KING: Our paper and our city must demand justice for Karina Vetrano without slipping into racism
Shaun King
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, February 6, 2017, 2:44 PM
Cops arrest Chanel Lewis, suspect in Karina Vetrano murder
NY Daily News
Autoplay: On | Off
This past July my family and I moved from Atlanta to Brooklyn. With five young kids ranging from pre-school to high school, we no doubt have the largest family in our building and it appears we have the largest family in our whole neighborhood. Everywhere we go people ask us, "Are all those kids yours?"
When we were still new to New York, and struggling to wrap our minds around the idea of allowing our teenage daughters to travel the city on the subway without us, something absolutely horrible happened.
A beautiful, beloved young woman, Karina Vetrano, a speech therapist who was also very much a fitness buff, went out for a routine jog in broad daylight on a hot summer afternoon. She never made it home. She was beaten, strangled, sexually assaulted, and dumped face down in the weeded marshes near her Howard Beach home in Queens.
Rightly so, the city became obsessed with her case. My wife and I often spoke of Karina and hoped, for her family and for our city, that whoever did this to her would be arrested. As new residents, but particularly as parents of high school aged girls, the thought that someone who did such a thing was roaming the streets was beyond disturbing.
Brooklyn man nabbed in slay of Queens jogger Karina Vetrano
Chanel Lewis (right) is accused of murdering Karina Vetrano (left) while she was out jogging in Queens in August.
(Facebook; Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)
So, when we got the news that someone had been arrested for this heinous crime, a full six months after Karina was murdered, we were relieved. My heart goes out to her devastated family and I hope that this arrest gives them even an ever so tiny bit of peace in the midst of such unthinkable horror.
However, I must say that I am concerned that latent racism is now creeping its way into how this case is being talked about — including by my own paper.
Chanel Lewis, a scruffy, rail thin, almost goofy-looking 20-year-old black man with no criminal record was arrested for the crime. Early reports state that he confessed and that DNA evidence matches him to the victim, who was not only white, but the attractive, well known, charismatic, and the pride and joy of her Italian family.
Even though more than 75% of voters in Queens voted for Hillary Clinton, Howard Beach, and many of the enclaves around it, are Donald Trump country. With African-Americans making up just 2% of the population there, the segregation of Howard Beach has an ugly history.
Queens jogger's killer may have been regular at scene of crime
“As a kid, I would not recommend anyone black stopping there,” said Congressman Gregory W. Meeks in 2011. As it was, in 1986, Michael Griffith, a young black man from Brooklyn who traveled to Howard Beach to pick up a paycheck for his construction job, was chased and killed by a group of white teens from Howard Beach. To this day, fair or not, the murder of Griffith and the brutal beating of one of his friends, shapes how many in the city see Howard Beach.
This crime exists on the very sensitive fault lines of race not only in our city, but nationwide. How we talk about it, how we frame it, and how we move forward — it matters. It matters a lot. That's why I was deeply discouraged to see many of the words on today's cover of the New York Daily News about the arrest of Chanel Lewis.
I'm not alone there. Friends of mine from all over the country saw it and were disturbed as well. As I watched my beloved Atlanta Falcons blow a 25 point lead in the Super Bowl, I first started to get @ replies from complete strangers about the cover on Twitter. I was live tweeting the game, and started seeing more and more people ask me about the cover. I clicked over and there it was.
25 photos view gallery
Murder of Queens jogger Karina Vetrano
It was as deeply problematic as they described. The headline, in bold print, read, "Demon in the Weeds: Woman-hating brute, 20, murdered park jogger, Karina."
Chanel Lewis admits to killing Queens jogger Karina Vetrano
Now, the gut reaction of many who are not familiar to the racially charged history of some of those words, would wonder why I would even care what anyone said about a rapist and a murderer.
I care because in America, how one lone black man is viewed, trickles down in peculiar ways to how millions of black men are viewed. By in large, when a white man rapes and murders a woman, which has happened tens of thousands of times in this nation, it does not trickle down to how everyday Americans view white men in general. The reverse is damn true though.
Even though study after study shows that white men and black men both sell and use drugs at virtually the same rate, with white men actually selling illegal drugs at a higher rate, the American stereotype of a drug dealer is a young black man in a hoody? Why is that? Because the worst news about some black men, is forced about the image of all black men.
Even though the overwhelming majority of people receiving Food Stamps in America are white, the stereotype of a welfare queen is not white, but is a single black woman with many kids. It's a lie. And it's a lie that sticks because how the media and politicians and everyday Americans frame such issues matter.
Man not convinced his son killed jogger Karina Vetrano
Here are alternate headlines that could've been written about Chanel Lewis. I'm not even saying I would've chosen these, but they all would've been true.
"Recent honors graduate of Queens High School with no criminal record arrested for brutal sexual assault and murder"
"Quiet unassuming young man allegedly confesses to killing beloved Queens jogger"
"Brilliant police work leads to the arrest of young man in the brutal murder of Karina Vetrano"
Mother of Karina Vetrano blasts suspected killer in court
The New York Daily News front page on Feb. 6.
(New York Daily News)
By calling Chanel Lewis "a demon" and "a brute," the headline devolved into language that has been used to dehumanize and even lynch black men in America for the past century. I'm all for having a hard-hitting headline that didn't go easy on him or mince words about the case, but in the spirit of hitting hard, we can't do what we did today. What my paper did has history.
"The brute caricature portrays black men as innately savage, animalistic, destructive, and criminal — deserving punishment, maybe death. This brute is a fiend, a sociopath, an anti-social menace. Black brutes are depicted as hideous, terrifying predators who target helpless victims, especially white women," said Dr. David Pilgrim, professor of Sociology at Ferris State University in Michigan.
Pilgrim continued: "The 'terrible crime' most often mentioned in connection with the black brute was rape, specifically the rape of a white woman. At the beginning of the twentieth century, much of the virulent, anti-black propaganda that found its way into scientific journals, local newspapers, and best-selling novels focused on the stereotype of the black rapist. The claim that black brutes were, in epidemic numbers, raping white women became the public rationalization for the lynching of blacks."
Google the words, "Black man brute stereotype." This racialized depiction of black men is widely known.
Depicting black men as "demons" also has a long, ugly history and was most recently done by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson in his depiction of why he repeatedly shot teenager Michael Brown in the chest and head, saying he looked like "a demon." Indeed, tried and true racial stereotypes were abundant in the testimony of Darren Wilson.
The depiction of black men as "demons" in the media is so prevalent, and so frequent that Dennis Rome, a professor at Indiana University wrote an entire book on the phenomenon called Black Demons: Mass Media's Depiction of the African-American Male Criminal Stereotype.
When I pressed my editors this morning on why the words "demon" and "brute" were used to describe Lewis on the front page, the answer was that they sincerely believed they would've used those words had the man who was arrested been white. I believe my editors believe that.
Sadly, thousands of rapes and murders happen in our nation every year. When a white man is accused of rape, be it the Stanford swimmer Brock Turner or Steelers Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, the words "demon" and "brute" tend not to appear in the headlines.
The New York Daily News front page for April 21, 1989 about the Central Park Five.
(New York Daily News)
Twenty-eight years ago our paper, in another rush to judgment, used animal language to describe the Central Park Five — calling them a "wolf pack" and a "roving gang." Their convictions were eventually overturned, and another man convicted, after they spent as many as 13 years in prison for a crime they didn't commit. Again, the crime that was committed was unbelievably heinous, and should've been described as such, but when our paper began using animal adjectives to describe young men who turned out to be innocent, it's a problem.
Hear my heart: if Chanel Lewis is guilty, and the evidence that we have so far absolutely suggests that he is — what he did was horrendous — no ifs, ands, or buts.
I'm not here to police how the family of this young woman talks about this case. That's not my place. If one of my girls had been victimized like their wonderful daughter, I would not have a filter of any kind either. I have no idea the anger, rage, and hurt they must be feeling,
However, the Daily News and all the media has to find a way to describe such cases without slipping into racist tropes hundreds of years in the making.
Shaun King
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, February 6, 2017, 2:44 PM
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Cops arrest Chanel Lewis, suspect in Karina Vetrano murder
NY Daily News
Autoplay: On | Off
This past July my family and I moved from Atlanta to Brooklyn. With five young kids ranging from pre-school to high school, we no doubt have the largest family in our building and it appears we have the largest family in our whole neighborhood. Everywhere we go people ask us, "Are all those kids yours?"
When we were still new to New York, and struggling to wrap our minds around the idea of allowing our teenage daughters to travel the city on the subway without us, something absolutely horrible happened.
A beautiful, beloved young woman, Karina Vetrano, a speech therapist who was also very much a fitness buff, went out for a routine jog in broad daylight on a hot summer afternoon. She never made it home. She was beaten, strangled, sexually assaulted, and dumped face down in the weeded marshes near her Howard Beach home in Queens.
Rightly so, the city became obsessed with her case. My wife and I often spoke of Karina and hoped, for her family and for our city, that whoever did this to her would be arrested. As new residents, but particularly as parents of high school aged girls, the thought that someone who did such a thing was roaming the streets was beyond disturbing.
Brooklyn man nabbed in slay of Queens jogger Karina Vetrano
Chanel Lewis (right) is accused of murdering Karina Vetrano (left) while she was out jogging in Queens in August.
(Facebook; Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)
So, when we got the news that someone had been arrested for this heinous crime, a full six months after Karina was murdered, we were relieved. My heart goes out to her devastated family and I hope that this arrest gives them even an ever so tiny bit of peace in the midst of such unthinkable horror.
However, I must say that I am concerned that latent racism is now creeping its way into how this case is being talked about — including by my own paper.
Chanel Lewis, a scruffy, rail thin, almost goofy-looking 20-year-old black man with no criminal record was arrested for the crime. Early reports state that he confessed and that DNA evidence matches him to the victim, who was not only white, but the attractive, well known, charismatic, and the pride and joy of her Italian family.
Even though more than 75% of voters in Queens voted for Hillary Clinton, Howard Beach, and many of the enclaves around it, are Donald Trump country. With African-Americans making up just 2% of the population there, the segregation of Howard Beach has an ugly history.
Queens jogger's killer may have been regular at scene of crime
“As a kid, I would not recommend anyone black stopping there,” said Congressman Gregory W. Meeks in 2011. As it was, in 1986, Michael Griffith, a young black man from Brooklyn who traveled to Howard Beach to pick up a paycheck for his construction job, was chased and killed by a group of white teens from Howard Beach. To this day, fair or not, the murder of Griffith and the brutal beating of one of his friends, shapes how many in the city see Howard Beach.
This crime exists on the very sensitive fault lines of race not only in our city, but nationwide. How we talk about it, how we frame it, and how we move forward — it matters. It matters a lot. That's why I was deeply discouraged to see many of the words on today's cover of the New York Daily News about the arrest of Chanel Lewis.
I'm not alone there. Friends of mine from all over the country saw it and were disturbed as well. As I watched my beloved Atlanta Falcons blow a 25 point lead in the Super Bowl, I first started to get @ replies from complete strangers about the cover on Twitter. I was live tweeting the game, and started seeing more and more people ask me about the cover. I clicked over and there it was.
25 photos view gallery
Murder of Queens jogger Karina Vetrano
It was as deeply problematic as they described. The headline, in bold print, read, "Demon in the Weeds: Woman-hating brute, 20, murdered park jogger, Karina."
Chanel Lewis admits to killing Queens jogger Karina Vetrano
Now, the gut reaction of many who are not familiar to the racially charged history of some of those words, would wonder why I would even care what anyone said about a rapist and a murderer.
I care because in America, how one lone black man is viewed, trickles down in peculiar ways to how millions of black men are viewed. By in large, when a white man rapes and murders a woman, which has happened tens of thousands of times in this nation, it does not trickle down to how everyday Americans view white men in general. The reverse is damn true though.
Even though study after study shows that white men and black men both sell and use drugs at virtually the same rate, with white men actually selling illegal drugs at a higher rate, the American stereotype of a drug dealer is a young black man in a hoody? Why is that? Because the worst news about some black men, is forced about the image of all black men.
Even though the overwhelming majority of people receiving Food Stamps in America are white, the stereotype of a welfare queen is not white, but is a single black woman with many kids. It's a lie. And it's a lie that sticks because how the media and politicians and everyday Americans frame such issues matter.
Man not convinced his son killed jogger Karina Vetrano
Here are alternate headlines that could've been written about Chanel Lewis. I'm not even saying I would've chosen these, but they all would've been true.
"Recent honors graduate of Queens High School with no criminal record arrested for brutal sexual assault and murder"
"Quiet unassuming young man allegedly confesses to killing beloved Queens jogger"
"Brilliant police work leads to the arrest of young man in the brutal murder of Karina Vetrano"
Mother of Karina Vetrano blasts suspected killer in court
The New York Daily News front page on Feb. 6.
(New York Daily News)
By calling Chanel Lewis "a demon" and "a brute," the headline devolved into language that has been used to dehumanize and even lynch black men in America for the past century. I'm all for having a hard-hitting headline that didn't go easy on him or mince words about the case, but in the spirit of hitting hard, we can't do what we did today. What my paper did has history.
"The brute caricature portrays black men as innately savage, animalistic, destructive, and criminal — deserving punishment, maybe death. This brute is a fiend, a sociopath, an anti-social menace. Black brutes are depicted as hideous, terrifying predators who target helpless victims, especially white women," said Dr. David Pilgrim, professor of Sociology at Ferris State University in Michigan.
Pilgrim continued: "The 'terrible crime' most often mentioned in connection with the black brute was rape, specifically the rape of a white woman. At the beginning of the twentieth century, much of the virulent, anti-black propaganda that found its way into scientific journals, local newspapers, and best-selling novels focused on the stereotype of the black rapist. The claim that black brutes were, in epidemic numbers, raping white women became the public rationalization for the lynching of blacks."
Google the words, "Black man brute stereotype." This racialized depiction of black men is widely known.
Depicting black men as "demons" also has a long, ugly history and was most recently done by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson in his depiction of why he repeatedly shot teenager Michael Brown in the chest and head, saying he looked like "a demon." Indeed, tried and true racial stereotypes were abundant in the testimony of Darren Wilson.
The depiction of black men as "demons" in the media is so prevalent, and so frequent that Dennis Rome, a professor at Indiana University wrote an entire book on the phenomenon called Black Demons: Mass Media's Depiction of the African-American Male Criminal Stereotype.
When I pressed my editors this morning on why the words "demon" and "brute" were used to describe Lewis on the front page, the answer was that they sincerely believed they would've used those words had the man who was arrested been white. I believe my editors believe that.
Sadly, thousands of rapes and murders happen in our nation every year. When a white man is accused of rape, be it the Stanford swimmer Brock Turner or Steelers Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, the words "demon" and "brute" tend not to appear in the headlines.
The New York Daily News front page for April 21, 1989 about the Central Park Five.
(New York Daily News)
Twenty-eight years ago our paper, in another rush to judgment, used animal language to describe the Central Park Five — calling them a "wolf pack" and a "roving gang." Their convictions were eventually overturned, and another man convicted, after they spent as many as 13 years in prison for a crime they didn't commit. Again, the crime that was committed was unbelievably heinous, and should've been described as such, but when our paper began using animal adjectives to describe young men who turned out to be innocent, it's a problem.
Hear my heart: if Chanel Lewis is guilty, and the evidence that we have so far absolutely suggests that he is — what he did was horrendous — no ifs, ands, or buts.
I'm not here to police how the family of this young woman talks about this case. That's not my place. If one of my girls had been victimized like their wonderful daughter, I would not have a filter of any kind either. I have no idea the anger, rage, and hurt they must be feeling,
However, the Daily News and all the media has to find a way to describe such cases without slipping into racist tropes hundreds of years in the making.
