Federal Judiciary

Black Murders Eight Whites; Media Blame Whites -- By: Dennis Prager

The title of this column seems unbelievable, but it is in fact what happened in America this past week. And almost no one has noticed.

After 50 years of being inundated with stories of white racism, and being taught in college that in this white-dominated society only a white can be a racist, the American public has been properly brainwashed into accepting the otherwise incredible: A black man murdered eight white people at his place of work because they were white, and the media story is about the murderer's alleged experiences of racism.

#ad#Here's the Associated Press report from August 7, four days after the murders. It was reprinted in the Washington Post and throughout America:

To those closest to him, Omar Thornton was caring, quiet and soft-spoken.#...#But underneath, Thornton seethed with a sense of racial injustice for years that culminated in a shooting rampage Tuesday in which the Connecticut man killed eight and wounded two others at his job at Hartford Distributors in Manchester before killing himself.

'I know what pushed him over the edge was all the racial stuff that was happening at work,' said his girlfriend, Kristi Hannah.

'He always felt like he was being discriminated [against] because he was black,' said Jessica Anne Brocuglio, his former girlfriend. 'Basically they wouldn't give him pay raises. He never felt like they accepted him as a hard working person.'

Thornton changed jobs a few times because he was not getting raises, Brocuglio said.

The New York Times's August 3 headline read: 'Troubles Preceded Connecticut Workplace Killing,' and in the second paragraph, the Times reported: 'He might also have had cause to be angry: he had complained to his girlfriend of being racially harassed at work, the woman's mother said, and lamented that his grievances had gone unaddressed.'

On August 7, the Washington Post's headline read, 'Beer warehouse shooter long complained of racism.'

In fact, just before he started shooting, Thornton had been told he had the choice of quitting or being fired for stealing beer, and there was video proof of his doing so. But this fact -- the one indisputable and most pertinent pre-murder fact -- got lost within the larger context of Thornton's claims of being a victim of whites.

#page#Those preoccupied with Thornton's charges of workplace racism might wish to reflect on this: Racists and otherwise bigoted murderers always blame their victims. Medieval Christians who murdered Jews blamed the Jews for poisoning wells, using Christian children's blood in making their matzo, or some other terrible crime. Whites who lynched blacks blamed those blacks for rape or some other terrible crime. Nothing is new about the Thornton racist murders except that the society in which they occurred concentrated on the racist's excuses rather than on his murders.

#ad#Just as leading liberals would not ascribe Islamist motives -- until there was no possibility of denying them -- to recent Muslim attacks on Americans, so the liberal media -- i.e., almost all news outlets in America -- are not branding these Connecticut murders for what they are: racist. Thornton actually told the 911 operator, 'I wish I could have gotten more of the people [i.e., whites].'

We are repeatedly told by liberals -- both whites and blacks -- that America needs an honest dialogue on race. Needless to say, they don't mean it, because the moment a white or a black says anything critical of black behavior, he is labeled racist or Uncle Tom. So most nonliberal whites and blacks just keep quiet.

One result is this morally upside-down reporting of the murders in Connecticut.

Another example is the liberal narrative on blacks in prison: 'There are more black men in prison than in college.' Every decent American regards this fact as a major tragedy. But most Americans believe that the fault lies primarily with the black criminals, not with a racist society. Most Americans believe that blacks who mug, rape, rob, or murder commit those crimes for the same reason whites do -- they lack a sufficiently strong conscience.

But the dominant liberal narrative is that while white criminals are criminals, black criminals are largely victims.

Another example was the liberal narrative of the 1992 'Rodney King riots' in Los Angeles. It was perfectly expressed by the major newspaper of that city, the Los Angeles Times. During the riots, in which innocent Koreans, whites, and others were beaten, maimed, and killed and their businesses burned to the ground, the daily special section on the riots in the Times was titled 'Understanding the Rage.' When blacks riot, whites are the reason. When a black murders eight whites in Connecticut, whites are the reason.

One terrible consequence of this liberal attitude toward black violent crime is that too many blacks come to believe that less is expected of them morally than from whites. And the truth is that most Americans on the left do expect less from blacks.

But saying any of this gets us nowhere because it is simply labeled racism. If you don't believe me, check leftist reactions to this column on the Internet.

Most liberal leaders want an honest dialogue about race as much as they want to honestly describe the murders in Connecticut.

— Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. He may be contacted through his website, dennisprager.com.

Full post as published by Bench Memos - National Review Online on August 10, 2010 (boomark / email).