The 5 Most Divisive News Stories in the So-Called Post-Racial Era

We all bring our own perspectives to the table, especially when it comes to race. We consume the same media but draw different conclusions. We often see the same things but they affect us differently. This is true, but to a lesser extent, in matters of gender and class. For some reason, race alone continues to be the single most common denominator dividing this country.

Some think it’s because it’s one of the few issues that, as a society, we are artificially forced to hide. As Americans, we have gotten into this hypocritical stance of shunning racist talk to be polite even though those racist feelings have not dissipated. It is against this backdrop that the media continues to, perhaps unknowingly, perpetuate racial tensions within our society.

“It’s inappropriate to do racial stuff explicitly, you have to have some plausable deniability. And that idea is deservingness, the protestant work ethic and individualism. Those are the values used, that’s how race is primed,” said political psychologist David Lewis. “You find a way to paint someone as undeserving and almost nothing can be done. Issues such as affirmative action primes that resentment, reparations prime that resentment. And you resent anything, you can resent the guy that cut you off in traffic, you can resent the guy that delivers the mail, and it’s never explicitly racist…. plausible deniability.”

Here are the five most recent racially divisive new stories:

1. The Birther Movement

“The birther movement is directly tied to the belief that he (President Obama) doesn’t deserve to be president. He’s not even fully American. He’s half African,” David Lewis said. “The norm is that it’s inappropriate to be racial, but it doesn’t mean that people don’t have those feelings.”

The birther movement, Lewis argued, is completely fueled by this emotional connection to deservingness, which is primed primarily by racial resentment.

2. Henry Louis Gates arrest

In the days after this event, the racial lines were drawn again. Many Blacks thought instantly about everytime they have been stopped by a police officer randomly. Many whites focused on the behavior of Gates as opposed to the legality of arresting a man at his own home. Many whites were quick to blame President Obama when he stepped in and said the police “acted stupidly.” In fact, his poll numbers plummeted immediately following this incident, especially among white men. What did we learn from this incident? Did it make us understand folks of other races any better or did it further cement our differences?

3. The shooting death of Oscar Grant

Oscar Grant was shot in the back by a BART cop in Oakland on New Year’s Day 2009.

While law enforcement tried to ensure the community it would conduct a thorough investigation, the Black community in Oakland protested. In their eyes, Grant was an innocent young man, a recent father and a son, whose only sin was being a Black man. It reignited age old tensions between the Black community and law enforcement. They thought of the countless excessive force complaints that are frequently covered up or overlooked by internal police reviews.

In Oscar Grant, we saw ourselves, our brothers, our sons, while many white people saw the killing of Oscar Grant as an isolated event. They focused on the disorderly protest that followed the shooting. They focused on the stress transit officers are under when having to deal with an unruly crowd.

“The officer leaned (in), was straddling over him and pointed his gun directly into the backside and shot (Grant),” said an attorney for Grant’s family, who added that he was handcuffed after he was shot. “This was not a deadly force situation.”

4. The beating death of Derrion Albert

Unlike Oscar Grant, 16-year-old Derrion Albert died at the hands of other Black people, youth. This melee was viewed all over the world. But once again our perspectives were different. While the brutality was undoubtedly as senseless and tragic to both communities, our conclusions, I imagine, were different.

I am not white but I imagine that this video evoked the stereotypes of Blacks as being lawless and violent people. How could it not? It must have reinforced their biases, caused them to lock their doors when diriving in a Black community, perhaps led them to cross the street when they saw a group of Black youth approaching them. In the days following this event, our leading white supremacist Web sites all featured the story. I know it lit up the conservative blogosphere.

But here’s what Essence wrote:

Derrion Albert is the most recent entry in a long list of tragedies piling up not just in Chicago, but all over the country. His death, while tragic, is not unique and we all know that. The destructive behavior of our youth has sunk to abysmal levels despite all the rallies, prayers, and changes in sentencing we’ve participated in or watched for decades. Those in the trenches know that any new idea, any new voice, any new anything that can change the hopeless tide of ruined young lives washing up both in cemeteries and penitentiaries should be welcomed because positive messages have been effectively muted.

5. Glenn Beck calls President Obama a racist

Glenn Beck was forced to take a little vacation following this incident. But he has since returned and is still is one of the most popular talk show host on television. And he still has very few Black viewers. Beck is one of the most racially divisive public figures in recent history. Here he continues to paint this narrative of there being two Americas and that Black America is out to get White America.

See here for the story and accompanied video