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Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
Maybe the police are trying to downplay the racial angle of the attack to avoid ratcheting up the racial tension in the country. But seriously, if four white people kidnapped a disabled black man, tortured him, and made him drink toilet water while shouting "F*** n****rs!" and "F*** Obama!" is there any doubt this would be treated as a hate crime? Or that it would be getting far, far more media coverage, including dozens of columns and guest panels questioning what has gone wrong with America?
It's not as though the racist right-wing media aren't picking up this story and running with it anyway. By downplaying or ignoring it (CNN omitted the racist comments made by the accused, and the story hasn't appeared at all in the Huffington Post or Globe and Mail) the media is only betraying how partisan they've become. In their death-throes, the mainstream media have become indistinguishable from the polarized and blatantly biased amateurs who they hold in contempt. It's sad.
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It is sad, because it isn't helping at all.
It will only continue to make things worse if media outlets omit facts like this. You know what would actually help race relations? If incidents like this were treated parallel to other white vs. minority violence.
When you continue to marginalize certain groups with accusations like "privilege", this is the type result you get, because now one group views another group as "lesser" than them or stealing what is rightfully theirs. So they use it as justification for their actions.
Equality is the way forward and will be the only way to heal damaged relations. It starts with charging people like this with hate crimes and not minimizing it.