How Our Media Contributes to Racism

          Last week yet another school shooting occurred. This one was at South Carolina State University and left one student dead. I'm not going to get into the details of the shooting because you've either already read or heard about it or could simply look it up on one of your half dozen tech gadgets. What I'm here to talk about is the bullshit reporting by 'reputable' news outlets that followed the shooting.

          The first article I read about the shooting from was on CNN.com. After that I saw stories from Fox News and Huffington Post as well posted on Twitter. As the shooting had just occurred, I checked each story for any new developments. Unlike a lot of you, I give a shit, but that's neither here nor there. We already knew I was better, now didn't we?

          The thing that really pissed me off was the closing paragraph in each article by each news outlet. In each instance, the reporter felt the need to include the following: "South Carolina State is a historically black school."

          That's right, they thought it was important to point out in an article about a school shooting that the University at which the shooting took place has historically had black students. I'm interested to know the reason for that statement. Certainly it wasn't just a little fun fact for us, as an article of that sort isn't the proper place for trivia. Even if it were, how about some more trivia? How does the school rank nationally on test scores? What is the average GPA of attending students? How about sports? Do they have any and, if so, are they any good? None of that was included, which leads be to believe that trivia was not the purpose. So, what was the point of it?

          I really wish I knew the answer to that because I would love to hear it. If you ask me, negativity was the only thing the statement brought. It subtly linked race to the shooting, whether the reporters intended it to or not. I'm inclined to believe that they did. Shit, racism sells in this day and age and media outlets are fully aware of it. You're fooling yourself if you think that the media is unbiased. They're as crooked at the politicians that run them. They write the stories that they're told to write and the stories that will sell and they're willing to put a spin on it to boost sales.

          Have you ever in your life read an article about a school shooting that pointed out that the university is a historically white school? No, you haven't, and that is exactly why it's racist. If we as a country want everyone to be treated equally, then we need to stop separating everything into races, genders, sexually orientations, religions, etc. We need to stop writing garbage that reporters like those who wrote about this shooting wrote. In my heart I truly believe that the media wants separation. They want hate and violence. Without it, they've got nothing to write. Like I said, the media is just as corrupt at politicians and, unfortunately, just as hard to fix. For as long as news and politics have been around, the two have worked  hand in hand. If we really want to make this world a better place, we've got to start there.

          If you really care about equality, then you need to stand up and fight for it. I implore you to write to these media outlets about the articles written about this shooting and tell them exactly how you feel about it because if nobody says anything, then nobody does anything. Change only comes by force (and I don't mean violence) and force comes from us. Society needs to stop screaming for equality and start actually trying to achieve it. Stop making everything about black, white, man, woman, gay, straight, and so on. Every single one of us was born the same way and the sooner we stop reminding ourselves of our differences, the sooner we can live the same way. Skin color is nothing but color. Men and women have different sexual organs. Some people are attracted to the opposite sex and some to their own. None of that matters when you pull it all away and reveal just another living and breathing human being.

Peace, Love, and Unity,

- The Absurdist