Feeding the Narative

Racism is epidemic in the US today. I know that because I'm constantly told so by the national news.

Unfortunately, that doesn't actually make it so.

In July there were stories about the police being called because of black kids trying to make some money. The stories were framed to give the impression that the only reason the authorities were called was because the kids were black.

Last weekend I saw two separate stories about authorities shutting down some girls. One was selling lemonade and the other was selling home-made cookies. Both stories were carried by conservative newsletter under the heading of over-reaching government. Both were very similar to the incidents of black children being shut down but neither case made the national news.

If a black child's lemonade stand is shut down then it makes the news because it's assumed that racism must be involved. Obviously there's no racism if it's a white kid so it's not a story. This in turn feeds the narrative that we are a racist nation, even if no actual racism is involved.

Why does this happen? I don't think that reporters are actually trying to manufacture racism where there isn't any. But they are trying to manufacture ratings and stories about racism get people to watch so they have a financial incentive to push them. There is also confirmation bias. They know that there is racism in the country so they are predisposed to see it.

This goes way beyond a child's lemonade stand but that makes a good starting point.

Now, how often do police kill whites? If you watch the new then you'd say that it never happens. Cops only shoot black men. The actual figures get complicated. Half of the people killed by police are white and 1/4 are black but blacks  disproportionately commit a disproportionate number of cromes (usually victomizing blacks) and the number of black men killed by police is lower than the proportion who commit crimes. My point is that twice as many whites are killed as blacks but a white man shot by the police is never covered while many shootings of black men receive nationwide coverage. Again, this distorts our opinions and feeds the narrative that America is hopelessly racist.