Waco coverage shows double standard on race

[Judi Lynn]

Waco coverage shows double standard on race
By Sally Kohn, CNN Political Commentator
Updated 5:06 PM ET, Mon May 18, 2015


CNN)—On Sunday, just after news broke of a shootout in Waco, Texas, involving "rival biker gangs" as The New York Times alert phrased it, the political activist Shaun King wrote on Twitter:

"I'll wait (and wait and wait and wait) to hear someone on the news call what just happened in Waco 'white on white' violence."

When reporter Matt Pearce of the Los Angeles Times responded, "do we even know the race of the bikers yet?" activist Deray Mckesson tweeted:

"If they were black gangs, we'd certainly know by now. That's the point. Waco."

One of the most distinct characteristics of white privilege is the privilege to be unique. When white people commit violent acts, they are treated as aberrations, slips described with adjectives that show they are unusual and in no way representative of the broader racial group to which they belong.

More:
http://us.cnn.com/2015/05/18/opinions/kohn-biker-shooting-waco/index.html

[jonno99]

1. I'm not sure all the gang members benefit from white privilege...

Members of the Bandidos:

[MosheFeingold]

2. The Bandidos are mixed Anglo/Hispanic in my area

I don't know about the Cossacks, although I believe they are from West Texas, so I would presume mixed Anglo/Hispanic, as well.

[quadrature]

3. do the Bandidos let 'normal non-gang bikers' ride thru their territory?

or do you need a pass?

[MosheFeingold]

4. Not sure

I think anyone can ride if they don't have the rocker on their jacket.

I do recall that the dominant gang is SW Texas is the Bandidos, originally from Galveston. The Cossacks are upstarts and purportedly aligned with the HA. I think they are nominally from Russia, but really based in West Texas/New Mexico.

(All I post is OLD info, back when I a staffer for a Senator involved with the Justice Department. So ~10 years ago.)

If things follow normal pattern, this all really has to do with who controls I-35 and the East Texas meth trade.

FWIW, the bikers are generally not discriminatory against Hispanics/Whites and even Asians, except in prisons where things follow the normal path of these things. "Just" us Jews and blacks (although I think there were some black Bandidos, but they are also Hispanic/related to existing members).