It’s Not
Always
About You
With an active month on the world news front – Paris, Lebanon, Syrian refugees – the entitlement generation has once again shown its true colors after the devastating and tragic events in Paris on Nov. 13.
It appears the Black Lives Matter and University of Missouri protesters reacted to the killings of 129 people at the hands of Islamic State extremists in Paris by complaining about losing the spotlight in the news, stating their “struggles” were being “erased” by the media focus in France.
These “struggles” they had endured consisted of uncorroborated off-campus racial slurs and a fecal swastika that is somehow trying to be portrayed as equal to the Parisian calamity on the loss of 129 innocent lives. Just days prior, the Missouri protests were being promoted by liberal journalists, who somehow highlighted these demonstrators in the best light, about certain campus conditions over what could be called no more than “tantrums.”
Mind you these “injustices” somehow scapegoated the university president and chancellor to lose his job for things that were basically out of his control or oversight yet, university professor Melissa Click, a professor of journalism no less, publically interfered with a student reporter gathering news of the public protest calling for “more muscle” to assist her and still remains at her job at the university.
These are the same people who cry foul about police use of force, and then turn around and threaten violence as they deny the constitutionally guaranteed rights of others.
To try to justify themselves, many Mizzou protesters, including Black Lives Matter national leaders, were spinning the racial injustice at college campuses and the attacks in Paris as both acts of terrorism. I’m not seeing the nexus.
Those who know me are aware of my criticisms of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Their race baiting tactics to convince an entire generation that all white police officers are hostile to African-Americans and other minorities, hence their own ignorant racist beliefs. They promote and encourage the defiance of otherwise lawful orders by officers resulting in the unnecessary escalation of police contacts for basically what could have been handled as a simple matter.
Unfortunately not many reporters can write anything like this or we get labeled racist immediately, but I’m not your typical journalist. Bring it on; you’ll need more than my disagreement with an issue to label me a racist.
We now have Black Lives Matter activists angry that the world cared more about the terrorism-related deaths of over 100 innocent persons than they did about a few racial slurs faced by a handful of black students at the University of Missouri.
The “catastrophizing” of an issue which is to say, turning common events into nightmarish trials or claiming that easily bearable events are too awful to bear, seems to be a common spin when trying to gain media attention and public sympathy. I’m not justifying the slurs, it’s just I’m reminded of the “sticks and stones” saying – or in the case from the Paris attack, “bombs and bullets.”
Additionally, as much as it might suck to be insulted, mere words are not crimes – at least not yet, unless the anti-bullying agenda gets their way. Murdering scores of people with a cowardly terroristic act is going to pique the interest of the world. Comparing it to name calling trivializes real incidents requiring change and makes a weak argument look … well, even weaker.
How to engage the news media, and even use and manipulate it, seems to be an art lately by #BlackLivesMatter, but if we allow America to buy this spin, we just got Michael Browned all over again.
Richard Paloma is a staff reporter for The Oakdale Leader, The Riverbank News, and The Escalon Times. He may be reached at rpaloma@oakdaleleader.com or by calling 847-3021.
