Letter: Reporting on race and violence

An article in the April 18 Daily Herald entitled "Resident charged in shooting Black teen" described an 84-year-old man shooting a 16-year-old. Racial definitions are listed describing both individuals. At this point, why is such definition necessary?

Isn't it enough of a tragedy that a person was allegedly wrongfully injured by gun violence? How does it add to the story other than to further create animosity with such animosity leading to further misunderstanding, fear and violence.

It seems that unless the parties are of a different race, then it is not newsworthy. How else can you explain the sustained blind spot that media and government have for the unbelievable gun violence in the city of Chicago other than report it in aggregate totals compared to the previous year. Maybe the front page should list incidents of Chicago and suburban gun violence individually on the front page each week (14,495 shootings in Chicago since 2018, averaging 56 per week). There might not be enough room on the front page for any other news.

As an alternative example, there was another article in the same Daily Herald entitled "4-year-old boy killed in crash" about a 4-year-old killed in a car accident. That article did not describe racial attributes of any of the parties involved. The difference in the two articles make it appear that a 4-year-old's death is a tragedy, but a 16-year-old's being shot isn't unless they are not white.

When a person is wronged, does it make any difference what race they are? Don't we all bleed the same? Media needs to stop its own unnecessary racial discrimination (look up the dictionary definition).

David Clark

Libertyville