Greg's Corner

Why are we outraged about the wrong things when it comes to the violent Facebook assault?

By now most people have heard about the violent assault and torture of an 18-year-old special needs man in Chicago by 4 other people that was streamed on Facebook Live. Since the assailants were African-American and the victim was white, and the assailants used expletives against ‘white people’ and Donald Trump, Facebook erupted into its usual storm of outrage but as usual they were outraged about the wrong things.

Facebook users shouted out cries of reverse racism and said that the perpetrators should be charged with hate crimes. Some people even blamed the Black Lives Matter movement for this tragedy. The problem with this story, as it is with many, is that many people don’t even read past the headline and if they did they only read up to the part where one of the suspects said “F—- white people” and where the victim was made to say “f— Donald Trump”.

What many people may not know is that this was a not a random crime. The victim not only knew one of his attackers but was thought to be friends with him. Close enough friends with him that the victim’s parents trusted that their special needs son would be ok spending the night with his friend. There was no gang of black thugs roaming the streets of Chicago looking for defenseless white victims to torture.

We should be outraged over this story. We should be outraged that a special needs man was tortured. We should be outraged that this callous act was streamed live on Facebook/ We should be outraged that people watched it and the video remained on Facebook for 30 minutes. What we shouldn’t be outraged over is the color of the skin of anyone involved. The more we focus on color the more we divide ourselves and take a step back in history.