
You've probably already seen this story about Amari Allen, a student who attends a very prestigious private school in Virginia. She claimed that during recess that she was held down by white students as they said racist things to her and cut off her hair.
The media immediately jumped all over this because unfortunately, tales of racism get clicks and sell newspapers. There were "experts" on CNN for about 30 minutes while they took a break from bashing Trump and Brexit in order to inform us how white supremacy is running rampart in our school systems. I am sure it was just a coincidence that Vice President Mike Pence's wife teaches at this same school a couple times a week.
There was just one problem with the girl's story - it was all a lie. None of what she described actually happened and after the friggin police got involved and various hashtags trended on Twitter, she recanted her story a few days later.
Now, i don't want to get on a little kid's case for lying. 12 year old's lie... I did, you probably did, and the reason why this was made such a big deal is single-handedly the fault of the ravenous media. Journalists are supposed to verify information before presenting it as fact and I would be surprised if any news station actually does this anymore.
Before Amari came clean there were already calls for the 3 boys to be permanently removed from the school and for criminal charges to be pressed against them. What if the ball had gotten rolling on that?
When newspapers are wrong about something they are supposed to recant or amend their stories to reflect the truth. I was surprised the NYT actually did this but I don't think you need to look terribly closely to notice the difference between their original story and their follow-up story.
No mention of race and simply a picture of a school in the second picture. I would have preferred if race had never been introduced into the story in the first place but since the media so desperately wants race to be a factor in anything that happens they will run with really any race-oriented story.
While this little girl was definitely wrong to do what she did, the media is much much worse. Because they rushed to be the first to report something, no one bothered to verify whether or not the claims were actually true. In the future, if something like this genuinely happens, authorities are going to be reluctant to believe them out of fear that this is just another "cry wolf" situation.
That being the case, I don't think the world should come down on Amari too hard, she told a little lie... it's the evil, awful, lying media that made a mountain out of a molehill and in a time where around only 20% of Americans believe what is reported by the main stream media. It begs the question: Are they ever going to change their ways?
Get ready Amari: The people who make a living off of being anti-racism activists are going to come for you.... They are going to throw you under the bus and discard you when they are done.
I get frustrated because the media is supposed to be helping us but instead it they seem to want to make problems out of things that really aren't a problem. Does racism exist? Of course.... Is it everywhere and permeates every level of society? I don't think so and by creating it where it is not certainly doesn't help that situation.
Got any thoughts?