Thread by @rasmansa

A young black man, Ahmaud Arbery, was out for a jog. He was then chased by 2 white men with guns in a pickup truck. After trying to cut him off multiple times, they shot and killed him.

How the newspaper presents the story is exactly how racism works.
thebrunswicknews.com/news/local_new…

They start off by explaining how frustrated the men were with crime in their neighborhood, humanizing the murderers. They present "neutrally" using the police report, completely dehumanizing the victim. They present the killers words unchallenged, "citing the report"

They report that the police are testing the victims body for drugs, which is both irrelevant to his murder, but plants the seed about his character. They state the report didn't say whether a gun was found on the man murdered, while out for a run.

They report in detail that the victim had previously been on parole for committing a crime. There's no mention of drug tests for the murderers. The police haven't charged the men, who chased and killed a person, out for a jog. It's weeks and they weren't charged.

There's a long history of media criminalizing and dehumanizing black murder victims, especially when their murderers are white (or police). Those murderers are often humanized, where we are hinted at their actions being reasonable.

It's frustrating to see this kind of racism happen over and over. To see black life discounted over and over. To see the lack of care, the lack of action, and the lack of change, over and over.

It's frustrating to explain that black lives must matter the same, over and over.

Let's remember this young man's humanity. That he was murdered for the crime of jogging while black. Let's remember his family's pain, even as that pain is ignored and discounted by the media.

Ahmaud Arbery was 25, and he deserved to be alive today.

#IRunWithMaud