An excellent piece by Morehouse College junior Jordan Jones on the Arurora, CO shootings and the racialization of national media coverage of crimes committed by blacks and whites. An excerpt from the piece, originally published in NextGen Journal:

I do not wish to pose some broad philosophical question that leaves you cross-eyed and pessimistic about the human race. Rather, I would like to point out that in this situation with James Holmes in Aurora, Colorado, there is a tendency, in order to understand the situation, to absolve Holmes from his actions because of his environment. To fault the “systems” that have gone awry that would make a young, white, male Ph.D student want to kill.

I think the problem lies, first, with the individuals who wish to do harm- but they have always existed. The problem further escalates when the “sane” part of society selectively chooses its tragedies and absolves the criminal because of his environment. I say this because 228 Chicago residents have been killed this year. I say this because I do not remember there being talk about “the flawed system” when African-American male Brian Nicholas killed four public officials in Atlanta. In his case, it was simply the shooter and the victim- or to put it bluntly, the villain and victim.

African-Americans have historically advocated for more diversity in newsroom, but have not made loud the call for more equitable coverage. We know that we can’t depend on most black advocacy organizations to take up the issue, so what better place than HBCU’s to start the dialog about media literacy and development?

Introducing… the National HBCU Media Summit….

Jordan Jones Morehouse College