Fish Food
(A Sprinkling of Things We Thought You Ought to Know…)
Oh no they didn’t — Expect backlash from this one. The Root wants to know why conservatives in the media are focused on “black-on-black” violence as opposed to, say, “white-on-white” crime. They call this a “false media narrative” and point to a statistic recently shared by conservative columnist George Will on ABC’s “This Week” program. He said that every week 150 black men are killed — 94 percent by other black men. The headline of the piece: “Don’t White People Kill Each Other, Too?” The author, an author, columnist and MSNBC Political Analyst, says the term “black-on-black” is destructive and cites a stat from the Justice Department that says that 84 percent of white people killed each year are by other whites: “The half-truth he spoke went curiously unchallenged by the panel — including former White House adviser Van Jones — largely because the meta-narrative of black-on-black violence is widely accepted in journalistic and political circles.” The author’s conclusion: “It seems that the media in general and white American society in particular prefer to focus on crime perpetrated by African Americans because it serves as a way to absolve them from the violence, prejudice and institutionalized discrimination engendered for generations against blacks.” Read here.
Is WaPo “She the People” blogger just asking for trouble? — In a new post by Bonnie Goldstein, she skirts around a topic sure to rile some readers — namely, the issue of whether the Santorums should have had Bella in the first place. She never comes out and boldly says it. If she was going there, why not just go there? Instead she writes, “The little girl’s parents knew when she was still in utero that she would have serious developmental and physical disabilities. They nevertheless welcomed her joyfully despite having many other children to raise and not unlimited resources.” She also insinuates that Santorum hitting the campaign trail has affected the girl’s health. Again, gingerly broaching what could be dangerous territory without really fully going there. Read the rest here.
New book to hit the shelves… PBS’ and PRI’s Tavis Smiley and Professor Cornel West are out with their first co-authored book together, The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto out in stores, Tuesday, April 17. They will appear in Washington on April 17 as part of their 10-city book tour. On April 22, West will also speak at Howard University. On April 16, Google will host a special The Rich and the Rest of Us online chat LIVE from Google Headquarters, 12 p.m.–1 p.m. PT. To watch, visit: www.youtube.com/live.
President Obama makes funny monster faces…See BuzzFeed’s picture spread here.
