Social Justice Acid Test

North Charleston, South Carolina

Thomas Sowell, writing in JWR:

Among the many painful ironies in the current racial turmoil is that communities scattered across the country were disrupted by riots and looting because of the demonstrable lie that Michael Brown was shot in the back by a white policeman in Missouri — but there was not nearly as much turmoil created by the demonstrable fact that a fleeing black man was shot dead by a white policeman in South Carolina.

Totally ignored was the fact that a black policeman in Alabama fatally shot an unarmed white teenager, and was cleared of any charges, at about the same time that a white policeman was cleared of charges in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown.

In a world where the truth means so little, and headstrong preconceptions seem to be all that matter, what hope is there for rational words or rational behavior, much less mutual understanding across racial lines?

When the recorded fatal shooting of a fleeing man in South Carolina brought instant condemnation by whites and blacks alike, and by the most conservative as well as the most liberal commentators, that moment of mutual understanding was very fleeting, as if mutual understanding were something to be avoided, as a threat to a vision of “us against them” that was more popular.

We know why white cops (*) shooting white people is ignored.  We know why black cops shooting white people is ignored.

So that leaves us with the universe of white cops shooting black people.  Within that universe, why are some such incidents promoted to major international crises and others stuffed down the rabbit hole?

Michael Brown, Freddie Gray — Major international crises.  Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Miriam Carey — Rabbit hole.

The best theory I can think of to explain the difference is that if it’s a white cop on black civilian shooting wherein peddling it 24/7/365 won’t otherwise wreck a hobby horse leftist cause, it will be hyped; otherwise, it will be buried.

Eric Garner was in New York City, the important city for all the important people, especially the national media.  Must not rile up what’s left of the black undertow there; you know the national media won’t.  Walter Scott ran because he got tired of going to jail for child support, but when it comes to blacks in the black media and the mainstream media, they are mostly black women, and black women aren’t about to do anything that risks them losing their child support billy club they can use to hammer black men.  Miriam Carey was shot by a Federal government police force, the U.S. Capitol Police, which protects important people.

The bad news or good news, depending on your perspective, is that we’ll probably have many more instances to test my theory.

(*) – In the matters of Freddie Gray and Eric Garner, the cops involved were not all white.  However, on the streets, and in the ghettos, most black cops might as well be white.