A Twitter user went toe-to-toe with critics over the media’s use of a Black man’s mug shot after he was arrested and charged for defending his daughter.
User @LordHydration noted the hypocrisy of it all, noting how local media plastered Melvin Harris’ jail photo all over the news after he was charged with second-degree murder in the beating death of a suspect who tried forcing his way into his daughter’s bathroom stall at a Phoenix gas station earlier this month.
Meanwhile, media outlets have continued using cheesy family photos of Chris Watts, the white Colorado father who recently confessed to killing his pregnant wife and two young daughters. Shanann Watts and her daughters, Bella and Celeste, vanished last week and authorities recovered their remains Thursday at a petroleum facility where Watts worked, according to CNN.
The obvious double standard didn’t sit well with @LordHydration.
Twitter screenshot.
The Twitter user bolstered his argument by sharing video of the violent arrest of a white man who accused officers of “treating him like an f—–g Black person” and re–tweeted photos of Black police brutality victims juxtaposed against those of white mass shooters who were taken alive.
” … Interesting to note that white people fully grasp how poorly mistreated Black folks are in this country, but will still claim we’re playing the race card when these matters manifest on our bodies,” read a tweet he shared. “Racism is fluid.”
Some folks took issue with @LordHydration’s tweet, however, and accused him of “reaching.” To which he responded, “Tell me how I’m reaching with this one colonizer.”
“If Black lives matter, why are y’all still killing each other,” another person commented.
“This has to be the most played out question — white people act like blacks are the only ones killing out here. Let’s talk about white on world crime then,” @LordHydration quickly shot back, silencing his critic.
” … There are plenty of times a Black kid gets murdered and they only show pictures of him as a young innocent boy, or with his family, and not with the gangs he became part of,” another critic chimed in. “Obviously it’s not okay people are dying, but this point is completely irrelevant.”
@LordHydration replied, “This isn’t one of those times so suck my d–k.” Other times, the young man let everyone that his mission was not to care about their hurt feelings, “If I hurt your feelings let me know so I can tell you how I don’t care.”
There were also those who took his side, calling out the media’s clear racial bias and need for ratings.
Left: Media images of Black man who killed a man for trying to rape his daughter
Right: Media images of White man who killed his own two daughters, and his pregnant wife
This disparity is no accident. It’s how Media advances racism. We must demand better. pic.twitter.com/C89FObenyf
— Qasim Rashid for Congress (@QasimRashid) August 19, 2018
” … People need to wake up and realize that the media doesn’t care about anything but ratings,” one supporter wrote. “The people in charge don’t care about nothing but their money. If we want to end things like systemic racism, it needs to start with us the people joining together and putting an end to it.”
