Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!psuvm!auvm!BROWNVM!ST501649 From: ST501649@BROWNVM.BITNET (David Ascher) Newsgroups: bit.listserv.politics Subject: Re: Racial Phobia? Message-ID: <90041.1814.ST501649@BROWNVM> Date: 10 Feb 90 18:14:05 GMT Sender: Forum for the Discussion of Politics Reply-To: Forum for the Discussion of Politics Lines: 49 Approved: NETNEWS@AUVM Gateway >From: Ken Miller > > [.. lots of stuff deleted, for net.bandwith reasons..] > > No, the media doesn't ignore white attacks on blacks. In fact, >when one occurs (Howard Beach!) it is immediate news. The other day, Bob Zellner, a civil rights activist who was one of the first members of the SNIC staff in the early 60's, came to Brown and gave a talk after a showing of the movie "Mississippi Burning". One statement he made is relevant to this discussion. Since I didn't tape him, I'll have to paraphrase from memory. Also, consider me responsible for these statements, not him. Basically, he reminded us that when an extreme-right white supremacist group bombs a few houses, kills a federal officer, kills a talk-show host (oh how I wish I had the exact references), it gets in the NYT at page 17, or 35 (those were maybe not the numbers he gave. =). If the criminals had been black, it would have made the first page, 5 columns wide. This is an "if" statement, but I agree with it. American society has an incredible amount of tolerance for intolerance, "because it's always been there". "oh, sure, the KKK is bad, but they're not doing anything as bad as they used to, and you know, they've always been there. And they always will be [(!)]". The same isn't said of Black violent movements. The media (Howard Beach case) grabs the attention of a case if it has the power to grip people. If it's a group of "normal" whites attacking a black man, or if it's an organized group of black fanatics, then it is news, because it doesn't happen often. Fact is, white supremacist groups, the KKK, the american version of skinheads, all are active frequently. The reason they don't get talked about so often? I suspect editors etc. more frequently think "nobody will want to read about that" or "yet again? Oh, find something else!" than "hey, i like what they're doing". However, the results are the same. Re: brown attacks: I disagree with Ken Miller that the media didn't take the issue strongly enough. Personally, I witnessed something akin to paranoia around the Brown campus. The BDH interviewed students who said they were carrying guns to protect themselves. I thought (and still do) that the attacks, although worrysome, were the result of a very limited group of attackers. Discretion and a thorough police investigation were probably the only way to deal with it. A big media hype would raise the level of panic and possibly create a racist backlash, without any constructive results. rambling once again... --david