We're obsessed when it's White women in trouble

[valet]

Opinion: Why do we care more when white women are in peril? - CNN.com

(CNN) -- Our country is obsessed with the perils of attractive young white women, as this week's trio of high profile crime stories about Amanda Knox, Jodi Arias and the Cleveland kidnapping victims demonstrates. We don't see breathless coverage of the disproportionately large number of African-American men tried for crimes in our system. We see almost no coverage of missing boys, or missing children of color, or crimes against nonwhites.

This week an African-American man in Mississippi, Willie Manning, was about to be executed, though he was denied access to DNA testing. Manning, convicted of murdering two college students in 1994, maintains his innocence and requested the scientific testing, which has exonerated many convicted murderers, including some on death row.

The Mississippi Supreme Court denied that request and ordered his execution. At the last moment, U.S. Justice Department letters tipped the balance in favor of a reprieve. Few media outlets considered the monumental constitutional issues, or even the dramatic ticking clock toward his execution, worthy of mention.
Isn't the fact that we still execute Americans without giving them access to DNA testing a stunning, significant story? Yet it got next to no attention.

Instead, in the last week thousands of hours of attention have been devoted to every detail of just three crime stories.
In Phoenix, Arizona, Jodi Arias (whose father is Latino) was convicted Wednesday of first degree murder, after the jury unanimously found that she intentionally and with premeditation killed her former boyfriend, Travis Alexander. The trial was covered live on HLN and followed closely on social media and other television networks. The next phase of the trial is scheduled to begin May 15.

In Cleveland, Ohio, Amanda Berry reportedly screamed for help, a neighbor came to her aid, and she, her 6-year-old daughter, and two women, Gina DeJesus (who is Latina) and Michelle Knight were freed after a decade of captivity. Ariel Castro was charged today with kidnapping and rape.

Amanda Knox, the American college student who was convicted, then acquitted of the murder of her roommate in Italy, has given tearful interviews in connection with her book tour, as an Italian court has reversed again and held that she should stand trial again for the charges.
Each of these cases includes salacious allegations and high-stakes outcomes. The Cleveland victims were reportedly raped and beaten countless times over the years. Amanda Knox is accused of killing her roommate as part of a drug-fueled sex game. Jodi Arias posed nude for photos and had sex with her victim just before she murdered him.
While each of these crime stories is worthy of news coverage -- especially the Cleveland story, which involved serious questions of alleged law enforcement lapses -- many others are equally worthy yet receive little or no attention, even as every detail of the high-profile stories is pored over and rehashed.

Missing children websites carry pictures of many African-American and Latino kids who have disappeared, and photos of little boys who have vanished. News outlets rarely feature their stories. Their families grieve their absence and yearn for media coverage that could help find their children and energize law enforcement.
And the biggest American crime story of all receives the least mention: that we now incarcerate more of our own people than any other country on earth, or in human history, and that minority males are disproportionately policed, arrested and convicted, and sentenced to harsher sentences. African-American juveniles are six times as likely as whites to be sentenced to prison for identical crimes.

In Washington, three out of every four black men can expect some time behind bars in their lifetimes. In Baltimore and Chicago, the majority of young black men are currently under the control of the criminal justice system. In sheer numbers, more African-Americans are under correctional control today than were enslaved at the time of the Civil War. Our disastrous war on drugs has devastated inner-city communities, and led to large numbers of African-Americans being legally barred from voting, jury duty, public housing, food stamps, student loans, and many other civic rights and benefits, often for life.

We cannot fix these problems if we are unaware of them. We cannot get a groundswell for reform if we are distracted by titillating outlier stories.
The media choose which stories to make high profile, driven by public interest in those stories. We cannot call ourselves a nation of equals until we pay equal attention to all those in our criminal justice system whose stories merit our attention, regardless of their race or gender.

 

[valet]

That's crazy how that Jodi Arias chick looks less attractive in court. Look at this pic compared to how she looks on CNN. I haven't paid attention to the trial.

 

[Strapped]

Preach on mayne

 

[radio rahiem]

Funny this is coming from CNN who is one of the biggest culprit

 

[Bondye Vodou]

jodi arias has such an innocent face, smh

 

[daze23]

then don't be. I understand the media and blah blah blah, but at some point it's on you to decide what you care about

 

[Sensitive Blake Griffin]

we gotta protect our white womenz yall.

 

[Blackking]

White women put themselves in some bad positions...

I mean that in two ways.. but really it's just the white controlled media that hypes it up.... plus black girls are either put in the trunk dead (at least around these parts) Or don't act retarded for years and they simply escape and get on w their life.

 

[Poppa_Dock]

this like asking why a rain storm that wiped out a bridge would get more attention than just a simple rain storm.

 

[PhonZhi]

white is "pure" its a novelty when their associated with evil activities.

 

[DerrtySouthpaw]

im pretty sure they made jodi arias look like a librarian on purpose. them nikkas aint slick

 

[Street Knowledge]

[ame=http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eIM1gU_T2RQ]Patrice O Neal on missing white woman - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Mandarin Duck]

The media reports on what appeals to the masses. It's all about connecting to the audience and making it relatable . America wants to be able to look at a story and say "hey that could be me, my sister, my daughter etc". They're just giving the sheep what they want

 

[jwinfield]

That's crazy how that Jodi Arias chick looks less attractive in court. Look at this pic compared to how she looks on CNN. I haven't paid attention to the trial.

im pretty sure they made jodi arias look like a librarian on purpose. them nikkas aint slick

Yup. Their defense was that dude abused her, he was a sexual deviant, he snapped one day and she had to kill him in self defense.

She goes up to the stand and makes everyone in the courtroom go :favre: it's harder to see her as someone being forced into the kinky shyt dude wanted.

She goes up there with brown hair, no makeup, glasses, clothes that reveal nothing, we feel sorry for her, it's easy to imagine her being forced to do something she didn't want to do.

 

[the mechanic]

Its simply because white women are the classic archetype of the damsel in distress...it does them a great disservice in other aspects like trying to work in male oriented fields but its a huge advantage for them in the legal system