Where's the Coverage on Daniel Holtzclaw?
By Kadijah Means
More than a year ago Daniel Holtzclaw, a police officer, was charged with 36 counts of sexual assault including rape and oral sodomy against 12 Black women and a 17 year old Black girl. The serial rapist is going to trial today, and the minimal news coverage is proof that Black women and girls are not only irrelevant to the American public, but also not considered real victims.
There is one case (only one) where a white man-- in this case white men-- are convicted of raping Betty Lee Owens a Black women, but not another case and definitely not a cop conviction. In this moment, Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who masqueraded as a Black women is trending on twitter, and I am further disgusted at the United States’ ability to erase the significance of Black women. White women are frequently awarded the sympathy of this nation, and seeing any moment spent on Dolezal, a white women, when Black women are fighting a battle history dictates they will lose is infuriating. While it is certainly possible to care about more than one pressing matter at a time-- that is not the case here. Daniel Holtzclaw has committed atrocities and his victims (survivors) deserve justice. Unfortunately, the United States’ history of denying the value of Black women, has created doubt that the justice these Black women deserve is one the U.S is capable of providing.
The lack of media coverage is expected as white media has displayed a lackadaisical approach to all things concerning the attack on Blackness. This is why we need Black media to inform our people about our people. So for now, we scour the internet for any coverage of the Holtzclaw trial; and hope that history doesn’t repeat itself in a disappointing, yet reasonably unsurprising way.