Column: Larry Elder is the Black face of white supremacy.

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I have no idea who Ibram X Kendi or Robin DiAngelo are.

D o a search for “Larry Elder” and gorilla on the CNN website and nothing comes up. Washington Post? Zilch. Nothing comes up on the New York Times site either, although if you make it to the 15th paragraph of a story entitled “The Vice President pushed back against the effort to recall Newsom in the Bay Area,” you will find a bland passing reference to Wednesday’s disgusting incident. According to our nation’s media leaders, it’s not a story that a white person wearing a gorilla mask attacked Larry Elder, a black man seeking to become the first non-white governor of California, by hurling an egg that touched his head.

If Elder were a Democrat, the attack would have been instantly and with good reason dubbed racist. It would not only be front-page news, it would be just about the only news you were hearing about today on CNN and MSNBC. Charles Blow, Perry Bacon, and Jamelle Bouie would each be writing the first in a series of angry columns about it. So would Gail Collins, Jonathan Capehart, Jennifer Rubin, Michelle Goldberg, Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd, Dana Milbank, and Ezra Klein. We would be treated to multiple news analyses about the history of the usage of gorilla tropes against blacks. Joy-Ann Reid, Rachel Maddow, and Don Lemon would be doing hour-long broadcasts on the attack, convening panels discussing just how the attack pulls the scab off racism in America, and proves we have so much work left to do in dealing with the problem. Vox would commission a series about California’s grim history of racism dating back to the Chinese Exclusion Act, and Asian-American and Latino writers would hasten to explain that California’s historic hostility to all sorts of persons of color is as traditional as its Tournament of Roses parade. Three-thousand-word essays about the brutal, unknown history of lynchings in the Golden State would be published in The Atlantic and/or The New Yorker. Al Sharpton, exhibiting a combination of exhaustion and despondency, would be a guest on half a dozen cable TV shows.

The woman who threw the egg at Elder would find her picture, her name, and everything she’d ever said on social media scrutinized at great length and on the home pages of the leading news sites. Her appearance would be mocked by late-night comedians. Dozens of reporters would be sent out to learn this woman’s story, to check out where she lived, where she worked, and where she went to school.

Remember what happened when a white woman in Central Park told a black man she would mention his race in the course of reporting his threat to her dog on a 911 call? That was a huge nationwide news story, despite having happened the same day as the murder of George Floyd, and even though the people involved were just ordinary New Yorkers — neither of them an important candidate a step away from one of the highest offices in the country. If Elder were a Democrat we’d be told there is a vast and wide-ranging racist plot to stop California from electing its first black governor. The stakes are a bit higher than “white dog lady calls cops on black bird-watcher.” Isn’t our democracy itself imperiled when a white person in a gorilla mask tries to leverage racism against a popular black candidate?

You really don't see the double standard when an anodyne comment is parsed in the worst possible ways and gets wall to wall media coverage, while someone physically attacking a black candidate while wearing a gorilla mask doesn't even ripple the waters?

I don’t think it is a liberal v conservative double standard, but a public v private citizen one. The two are traditionally treated very differently under the law. With a public figure the news is, in theory, about holding leaders accountable for their objectionable behavior. The news has traditionally shied away from blasting private citizens across the news for objectionable but legal activity because it exposes them to lawsuits. I say traditionally because social media is changing the equation, but it makes me very uncomfortable when private citizens are called out publicly. Public figures sign up for scrutiny; private citizens don’t.

National Review has a story up doing a pretty good summary of my feelings on the egg throwing gorilla incident:

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/09/ ... n-america/



If a white woman in a gorilla mask threw an egg at Barack Obama or Stacy Abrams, does anyone really doubt it would be front page news coast to coast?

Do you not recall the Tea Party era, when the media would collectively clutch their pearls every time a protester was spotted with a poster of Obama with a Hitler mustache in the crowds?

How often did you see news of the gorilla imagery? I never did, but on social media I saw it applied CONSTANTLY against the Obama’s.

I honestly do not.

Perhaps it is different because anti - anti-semitism news appeals to both liberals and conservatives who both like to believe the other is more anti-Semitic.

How often did you see news of the gorilla imagery? I never did, but on social media I saw it applied CONSTANTLY against the Obama’s.

Maybe I’m all wet, but it really rattles me when either “side” claims reporting would be different if it was flipped. Most of the time the “it would be different if” claim is the whole point of the story. It’s like a mirror game. We know news media is selective about choosing to report what advances their agenda, whatever that agenda may be. They ALL do it.

Later, Elder tweeted that in the morning someone also fired a pellet gun at his security detail. LAPD confirms it is looking into a report that a driver and security team member for Elder were struck but not seriously injured around 10:45 a.m. on Melrose Avenue.

Ironically, it was W who really got the monkey business, remember endless memes like this?

Try taking the politics out of the situation being discussed...
Lets start with a simple question: Would you agree that a political candidate being the victim of assault[1] (having an object thrown at them) would be "newsworthy"?
Now, let's add: Would you agree that having shots reportedly fired (albeit from a pellet gun)[2] at a security person and driver who were with a politician would be "newsworthy"?

From here, we'll specify the race of the politician: "African American" - does this make the event more, or less, "newsworthy"?
Then we'll add the race of the attacker: "White" - does this make the event more, or less, "newsworthy"?
Finally we'll note that the attacked was wearing a "monkey" mask - does this make the event more, or less, "newsworthy"?

As an additional exercise, would the political alignment (of either the assailant or victim) have any bearing on whether this was "newsworthy"?

How about a very simple comparison, removing certain factors from the question... What makes this attack less "newsworthy" than a similar attack on a left-aligned politician in another country? We don't need to concern ourselves with "race" (either victim or assailant), and can merely consider the different approach taken when a "left-aligned" politician has an egg thrown at them, compared to the same with a "right-aligned" politician - Of course, there is the added factor that one event occured outside the country, having no impact on it, whilst the other was an event in the country, and would therefore have more impact on the country...

[1] Appropriate Assualt and Battery laws are reasonably well explained at https://www.shouselaw.com/ca/defense/penal-code/240/
[2]
Source: https://abc7.com/politics/larry-elders-venice-event-cut-short-due-to-angry-crowd/11009110/

I'm going to throw out a new consideration: what SHOULD we should give oxygen to? People behave outrageously because they feel it will increase their odds of getting broader coverage.

I generally feel like its "news" if its criminal and/or involving a large group or organization. Not news if it is one person being outrageous or deplorable.

Would you agree that a political candidate being the victim of assault[1] (having an object thrown at them) would be "newsworthy"?

Would you agree that having shots reportedly fired (albeit from a pellet gun)[2] at a security person and driver who were with a politician would be "newsworthy"?

Well, a different search today and now I see the Elder story covered by several "liberal" sources, so I think it's becoming a mute question. But I also think the standard I suggested early may apply, now that more is known about what happened: its "news" if its criminal and/or involving a large group or organization. Not news if it is one person being outrageous or deplorable.

@brictoria

Yesterday the obsession was about a gorilla mask. Today there was information that a lot more happened including a rubber bullet attack. That’s how it looks from my vantage point.

You know the old saying, there are two sides to every story, both of them probably true. Insisting that only one view can exist is a waste of time.

Here's an interesting conundrum

If we take race and politics out of the equation.

Then why do Larry Elder's supporters resort to attacking black journalists using racist tropes?
https://www.latimes.com/california/stor ... -supremacy
I thought the "good" conservative folk who support Elder don't see race