Jeff Babcock: Missing outrage

The Dec. 31 letter “A matter of justice” in response to the Dec. 30 letter “Maleah’s meaning” misses the point the original writer was trying to make.

I don’t think the original writer was saying that black lives don’t matter. I think he was saying that there is not a balanced response in the media or a subset of the public when a black person is killed. If a black person is killed by another black person, there are no protests or die-ins or calls for justice. Those protests are reserved for the killing of a black person by a white person. There is no balance. It seems as though black lives matter to black people only if a white person is involved. No moral marches, no looting, no media outrage, no cries for justice, no dies-ins, no Sharpton or Jackson or Barber, nothing. Why?

As Al Sharpton says, it’s because the community doesn’t air its dirty laundry. Why? How does that help or change anything?

If all people treated all killings the same way, there may be change. All killings of a black person or any person by anyone matters, protest them all, equally, and there may be real substantive change.

This story was originally published January 2, 2016 at 12:34 PM with the headline "Jeff Babcock: Missing outrage."