Framing is Everything

Just before the start of my last year of high school, an 18-year-old was shot by a police officer no more than 20 minutes away from my house. 

Social media was a madhouse. Between those who argued that the thug should not have been doing whatever it was to make the police officer upset that he did and those who argued that the police officer had no business killing him to begin with, there were also those who noted the media's portrayal of the incident. 

Between then and now, many tweets have been made calling out the fact that the same few pictures of Michael Brown were used by most news outlets. This would not be such a big deal if in any of these pictures Michael was smiling or wearing his cap and gown, as in other pictures Twitter was able to get a hold of. The pictures that were used more closely resembled mugshots. It was also made clear that other victims of violence, and in some cases, perpetrators themselves were given more humanizing portrayals. 

One thing I happened to pick up on myself is that the media never quite portrayed Michael Brown as a kid. Every 18-year-old on the planet is legally considered an adult, but for the most part, society does not actually view them that way. The term "college kids" pretty much makes that clear. Rarely, however, was Michael ever presented as a kid, or even as a high-schooler. 

He was only presented as a thug.

In contrast, at this past olympics, Ryan Lochte found himself in hot water over some actions he took outside of the pool. His defense? "Let's give these kids a break." 

He was 32 at the time. Had Ryan Lochte been a person of color, there's almost no doubt in my mind that nobody would have accepted that for an excuse. 

In addition to this, any demonstration in Ferguson or the greater St. Louis area was labeled as a "riot", even if in reality it was nothing more than a peaceful protest. My school district--which was located even farther away from Ferguson than I was--sent out letters and sent messages to the students regarding the safety of the city and the involvement in such "riots". I had wanted to participate in at least one demonstration, but due to the fact that demonstrations seemed to all be labeled as riots, and the riot police could show up to diffuse the so-called riots, I decided against this.

Fast forward to 2017. Not only are actual riots where people are injured or killed not called riots, but the police have also shown up to protect the rioting party from harm. Quite a turnaround.