Here’s a thought, dear readers.  Imagine, if you will, the responses from the media, ‘social justice “warriors”’, left-wing politicians and all the usual suspects to the following news item:

“Two White teens aged 14 and 16 years are now facing second-degree murder charges after allegedly setting on fire a 53-year old Black man in his duplex apartment in Rochester, NY last week.  Steven Amenhauser, 53, lived alone. He had just returned from a visit to the local shops when he was attacked in his own home.  It is alleged that the two accused teens doused him with some sort of ignitable fuel and set him alight.  Mr Amenhauser, who had no family, had lost his girlfriend in October last year and his wife some years earlier.  He was in declining health and had other ‘issues’, which some sources cite as mental health problems. He was a vulnerable adult.

Mr Amenhauser suffered second and third degree burns over 70% of his body in the attack.  He was taken to a local trauma burns unit where he died four days later.

Rochester Police Capt. Frank Umbrino said it was important for police to speak for the victim, because he did not have any relatives to speak for him”.

Awful.  Tragic.  Sick.  Evil.  Yet why has this horrific incident not been leading the news reports since it occurred last week?  Why are we not seeing several US cities on fire, with rioting in the streets?  Where are the marches in state capitals?  Where are the Senators and Representatives asking questions on Capitol Hill?  Where are the anti-racist media outlets, who usually leap on these tragic events with great alacrity? Where are the media’s satellite trucks parked on Mr Amenhauser’s street for a week?

Good questions. 

But I think I may be able to suggest an answer.

The thing is, dear readers, that the story summarised above did not happen quite as I have described it.

Poor Mr Amenhauser is White.  Still vulnerable and alone, but White.  His two alleged attackers are Black teens. 

Hmmm.

Numerous local US websites and smaller news sites have reported on this terrible event.  But the majors, such as the New York Times, Washington Post and LA Times, not to mention the BBC and the Guardian in the UK, all appear to be missing in action.  The Daily Mail – although it pains me to say it – seems to be the only UK outlet to report on this so far.

Why?

Just to illustrate the disingenuousness of the mainstream media, both the New York Times and the Guardian did manage to report recently on a White police officer in Rochester NY pepper-spraying a Black woman who had been accused of shop-lifting. 

But nothing on two teens – old enough to know right from wrong – allegedly burning a vulnerable man to death.

Sadly, it is this refusal to report even-handedly – or even to not report at all – that plays right into the hands of the (proportionately) small number of far-right idiots and trouble-makers who live under various stones among us.  Do we wonder why there is a rise in far-right activity? Clearly, extremists of both ends of the political spectrum are responsible for their own words and actions. Nobody is forcing them to behave atrociously. But why stoke the fires of resentment so obviously in the media?  To use a common if not much-beloved trope of the left, what about ‘radicalisation’?  Does that only work on certain sorts of people?

The average man and woman in the street, in the UK certainly and I suspect also in the US, is fed up with the one-way nature of much of the public reporting (or not) and ‘narrative’ around race and society. The vast majority of us, Black and White, want to simply get on with each other and enjoy a peaceful life.  Yet the public ‘debate’ – for which read ‘propaganda’ – we see every day on TV, on radio and online, seems to be monopolized by the shrill, hectoring members of the grievance industry – all trying to climb to the top of the victim hierarchy.  Yet at the same time, these activists talk about ’empowering’ minorities – while designating them as helpless victims. How does that work?

The answer is, it doesn’t work at all. But the members of the grievance industry never seems to let common sense get in the way of their ‘vision’:

If you are non-White, you are a victim.  If you are White, you are an oppressor.

Well the silent majority are sick of it!  Yes, racism exists and is wrong. But it works both ways.

The great Thomas Sowell, a Black American economist, social theorist, political philosopher, and author, has been quoted as saying:

“If people in the media cannot decide whether they are in the business of reporting news or manufacturing propaganda, it is all the more important that the public understand that difference and choose their news sources accordingly”.

“If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today”.

“Even when black youth gangs target white strangers on the streets and spew out racial hatred as they batter them and rob them, mayors, police chiefs and the media tiptoe around their racism and many in the media either don’t cover these stories or leave out the race and racism involved”.

“Racism is not dead, but it is on life support — kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as ‘racists'”.

Couldn’t agree more, Mr Sowell.  Please keep up the good work.  We need you and more like you.

Meanwhile, we are left to ponder the fate of Mr Steven Amenhauser. A vulnerable man, living alone, with no family.

“I’ve seen the pictures of this guy and knowing he has no family around to speak for him,” Rochester Police Chief Umbrino said. “This is one that I’ll remember.” 

Rest in peace, Mr Amenhauser. Plenty of people feel for you. Even if not the mainstream media and the usual suspects.