Liked this report, because it shows that white journalists can learn how to cover white racism properly, even with “objectivity.” 🙂 He started with the right questions.
ANDREA MITCHELL:
Thank you so much, Governor Nixon, from Missouri. While the events in Ferguson this week have certainly shocked the nation, focusing renewed attention on the nation’s disparity that still exists in our justice system. Our Kevin Tibbles takes a closer look at that situation.
(BEGIN TAPE)
KEVIN TIBBLES:
A week of unrest and racial tension. In today’s America, black men are six times more likely to be incarcerated than white men. Prison sentences for black men are 20% longer than those for whites convicted of the same crime. And on average, 100 black people are killed each year by white police officers.
JAMES CLARK:
They had to get America’s attention. They had to get America to take notice of their pain.
KEVIN TIBBLES:
James Clark is a Saint Louis community activist who says he sees the disparity every day.
JAMES CLARK:
Crimes is going up. The perpetrators are now getting younger and younger. And there is a fundamental reason why, because they’re living in subcultures that mainstream, would rather act like it doesn’t exist.
KEVIN TIBBLES:
But they do exist. And some maintain there are two Americas, one white, one black. And they are not equal. Greg Howard is a columnist who was so outraged, he wrote an essay entitled America is Not For Black People.
GREG HOWARD:
We’re seeing so many black men killed by police officers because police officers don’t value black men’s life as they do that of white people. It’s physically easier for a police officer to weigh what a black man’s life is worth and to end up feeling what he’s justified in pulling the trigger.
KEVIN TIBBLES:
Heather McDonald strongly disagrees.
HEATHER MCDONALD:
I stand the opposite. The criminology profession has been trying for decades to prove that the over-representation of blacks in prison or in arrest statistic is a result of criminal justice racism. It is black crime rates that predict the presence of blacks in the criminal justice system. Not some miscarriage of justice.
KEVIN TIBBLES:
Still, in Ferguson, as in many other impoverished urban communities, the authorities are often seen as the enemy.
JAMES CLARK:
After the cameras leave, and after young Michael is buried, if we don’t reach into the neighborhoods, they’ll become more bold. They’ll become much more brazen.
KEVIN TIBBLES:
The death of a young man in suburban Saint Louis resonates across the nation. But will it encourage solutions or create further division? For Meet the Press, Kevin Tibbles.(END TAPE)