Casey Anthony

I read an article about the Casey Anthony trial from the newspaper the Afro entitled, “What if Casey Anthony had been hispanic, asian or black”, highlighting the inconsistencies in ethnic and class media coverage. The writer of the article questions if the trial of Caylee’s murder garnering so much attention if it were under the pretext of another racial group. The interesting thing they pointed out was that unlike the JonBenet Ramsey case of the 1990’s, Anthony lacked “wealth, celebrity and good looks”, rather, they were simply an ordinary family with a child the victim of an evil deed. These cases usually involve a white, typically middle class, but not upper middle class female said the reporter. An unfortunate truth of the world is that media coverage and other common occurrences are seen through a blinder that equate white with good, black with bad; young is good, old is bad.

According to unknownnews.net 200,000 cases go unsolved a year in the United states, the average growing by 6,000 ever year that follows. I suppose in support of these claims, I couldn’t find a statistic enumerating the amount of unsolved cases specifically for minority victims. I think that, almost like in rape cases, the victim is blamed for dressing sluttaciously, inviting the predator to have their way with the person, or having been in a place that by nature may have potentially dangerous consequences by simply being there. The same with minority victims. If there is a case for instance a teenager who in a fury kills his grandma and her kitten Beatrix, i feel that a white juvenile would have more leniency in the presses delivery of the case, probably blaming his parent’s recent divorce, the pressure they may have put on him to excel in school and extracurriculars, maybe his recent clinical depression and difficulty making friends at school. Rather, the black youth is either characterized as having a past criminal record, that being a product of his environment is not an excuse; his destiny was always up to him to decide. Either that, or the report of the black youth would never had made it to the media.

The deviance of whites is apparently made to be an oddity, and worthy of report. The minority crime though, is a natural, expected part of life, the way things have been always will be the way we can always count on FOX news doing their thing or Sarah Palin finding it difficult to make relevant, coherent statements. These gatekeepers in the media are changing the we think effectively; until recently, I usually sympathized with the skewed stories of the white criminals because it wasn’t they're character to act as such. Then I see shows like Gangland and Jail with predominately black criminals, and I feel ashamed at times, “knowing” my people simply can’t learn to cope with tribulations differently. This gatekeeping is simultaneously preserving and defining whiteness as understood by virtually every American. Job well done gatekeepers, I’ll admit you’ve had be going for quite sometime now but I’ve certainly caught on.