Several conservative sites this week declared they had “debunked” New York Times columnist Charles Blow’s story about his son, who was allegedly stopped recently at gunpoint by a Yale police officer.
What was the bombshell that Blow had supposedly kept secret? The officer was apparently black.
In an op-ed published Sunday, Blow had relayed a story from his son Tahj about his recent run-in with a campus police officer who allegedly raised his gun and told the student to turn around and get on the ground.
Blow wrote that he was “exceedingly happy” that he had spoken to his son previously about precautions young black men should take when confronted by a police officer.
“In these moments, what you’ve done matters less than how you look,” he wrote.
Yale University later issued a campus-wide email that, among other things, noted that the officer in question was black, according to The Root.
Conservative media was convinced the officer’s race blew the entire story wide open.
“RACE-HOAX DEBUNKED: COP WHO DETAINED CHARLES BLOW’S SON IS BLACK,” was the Drudge-like headline at Breitbart News.
Editor-in-chief John Nolte slammed the “racially-charged” column, calling it another case of “prominent Leftists caught red-handed hurling false accusations of racism.”
“He Omitted One HUGE Fact,” read the headline at the Tea Party News Network, which condemned Blow along with the “anarchists and race hustlers” pushing his story, and “Communist New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio” for good measure.
Finally, over at the conservative media watchdog Newsbusters: “Race Matters: NY Times Columnist Charles Blow Omits His Son Detained by (Black) Cop at Yale.”
The site wrote that Blow was simply “pretending” that he had educated his son about racial inequities in American law enforcement, pointing to the “(ahem, black) cops” in this case.
Blow appeared on CNN Thursday night and told host Anderson Cooper that the racial component doesn’t change the point of what happened.
“It was more about culture of the police officers dealing with these young black men than individual officers dealing with these young black men,” he said.
How many times do conservatives need to hear it?
It is not a “White vs Black” issue. It is a “Cops vs Black” issue.
This matters…why?
The story Blow told about his son, a Yale student, being stopped mainly for being black almost made me cry. The son was coming out the Yale library, the police had received word of a crime nearby, so why not grab the nearest black kid. The boy had been coached by his father on how to respond and Blow remains furious. The conservatives who are trying to debunk this story suck at being human…
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This matters…why?
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To my mind, it’s just another example of young black men being harassed by police, told to get down on the ground simply because they’re black. And you say?
It matters because brain-dead morons like Nolte want to keep pushing the myth of “post-racial America.” Blow never, ever intimated the race of the officer who detained his son; and it really doesn’t make a lick of a difference. If the writers at Breitbart’s Mausoleum want to pretend that a non-white officer can’t behave in just as blind and bigoted manner as a white policeman, they are sadly misinformed. Good for Mr. Blow for defending himself and his son. A disgusting attack by prejudiced, ignorant people. No surprise.