I do agree that how we are perceived by the media does matter in some senses like you said how the word thug gets thrown around at black people vs white people. However I disagree with your sentiment in the above post that the riots were embarrassing. The riots weren't embarrassing because they brought out change by getting these charges on police officers. The news media and government officials weren't listening when the black people in baltimore were doing peaceful protesting. As Danielle Williams said on the ground of baltimore when they were doing peaceful protests,
Their voices weren't being heard and nothing was being done. At that point, appearance does not matter and sometimes violent force is necessary to bring attention to the unheard voices. You can't just be worried about how you are perceived to the point of immobility. The riots forced america and the news media to pay attention even if it did bring the negative opinions that painted protestors with a broad brush. It was a necessary evil because it brought about change.
I agree with you as well on not being passive to the point of immobility as yes violence is absolutely necessary at times. The problem I have with this situation is we'll never really know whether or not that indictment was going to come regardless. Places like Ferguson, you pretty much accept that the system will work to benefit the police. You expect a lack of transparency. However, as others have mentioned, with Baltimore, police picked the wrong city to attempt an okey-doke, but I'm not sure it's because of any rioting. There's a strong possibility that there was going to be charges regardless if even on the grounds of not securing him in the back of that van indicating negligence. Granted, I'm glad they're going to explore more possibilities that possibly lead to his death, but I don't think it's appropriate to give those rioters any credit. If anything they may have popped off unncecessarily in a preemptive manner and wrecked a whole a sh!t. In Baltimore there are significant Black faces in positions of power and one gets the impression that they're genuinely disgusted with what happened. I don't think that DA was faking this morning during that press conference. Her choice of verbiage, especially, "depraved heart murder" was pretty scathing and candid. I don't think her choice of words were the result of pressure from those that rioted. The mayor's disgust with those participating in the rioting came off as well like a sort of righteous indignation, almost like, "we're working on this please be patient."
As far as the media was concerned, there was decent coverage IMO on this story from a national perspective. I'm in PA, and was familiar with the story as I regularly keep abrest of what's going on and CNN was on this. It was almost as if CNN saw something coming and decided to be on top of it if not for braggin rights over the other media giants. Granted, I will say with some agreement on your point that it did bring about more discussion and solidarity with others people throughout the nation. Kinda reminded me of the Arab Spring in some respects. There is something inspiring about seeing Blacks on the same page nationally.
