The Race Case

Obama said during the campaign that the Republicans would tell the public "he has a funny name-and did you notice, he's black." I never heard Republican candidates or indeed anyone in legitimate discourse mention race in this campaign. Race seems to be taboo in politics, policing, and most media. In a tony area of Nashville, there was a home invasion several days back. The local newscasts mentioned five(5) male assailants, their weapon, their vehicle, the vehicle they stole right down to color and license plate number, their style of dress, the two ATMs they made their three(3) victims withdraw money from-indeed almost every relevant detail, but they left out the most distinctive feature. The television reports did not state that the attackers were black. Only a giveaway newspaper declared this glaring omission. This failure by much of the press endangers the public. The same attitude prevailed with the media and more importantly with the authorities during the Washington, D.C. sniper case where witnesses had spoken of seeing two suspicious African-Americans at the scene of several shootings, but this information was suppressed from the public. After Ann Presley was brutally attacked in Little Rock, there was speculation in some national media quarters that the assault was committed by a right winger in retaliation for Presley's participation in Oliver Stone's latest film. An arrest was just made-allegedly Ann's murderer is a black guy.