On Wednesday, The Post published a Streetview piece that interviewed five individuals with the prompt, “Do you think the #HandsUpWalkOut rally was effective for the cause?” Four of the five individuals interviewed were white. Let’s get something straight: #HandsUpWalkOut is about the struggles of people of color in our justice system. It’s about institutionalized racism that disproportionately affects black communities. When The Post chose to only publish interviews with white community members, they perpetuated the very issue that #HandsUpWalkOut is trying to fight: a lack of diversity, a lack of voices from individuals other than the privileged majority. I am not blaming The Post. I’m sure this is something they didn’t even consider when they went out to gather interviews and pictures that day. But that is no excuse. They published pictures of white people who don’t even seem to actively participate in the rally and march, holding their hands up and appropriating a symbol of injustice that they most likely have never had to experience. Media holds a lot of power in our society, and it is no different on this campus: the narratives that they choose to include or exclude reflect the larger issues of systemic oppression. This is not “poor race relations”... this is institutionalized racism.
Caitlyn McDaniel is a senior studying war and peace studies and the vice president of Student Senate.
