A few weeks ago there was mass hysteria over what is known as the knockout game. To let the media and racist right-wing trolls tell it, young black men were randomly targeting unsuspecting white folks in public, to be punched in the face without warning. According to reports, there have been at least three deaths associated with acts of brutal black thugs.
The knockout game had created so much of a stir that even one politician in New York City questioned whether the act should be constituted as a hate crime. In fact, one Brooklyn, New York man was charged with a hate crime recently, after being arrested for assaulting a Jewish man. And now, one Jewish group has put out a bounty on perpetrators of the crime. Why? Because as I mentioned before, the media has given everyone the impression that black men were breaking into homes and punching white folks in the face while they are asleep. Let’s face it, nothing gets the racial resentment of certain people riled up like alleged racially motivated violence.
Columnist Cathy Young writes:
That such attacks have happened is not in question. Several have been captured on video. A few have resulted in deaths. In May in Syracuse, a man was beaten and stomped to death by a group of teenagers; a 13-year-old boy admitted that he started it by trying to knock out the victim to impress his friends. Another death linked to the “game” took place in September in Jersey City.
The senselessness of the attacks is part of what makes them terrifying. Anyone can be a victim, and one cannot protect oneself — as in a robbery — by cooperating. But is this kind of brutality really new? Some crimes described as part of the trend go back a few years. Of course, the phenomenon of youth violence motivated by thrill-seeking or displays of toughness is much older and crosses ethnic and cultural lines: Remember the predatory teens of Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel, “A Clockwork Orange”?
[…] Given America’s terrible history of anti-black racism, the desire to avoid promoting racial stereotypes of black (especially male) youths as violent and dangerous is understandable. But when the media fail at full and honest reporting, it can only undercut their credibility and make right-wing racial paranoia more appealing.
Okay, so I’m exaggerating just a bit about white folks being punched in the face while asleep. But, to say that media reporting on the knockout game was irresponsible wouldn’t be wrong on my part. In fact, for me, the hype around the knockout game game took me back to the 1980s when we were all warned about crack babies. You know, those poor unfortunate children born to mothers who smoked crack cocaine while pregnant. If you remember, back then it was all the rage that some of us within the black community joked about babies being born addicted to crack. Which was sad because the only crack babies on television news casts were black babies. Well, folks, I hate to tell you this, but the knockout game and its frequency as reported by the media is as real as the story of Ashely Depew of St. Louis being attacked by three black men recently.
This from KMOV:
A St. Louis woman who claimed to be a victim of the “Knockout Game” has been accused of lying to police.
St. Louis Metro Police said the woman was not a victim of the “Knockout Game,” but was actually punched by her boyfriend.
The young woman claimed to be a victim and showed News 4 her injuries. She said someone in a crowd knocked her to the ground as she and her boyfriend were leaving a South City bar.
Authorities said her claims didn’t add up or fit the motives to other “Knockout Game” crimes in the area, so they decided to dig deeper. That’s when police discovered the false allegations. Police even said the couple was never at the bar in South City.
Police charged both Ashley Depew, 23, and her boyfriend Justin Simms, 25, with making a false report to police. They also said this case has absolutely no connection to the “Knockout Game.”
Court documents allege that Simms elbowed Depew in the face.
Watch the story below:
There’s a long history of white women lying on black men which has led to negative consequences for the accused in this country (remember this?). In this case, however, I’m glad to report that three unsuspecting and innocent black men were arrested for this sham of a crime as reported by Ashely Depew with help from the media. I’m not going to say much more about this now, but I’ll leave the floor open to your critique and comments as I’m used to by now.
Mind you, I’m not saying that a few knuckleheads aren’t participating in this game. I am however saying that it in no way the signal of a race war; nor, a signal of the newfound bravery of black youth inspired by having a black POTUS as some would have you believe.
[H/T Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner]