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Does Skin Colour Factor in to Media Coverage of Mass Shootings?

There were two shootings this past weekend. Which one did you hear about?

By Gayla BerPublished 5 years ago 4 min read
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There were two mass shootings in the United States this past weekend. Each on opposite ends of the country. On Saturday, there was a shooting in the Brownsville area of Brooklyn during an event called “Oldtimers’ Day.”

On Sunday there was a mass shooting in Gilroy, California—just south of San Francisco—at a garlic festival.

Admittedly, it wasn’t until a friend of mine posted about the Brownsville shooting and the California shooting that I even heard there had been a shooting—let alone two.

My friend’s lament, rightfully so, was that her timeline was filled with people worried about others in California. There were safety check-ins. The usual useless “thoughts and prayers” for the victims of the California shooting.

Twelve people were injured in the shooting in California. Three people died. The oldest was 17. The youngest was six. The gunman was 19.

A senseless loss of life indeed.

But what about Brownsville? What was it about this shooting that made it so we heard nearly nothing about it?

In Brownsville, though 11 people were injured, one seriously, only one person died. And he was 38. Is that why Brownsville didn’t get as much coverage? Because the victim was older than the three victims, even if you add up their ages?

At this point I feel like I should divulge something. I’m white. I see crime—any type—through a very different lens than my friend does. I’ll also admit (at the risk of backlash) that sometimes, in my younger days, I was more judgmental. But I’ll also admit that I didn’t look into things the way I do now. And news wasn’t instantaneous when I was growing up. So it’s partially an excuse and partially a reason why I didn’t understand it even try to understand what was happening.

Now, with the multitude of shootings in the US lately, with the Black Lives Matter movement that spawned from the senseless killing of Eric Gardner, and the fact that probably eight out of ten shooting in the past 10 years were perpetrated BY white people ON people of colour, I look at gun violence with a very different lens than I used to. But that’s besides the point.

I had to ask my friend, what type of neighbourhood is Brownsville? See, not only am I white, I also live in Ontario, Canada. I don’t know Gilroy any better than I know Brownsville. But I already had a theory in mind when I saw my friend’s post, and she confirmed what I was thinking. I wasn’t judging the neighbourhood. I wasn’t looking at it as “of course there was a shooting. It’s a black neighbourhood.” My first thought when my friend talked about it was “we didn’t hear about it because it’s a black neighbourhood. And mainstream media expects black people to get killed.”

Indeed, Brownsville is a predominately black neighbourhood and already she was hearing that it was written off as gang violence.

Why?

ABC News describes the neighbourhood as “dangerous” on their website, then backtracks just a bit by saying crime has declined in recent decades. Right before quoting stats of recent crimes.

Was the Brownsville shooting gang related? Who cares? Honestly? Who cares if it was gang related? Why do we write off crime against black people as being gang related? This shooting occurred at a festival, a peaceful event where the neighbourhood gets together to celebrate.

And eleven people were shot or otherwise injured. And one man is dead. THAT needs to be the focus. This shooting should have made the headlines this weekend. In fact, I shouldn’t have had to read nearly the entire article about the Brownsville shooting before learning the victim’s name. The Gilroy coverage opens with the name of one of the victims, who happens to be Latino. So why is Brownsville written off as gang violence but Gilroy isn’t? Certain circles seem to think that those of Latino descent are gang members (no thanks to the current administration). So why are “thoughts and prayers” and safety check ins being spread across Facebook, but Brownsville gets so much less coverage?

We have to do better. Loss of life is loss of life. Brownsville deserves better. America deserves better.

opinion
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About the Creator

Gayla Ber

Writing is a bit of a passion for me. I enjoy sharing ideas and opinions. I'm not afraid to engage in conversation that contradicts my opinion, but I fight on the side of science.

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