Every time violence occurs in a Black community, Fox News and One America News seize the moment like vultures circling a carcass. They trot out their favorite talking point “Black-on-Black crime” as if it’s some profound revelation instead of a tired, misleading dog whistle. But when white communities are ravaged by violence, from domestic disputes to mass shootings, these same outlets fall eerily silent. You’ll never hear them say “white-on-white crime,” even though the numbers are nearly identical.
Fox and OAN don’t report crime statistics, they weaponize them. They paint Black communities as inherently lawless, while portraying white violence as the work of isolated “troubled individuals.” When a Black teen is caught in a drive-by, it’s treated as proof of cultural decay. When a white man shoots up a school, it’s framed as a tragic anomaly, usually softened with sympathetic backstories about depression, bullying, or video games.
“White-on-white crime” doesn’t generate outrage clicks or fuel their culture war narrative. It doesn’t feed their base’s need for racial scapegoating.
Take the opioid epidemic. When it hit white rural America, Fox News pivoted to sympathy: “These are good people struggling with addiction. They need compassion, not punishment.” Compare that to the crack epidemic of the ’80s and ’90s, when Black communities were caricatured as dens of criminals, and the media cheered on mass incarceration.
Or consider mass shootings. Nearly all carried out by white men, yet Fox and OAN refuse to frame it as a systemic white problem. Instead, they fall back on “mental illness” narratives. Imagine if Black men were committing mass shootings at the same rate—Fox would run a permanent chyron screaming about “urban terrorism.” But when it’s white men? Suddenly it’s all nuance, sympathy, and avoidance of collective blame.
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