Tulsa World Editorials: Tulsa World Wrong Again

by Maggie at Maggie's Notebook

An editorial in the July 25th Tulsa World is wrong again, not to mention biased again, not to mention muddying the facts again. As the Tulsa World rolls off the presses every night, the assumption on the editorial page is that America Whites are racists, and racist Whites are Republicans.

Today's unattributed editorial headline is "Who Goes There?" Harvard prof's arrest sparks debate. The problem is, this editorial doesn't debate.

This journalistic endeavor begins with a question: "If the Harvard professor who was arrested while trying to break into his own home were white, would he have been arrested at all?" "You can't say for sure" this piece says "because the circumstances are still unclear and you don't know the arresting officer or the professor."

Really? We have police reports by the arresting officer, a White man and an attending officer, a Hispanic officer, as well as at least one Black officer on the scene who has given his support to Sgt. James Crowley publicly.

The Tulsa World calls the details "cloudy," but at no time has Professor Henry Louis Gates charged that the police report was not factual. Maybe that's because there were plenty of witnesses, including neighbors that were not city officials.

It's important to note, that the Tulsa World thinks it important to note, that two Black Massachusetts officials have apologized to Professor Gates. That would be Governor Deval Patrick, a close friend of Barack Obama and Cambridge mayor, Denise Simmons. Maybe we should also point out that these two Black people didn't bother to apologize to Sgt. James Crowley.

I don't know about you, but as a White person, I take offense to it, just as Harry Alford, president of the National Black Chamber of Commerce was offended when Senator Barbara Boxer lost her way in a Senate hearing this week. Boxer countered some claims Alford was making about global warming job losses by quoting only Liberal dissenting Blacks. Alford asked her why she didn't quote Asians or ...." That's racial," he said and he was right. See the video below - it gets good at about 1:30 in.

This unnamed Tulsa editorialist opines on the bad behavior of the Cambridge police:

Black students and professors have complained for years that Cambridge and campus police are guilty of racial profiling. and it is a fact that blacks and Latinos are stopped by police more than other ethnic groups.

Really? If you are stating a fact then back it up. How can we believe your assertion that the Cambridge police are racist? And call it what it is. This was not racial profiling. A neighbor called the police to the scene.

Speaking of that racist, profiling Cambridge police department, cut them some slack. After all, Barack Obama was issued 17 parking violations during his time as a student at Harvard and only paid two of them until he began his presidential campaign. Quite generous treatment from the Cambridge police actually. Had that been me, a White woman parking in a bus stop, my car would have been towed.

And speaking of Barack Obama, it is ironic that you choose not to mention Obama in this tale of the professor and the cop, because after all, he is the story.

This sorry excuse for an editorial is what Tulsans are treated to for their money, everyday, and that's a fact that I'll back it up with any single issue of the Tulsa World that you can find.

The article ends with those so familiar words intended to show that perhaps you are just a little less racist than everyone else:

There is no doubt that racism is alive and well in the United States....If nothing else, the Gates episode gives us a reason to talk about our problems and the opportunity to move forward.

Sadly, racism will always be with us. And that should only make our resolve stronger.

What is sad is that no matter what American's of any color do, institutions like the Tulsa World can't stand to see things getting better. How long have we heard that Whites would never help elect a Black for president, and yet that is exactly what we did. If you want to criticize, at least do it honestly. Point out the fact that a conservative Black has a triple mountain to climb to get to a national political office or high-up in Ivy League academia, for that matter. About the only time that happens is when a conservative of any color can appoint a Black to the major leagues, because Liberal Whites and Blacks disdain conservative Blacks. If you are conservative and you are Black in America, you are nothing more than a bigoted White.