This article is from today and it was like someone was reading this thread. I have taken bits of it and literally pasted it with links included below.
Five things the media gets wrong about white supremacist hate.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/media-white-supremacist-hateuss593850d5e4b0b13f2c66667a?section=usblack-voices&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000051
This is part of the article.
White supremacist terror is at the top of people’s minds after a white supremacist stabbed and killed two men who were defending two young black women, one in a hijab, from his bigoted rant in Portland, Oregon, last month.
The incident attracted widespread media coverage, which in turn drew criticism from many people on Twitter who denounced news outlets for not labeling the attack as terrorism.
There’s a familiar double standard in how the media treats violence by white supremacists versus violence by Islamist extremists. It’s time to get* *it right.
Beirich noted a recent spate of white supremacist attacks in the U.S. In addition to the May 26 Portland attack, there’s the March 20 murder of 66-year-old Timothy Caughman, who was black, by a man who traveled to New York City expressly to kill African-American men, and the May 22 killing of Richard Collins III, a black college student in Maryland, by a man who belonged to a white supremacist Facebook group.
“When it comes to Muslim terrorism, nobody questions it’s a problem that’s an ongoing threat ― a security problem, radicalization problem, et cetera ― which it is,” Beirich said. “But when it comes to Portland or Dylann Roof [the 2015 Charleston church shooter], they always seem to appear as one-offs.”
White supremacist hate doesn’t just manifest as violent extremism, Chideya noted.
“People frame it as weird guys with fringe beliefs ― no,” Chideya said. “White supremacists don’t just wear hoods and give Nazi salutes. White nationalists are in the U.S. government.”
She pointed to “institutionalized white nationalism, like voting laws,” mentioning North Carolina’s voting practices an example of “de facto white nationalism.” The courts recently found that the state’s legislative districts were drawn to intentionally disadvantage black voters.
Chideya also mentioned “political white nationalism, like in the White House,” calling out the links between the white supremacist movement and upper echelons of the federal government.
What is terrorism? Acts designed to inspire terror. But somehow, we don’t call this terrorism,” Chideya told HuffPost of the Portland attack. “When a Muslim terrorist kills one, two, five people, it’s immediately labeled terrorism. But when a white nationalist kills one, two, five people, it’s not labeled terrorism. But they’re the same.”
“I know there are concerns about journalists who don’t want to report on a neo-Nazi rally where four people show up, because those groups are just seeking attention ― and that’s a valid point,” Beirich said. “But when we’re talking about domestic terrorism and hate crimes related to white supremacy ― that’s a real thing.”
“I understand not wanting to draw attention to small instances,” she added, noting specifically the series of news stories about white supremacist flyers on college campuses. “But when people are getting killed because of this, we’ve got to pay attention.”