FourIsCompany
Posted : 3/14/2008 9:59:23 AM
cc431
"Trashing the memory" of Natalee
I don't see how he "trashes" her memory or "disses" her. His statement: "One 18-year-old white girl from Alabama gets drunk on a graduation
trip to Aruba, goes off and 'gives it up' while in a foreign country,
and that stays in the news for months!"
In fact, she was 18, white, got very drunk (and there are many indications that she also used drugs), willingly had sex with at least one boy and it was in the news for months. Where's the "trashing"?
And the point he's making is that victims who are black women don't make the news.
Black and White Women in the News
Runaway Bride (Jennifer Wilbanks)
Laci Peterson
Chandra Levy
Ever heard of Tamika Houston?
Race and Class in the Media
According to FBI statistics, African-Americans and other minorities
make up a larger portion of missing victims than the media represents.
However, cases like Huston's often get little attention.
As regards being to blame for 9/11, the 9/11 attacks were not justified,
but they were understandable because of the imperialistic behavior of
the United States toward middle eastern countries for over half a
century. There is a huge amount of understandable anger on the part of
the general population of those countries toward the US. A classic
example of this imperialistic behavior was the CIA-sponsored overthrow
of Mohammad Mosaddeq, the democratically-elected leader of Iran in the
early 50s, because of his plans to nationalize the Iranian petroleum
industry. Add to that, our propensity to prop up and support extremely
oppressive regimes so we can get oil for cheap and our meddling in
"free" elections, it is to me and many, not a huge surprise that
somebody would get angry enough to do something serious enough to take
the US down a notch.
I'm not saying it's right. I'm saying it's
understandable. You can't treat somebody like that for years and years and then
act all innocent when they strike back.
And, I don't know about anyone else, but I see a big difference between a person bringing up racism in news coverage and suggesting that the US may have some responsibility for the way other countries feel about us (which is an opinion many people hold) and another saying that we need to make a preemptive strike that will bring on Armageddon... In my mind, there's a huge and important difference.