GREENSBORO, NC -- Imagine: A few hundred mostly white teenagers and young adults are milling around downtown on a Saturday night. A fight breaks out between some teenagers.
Someone breaks a window.
A few cameras capture some of the crowd reaction: hundreds of mostly white people running down the street. Some may be running towards the fight, some may be running away. The details to say for certain are lacking.
Then a gunshot. More white people running.
How would these events then
be portrayed in
the media?
400 teens in massive brawl?
or
Fights, gunshot cause hundreds to scatter in panic?
Go one step further. What would YOU assume if you were to see video of hundreds of white people running through the streets of downtown and heard it corresponded to some nearby fights? Would you think of those people running, "Those out of control animals are up to no good," or would it be "Those people are panicked, they must be scared of something?"
I'll wager that the willingness to lump bystanders with the criminals depends greatly on the race of the bystanders.
Such is Greensboro.
