Journalist Assassinated in Oakland

On most days being a journalist in the United States is not nearly as dangerous as being a taxi driver. Outside the U.S. the killing of journalists – the killing of the messenger, if you will – is more commonplace.

Last week, for the first time in several decades, an American journalist was assassinated in the line of duty in Oakland, California. A masked gunman shot to death Chauncey Bailey, the editor of Oakland’s Black weekly newspaper, The Oakland Post. A 19-year-old member of a splinter Black Muslim group has confessed to the slaying. Hardly anyone believes he acted alone. [[The young man's group is not affiliated with the Nation of Islam.]]

West Coast media have paid attention to this. So has CNN. So has Farai Chidaya, host of National Public Radio’s daily program, News and Notes. Richard Prince, the online columnist has been all over this story (http://www.maynardije.org/columns/dickprince).

But where there should be outrage-tinged coverage among other media, there has been no coverage at all. When will Black + American yield equal treatment? When will Black life be as valued as that of Whites? Had a White editor been gunned down on an American city street, most likely because of a story on which he was working, wouldn’t that editor’s name – or at least the incident – be the subject of conversation and protest across this land?

Contact your local media and ask what’s going on.