Headline of the Day

[Content Note: Racism.]

screen cap of CNN's front page with giant headline reading: 'Verdict doesn't end debate' followed by a subhead reading: 'Zimmerman case shows racial divide' and text reading: 'Those opposed to the jury's decision took to the streets and social media to vent their outrage, but Zimmerman also has support.'

Really, CNN? What "debate" is that, exactly? The "debate" over whether this country is riddled with white supremacy? The "debate" over whether racism still exists? The "debate" over whether black people's lives are worth anything to their country? The "debate" over whether George Zimmerman was "defending himself" or engaging in racist eliminationist violence against an unarmed black teenager because he hasn't a shred of decency? What fucking "debate" hasn't been magically solved by the verdict in this case, CNN? DO TELL.

Pretending that there is even a "debate" about racism in the US with two valid sides, pretending that the reprehensible fact that "Zimmerman also has support" means there are two equivalent positions and DARN IT we just can't objectively determine which one of them is right, are key narratives to perpetuating white supremacy.

There is no debate. There is only obfuscating the aggressively wrong with false equivalencies.

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