D.C. NPR Family Another Victim of Black Violence and Denial

If Lori Kaplan depended only on her employers at NPR for news, she was probably surprised at the black mob violence that almost killed her white husband.

Kaplan is the Senior Director of Audience Research at NPR in downtown Washington, D.C. That is where she regularly meets her husband at the end of his evening commute on the Metro Red Line.

That is what she was recently doing when she received a text message from him: An “idiot gang” was acting belligerently in his train car, so he was going to move.

That was the last she heard from him until he got off the train: bloody, beaten, and dazed. With a broken jaw and missing teeth.

The Washington Post writer who covers commuting — not crime — picked up the story:

one of the youths approached a man who appeared to be in his 30s and asked for his bag. The man remained calmly in his seat, she said, when one of the youths began throwing punches.

Smyth said the punching continued maybe “30 seconds or so” when the victim, who appeared dazed, started to walk away from the youth. That’s when “the second kid jumped in and punched him square in the jaw,” she said.

She said the man passed out and hit the floor of the train’s front car.

The reporter, a former NPR correspondent, either did not know or did not think it was important to include a description of the “idiot gang.”

Hundreds of readers of the story thought it was important — and many mentioned their own experiences with black on white violence on the D.C. Metro.

The attackers of Kaplan’s husband were black — as are virtually all of the violent predators on the Washington Metro. A fact the Post and NPR keep trying to ignore and wish away, even as they devote more and more space to Black Lives Matter and the omnipresence of white racism.

The reporter was upholding a longstanding tradition at the Post — which at NPR is an ironclad rule — not to report on the epidemic of black on white crime and black mob violence in Washington or anywhere else.

Or only to dismiss it as some kind of right wing talking point, if somehow race does sneak into the coverage.

At NPR they take this exclusion to the extreme: Virtually every story on race — and there are many — is told from the perspective of relentless black victimization at the hands of perpetual white racism.

As I sat down to write this article, the black mayor of Memphis is patiently explaining to the fawning correspondent how 400 years of racism and slavery are still “embedded,”

The NPR correspondent pretended this observation is new — and not something heard on NPR every day, often dozens of times a day — for the last 50 years.

Soon after, a white gay man said he identifies with “African Americans” because he is also a minority.

That host chose to ignore the longstanding antipathy — and violence — of many black people towards gay people — which is present in popular culture and in crime stories today.

And by the way, if you are looking for some good children’s books about white on black racism, especially from police, NPR can recommend a boatload of those. And they do.

In between segments, NPR house ads featured the late Daniel Schorr proclaiming how the election of Barack Obama as the “first African American president” is a miracle — because, as everyone understands, everyone who does not listen to NPR is racist and bigot.

And that is why they are supporting Donald Trump.

Another daily theme on NPR — also explained patiently that day by the mayor of Memphis.

Unexplained was the enormous amount of crime and black on white violence in the Chocolate City of Memphis — and lots of other places. Maybe next time. If you cannot wait, pick up a copy of Don’t Make the Black Kids Angry. There are lots of links and stories and videos documenting the black on white crime and hostility there. And the rest of the country too.

The Black Lives Matter mob and its spiritual godfathers have open and uncritical and constant access to the news portals at NPR. At “Fresh Air”, hostess Terry Gross was running out of ways to express her sympathy with black victimization and disgust with white racism during a recent interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates, whose book on black victimization was more than a favorite, it was an NPR fetish.

The other popular NPR shows – “This American Life”, “Radio Lab”, “All Things Considered”– are not far behind. Every college professor and community organizer who wants to spread half-truths and lies about black victimization and white racism and the ever-popular ‘police who pick on black people for no reason whatsoever,’ know all they have to do is ask.

Long after “hands up, don’t shoot” was discredited as just another racial fairy tale,” NPR and its producers and guests stuck with it, with enthusiasm and naiveté.

If not outright deceit.

Come to think of it, that was outright deceit.

And when the President of the United States needed a place to deliver his Christmas message, i.e. remind people how he was a victim of racism too, darn it, where would he go but NPR? Nowhere.

Despite these and thousands of other racial references every year on NPR, there is never any pushback. Not one host or guest asking “really?”

Not one news reader mentioning, however timidly, the enormous gap between black and white crime rates. The enormous black on white hostility that is now mainstream.

The enormous number of victims of black on white crime and violence.

The Kaplan family is far from the first family to see their carefully constructed make-believe world of relentless black victimization burst apart with a shocking dose of violence and reality.

Last year, David Ruenzel was living a life of white privilege as an Oakland schoolteacher. He knew better than most what that term meant: He helped invent it as a writer for the Southern Poverty Law Center.

While exercising his white privilege on a remote hiking trail in Oakland, several black people killed him.

Earlier this year, federal judge Susan Dlott felt a similar lash of ironic victimization. As a federal judge, she was an early adopter in banning the idea and practice of racial profiling. Earlier this month, three black people broke into her home and were pushing her 79-year old husband down a flight of stairs when she escaped to dial 911.

She had no qualms in immediately identifying her attackers by race. She did it twice.

Even other NPR news people are not exempt. In 2013 while Code Switch was busy assuring the “educated and sophisticated” audience of NPR that black racial violence and hostility was just another concoction of the big bad Colin Flaherty and the suckers who believed his books and videos and news reports, this NPR honcho chimed in.

“Folks, as a Program Director at an NPR station, I don’t usually get involved in discussions like this, but I have personal experience with this so-called game,” said John Hingsbergen from Kentucky.

“It was this past May (2013), just a block from the Hilton Garden Inn on First St, N.E. While I was taking a brief walk around the area, within sight of the hotel and with plenty of other people on the sidewalk, a teenager walked up to me and smacked me on the side of the head. Thankfully, he was not strong enough to “knock out” this 60+ year old so all I did was spin around, only to see him take off running to the other side of the street to join two companions who were laughing as if it was the most hilarious thing they’d ever seen.”

“Is there a racial component? I choose to believe not but sadly this was an African American teenager attacking an older white man.”

Meanwhile Kaplan’s husband will probably live. But he will never be the same.

Colin Flaherty is the author of Don’t Make the Black Kids Angry: The hoax of black victimization. He is easy to find on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.