On the same day (Thursday) that some conservatives continued to debate if “systemic racism” even existed, the New York Times apologized for running a column by a Republican senator.
Sen. Tom Cotton’s “Send in the troops” opinion piece proposed that federal military forces should be deployed to reinforce local law enforcement to stop the recent nationwide rioting.
A recent Morning Consult poll predictably found that more conservatives (75%) than liberals (40%) supported military action in the streets, but an overall majority (58%) also supported it. Over a third of African Americans (37%) endorsed the idea.
Clearly, this is an issue worthy of discussion.
But after New York Times staffers publicly denounced the opinion piece and subscribers complained en masse, editors began apologizing for running the column, saying that in retrospect, it didn’t meet their “standards.”
This is true, because the typical standards of the New York Times are to adhere to left-wing bias in order to serve their primarily liberal customer base, even if its editors, writers, and readers don’t see it that way.
The people who run, read, or watch the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, and a host of other news sources would no doubt tell you their beloved outlets don’t lean liberal, and that each works diligently to deliver objective news.
Conservatives know better.
Black Americans also know better than to listen to white people when they try to tell them systemic racism doesn’t exist.
As countless people march in the streets of major cities to protest the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, and more broadly, the problem of police brutality against minorities, some prominent voices have concluded their grievance is simply made up.
Black Americans disagree.
A Yahoo News/YouGov poll published Sunday revealed that a whopping 94% of blacks believe they are treated worse than whites by the criminal justice system, and 57% of whites agreed with them.
About 91% of blacks thought the police treated whites better than them, and 63% of whites agreed. When asked if incidents in recent years of blacks dying at the hands of police were part of a broader problem, 75% of blacks agreed, while 57% of whites agreed.
Obviously, there is widespread perception among black communities that they are viewed as “less than” in the eyes of the law and those who enforce it. Whites mostly agree with that perception, according to this poll, and there are data to support its veracity.
From 2014-2015, Northeastern University and Harvard University researchers analyzed fatal shootings by police in 27 states. Among those “unarmed and appeared to show no objective threat to police, nearly two-thirds of the victims were Hispanic or Black.”
A 2017 NAACP study analyzing complaints against the North Charleston Police Department in South Carolina revealed that “NCPD sustained complaints filed by black residents only 31 percent of the time compared to sustaining complaints filed by White residents 50 percent of the time.” The North Charleston Police Department used to employ Michael Slager, a former police officer who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for shooting African American Walter Scott in the back as he ran away.
A 2013 study showed that federal data revealed black marijuana users were four times more likely to be arrested for possession than white pot smokers, though both groups used the drug at roughly the same rate.
I could fill a dozen columns with other similar numbers showing similar results, but that’s enough data.
Someone could, and people often do, present alternative stats in efforts to dispel the numbers shared here, just as I’m sure the New York Times and other news outlets could provide some sort of analysis or editorial process presentations they believe would acquit them of bias.
But either African Americans are largely right about the bias shown against them by those in charge, as well as conservatives are correct about the media favoring the other side of the ideological spectrum, or both groups are just suffering from mass delusion.
The latter is not probable. Common sense tells us both groups’ cumulative experiences are probably indicative of something worth considering.
Republican Sen. Tim Scott said about his own black experience in 2016, “While I thank God that I have not endured bodily harm, I have felt the pressure applied by the scales of justice when they are slanted. I have felt the anger, the frustration, the sadness, and the humiliation that comes from feeling that you are being targeted for nothing more than being just yourself.”
All lives matter. But life as a black American in the United States is a different and often perilous experience that more people, of all stripes, should seek to understand.
