Is race or should race be an important factor in interpreting the news?
August 23, 2010 by
Filed under Arab
Or better put accuracy in race and religion? For example Barak Obama is hailed as an African American running for President, but his mother was caucasian (she raised him as a single mother) and his run away father was from Africa. Cramer(Michael Richards) accused of racial slander was labeled in the press as Jewish; however, it was revealed that neither of his parents were Jewish, only that he had Jewish friends and “thought of himself” as Jewish by association. Finally, the death of a young black man in a police shooting incident in Queens NY was labeled racist; however all of the the police were either Arab-American,Black or Hispanic. Therefore, the argument could be made that race and religion have become irrelevant in these discussions, because the attempt to catagorize incidents as racial only leads to more confusion and possible bigotry.
just in case the person who answered didnt know caucasian is just another word for white and according to his website bio, Obama was raised by a single mom, not knowing his african father.
Race shouldn’t be a factor in interpreting the news. Also, Obama was raised by both his parents and his mom is white. Check his biography.
Ok I see where you are going with this…
This is a continuing subject for debate where both sides have a valid argument.
One side says that we need to mention race in situations like the police shooting to prevent the actual cases where discrimination did occur. IE, Rodney King.
The other side says that mentioning the race of a person especially when a crime has been committed, is in itself being racist.
Both have viable points.
PS Thought I would elaborate on why racism is examined when there is a wrongful police shooting even when the cops were of color. The reason is because when they say it was racist or involved race, they are not saying those specific cops were precisely racist. It is more of an overall unfair targeting of ppl, treatment, and opinion of ppl of color by the police.. .Get it? The ones that get shafter are poor whites because the police target, etc.. them just the same when they live in ‘bad’ neighborhoods.
It shouldn’t be but it frequently is.