Essay 3 Draft

How Overt Racism is Still Seen in Media Today

In Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy, Walter McMillian is convicted of killing Ronda Morrison, a young white woman. Despite the fact that his case was built on fabricated lies, facts, and testimonies, he is given a death sentence. Stevenson explains how “Walter thought the testimony was so nonsensical he couldn’t believe people were taking it seriously. Why wasn’t everyone laughing?” until, “Stone-faced, one by one, [the jury] pronounced Walter McMillian guilty” (Stevenson 66). In a case where the truth was evident, the jury and judge failed to see it. Why? Because, in 1987, the public expected a black man to be responsible for the crime, especially a heinous crime like this done to a young white woman with a bright future. Exemplary scholars such as Michelle Alexander, Elizabeth Hinton, and James Forman discuss the systematic problems behind America’s mass incarceration. Yet, we shouldn’t forget that there is another side to the coin. There is a danger that by solely focusing on the system, we will miss that there is still present and persistent overt, explicit racism seen from courtrooms to the front covers of newspapers. In fact, this racial discrimination is seen in newspapers covering almost identical crimes done a couple of years apart by defendants of different races. This essay compares the news media surrounding the “Preppy Murder” in 1987 – featuring the rape and killing of a white woman by a privileged white man – and the Central Park Jogger case in 1989 – featuring five minority teenagers raping a white woman in the same location. Despite the similarities between these cases, the media used strikingly different language to describe the accused, demonstrating that in addition to a systematic system, mass incarceration is also influenced by the overt racism still seen today. 

In the discussion surrounding mass migration, many scholars such as Alexander, Hinton, and Forman focus on the problems in the systemic system. Alexander, while discussing the New Jim Crow analogy, explains how the system doesn’t require actual explicit racism. She says, “Not every aspect of a racial caste system needs to be developed for the specific purpose of controlling black people in order for it to operate to trap them at the bottom of a racial hierarchy” (Alexander 229). Alexander limits her analogy by focusing more closely on how the system functions without explicit bias. However, this means that there is a part of the debate that is not being given enough light. Hinton and Forman’s ideas follow a similar vein. Their works focus on an extremely important part of the conversation, but this doesn’t negate the fact that there is another facet of the debate that we need to not overlook. 

New York Times reporter Samuel Freedman discusses how, in August 1986, Robert Chambers raped and killed Jennifer Levine in Central Park. Chambers was 19 at the time, and Levine was 18. They had known each other for about two months and had dated on and off during that time. After separately coming to a bar owned by Jack Dorrian called Dorrian’s Red Hand, they left together. Early the next morning, Levine was found dead. Chambers was convicted and given 15 years in prison for first degree manslaughter.  

In April 1989 five teenagers ages ranging from 14 to 15 years old were arrested for the alleged sexual assault of 28-year-old white Trisha Meili (Baldwin). Even though the young boys maintained their innocence throughout the case, the police illegally obtained confessions, and there was no conclusive DNA testing, they were all sentenced to 7 to 13 years in prison (Baldwin). It wasn’t until 2002 when Mathias Reyes belatedly confessed to raping Meili that the teenagers’ convictions were vacated. 

Chambers was guilty, yet the media portrayed him throughout his trial as a traditional “American” boy who just got a little too rowdy during sex. A New York Times article published two days after the crime described Chambers as someone who, “Possessed charisma and mature good looks rare for a 19-year-old. He stood 6 feet 4 inches tall, weighed 220 pounds and was a gifted athlete” (Freedman). The article continues with its stunning review of Chambers by describing how Chamber’s yearbook read ”Nothing less than total success,”(Freedman) under his yearbook photograph. The bar owner where Chambers and Levine were seen the night of the crime shows a high view of Chambers by describing him as being, “The nicest kid you’d want to meet” (Freedman). He goes on to explain, ‘He didn’t have to chase girls. They chased him” (Freedman). Media described Chambers as athletic, successful, kind, and attractive. After reading an article praising his character, it isn’t hard for readers to believe Chambers’ initial testimony that Levine died during consensual ‘rough sex’ (Chokshi). Levine, on the other hand, was not painted in a good light, her stepmother even describing her as a ‘prude’ (Freedman). Chambers was given leniency in the eyes of the media even though he committed a horrible, vicious crime. How much of it was because of his white skin? 

Three years later, in the Central Jogger Case, five young minority teenage boys were portrayed in a strikingly racist and negative light. A New York Times article explained how law enforcement ran genetic testing they “hoped would link” (Sullivan) the teenagers to the crime. They weren’t looking for the truth – they were looking for a crime. In addition, the media described investment banker victim Meili as extremely successful with phrases like, ”She was brilliant, probably one of the top four or five students of the decade” (Farber), “An accomplished ballet student”, and the fact that she was nominated for a Rhodes Scholar. New York City’s community was furious at these young boys that had, in their eyes, killed one of their finest. In fact, Donald Trump published a flaming article in four big-name newspapers, including the New York Times, showing some of the most extreme, overt racism seen in print that decade. His article is full of shocking phrases such as, “I want to hate these murderers and I always will”, “They should be forced to suffer” and, “I want them to be afraid” (Ransom). Trump inflamed the hearts of New York’s population by convincing people that it was morally right to hate the accused because they embodied the ‘wild criminals’ that were persecuting the city. The media saw the case as being simple: black men, no matter how young they were raped and almost killed an affluential white woman. No matter the problems in the trial – there was no doubt in peoples’ minds if they were guilty or not. The media’s portrayal had already set the result of the trial in stone. 

In the 1980s, the media had no problem with portraying the character of a white man who raped a young woman in a positive light and the characters of teenage boys wrongfully accused in a vastly more negative light. And even though we might brush this fact off by saying that it was three decades ago, the truth is blatant racism is still present today in addition to the systemic racism described by Forman, Hinton and Alexander. Now president-elect Donald Trump to this day shows overt racism towards the boys involved in the Central Jogger Case. In 2013, he tweeted, “The Central Park Five documentary was a one-sided piece of garbage that didn’t explain the horrific crimes of these young men while in park” (Morin). This statement was made after the real rapist stepped forward and confessed. But the truth is, racism is seen beyond Trump or our media. It is still a part of the everyday life of black Americans. As we fight and bring awareness to systemic racism, its vital that the still-present overt racism is not left out of the conversation. 

Works cited:

Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow. The New Press, 2010. 

Baldwin, C. (2001). The Development of Rhetorical Privilege in the News Reporting of Violent Crime. Race, Gender & Class (Towson, Md.), 8(4), 8–19.

Chokshi, Niraj. “Eric Schneiderman, Consent and Domestic Violence.” New York Times, 8 May 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/nyregion/consent-sexual-assault-rough-sex.html. Accessed 17 Nov. 2024. 

Farber, M. A. “‘Smart, Driven’ Woman Overcomes Reluctance.” The New York Times, 17 July 1990, www.nytimes.com/1990/07/17/nyregion/smart-driven-woman-overcomes-reluctance.html. Accessed 16 Nov. 2024. 

Forman, James. “Hein Online.” “Racial Critiques of Mass Incarceration: Beyond the New Jim Crow.,” Apr. 2012, heinonline.org/HOL/Page?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/nylr87&id=2154&men_tab=srchresults. Accessed 22 July 2020. 

​​Freedman, Samuel G. “DARKNESS BENEATH THE GLITTER: LIFE OF SUSPECT IN PARK SLAYING.” New York Times, 28 Aug. 1986, www.nytimes.com/1986/08/28/nyregion/darkness-beneath-the-glitter-life-of-suspect-in-park-slaying.html. Accessed 16 Nov. 2024. 

Hinton, Elizabeth. From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime, The Making of Mass Incarceration in America. Harvard University Press, 2016. 

Morin, Rebecca. “‘They Admitted Their Guilt’: 30 Years of Trump’s Comments about the Central Park Five.” USA Today, 19 June 2019, www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/06/19/what-trump-has-said-central-park-five/1501321001/. Accessed 17 Nov. 2024. 

Stevenson, Bryan. Just Mercy. Penguin Random House LLC. , 2014. 

Sullivan, Ronald. “CHAMBERS GETS 5 TO 15 YEARS AND OFFERS APOLOGY IN COURT.” New York Times, 16 Apr. 1988, www.nytimes.com/1988/04/16/nyregion/chambers-gets-5-to-15-years-and-offers-apology-in-court.html. Accessed 16 Nov. 2024. 

Sullivan, Ronald. “Genetic Tests ‘Inconclusive’ In Jogger Rape.” The New York Times, 10 Oct. 1989, www.nytimes.com/1989/10/10/nyregion/genetic-tests-inconclusive-in-jogger-rape.html. Accessed 16 Nov. 2024. 

Ransom, Jan. “Trump Will Not Apologize for Calling for Death Penalty Over Central Park Five.” The New York Times, 18 June 2018, www.nytimes.com/2019/06/18/nyregion/central-park-five-trump.html. Accessed 17 Nov. 2024.