News headlines such as “Knockout Game Suspect Charged with Hate Crime” could prove detrimental to black urban youth.

With the perception that ‘young black men in urban communities are inherently dangerous’ already prevalent, should the growing prominence of the “knockout game” in the mainstream media be cause of concern? It would appear to be a pointed campaign toward demonizing black youth.

In a recent Huffington Post Live interview, victim James Addlespurger said, “I feel like I’m exploited”. He then says, “People need a label. If they’re selling toothpaste or CDs or news stories, they need a label … To me it’s an assault, plain and simple.”

This should leave others to questions the legitimacy of the media’s portrait of what is a supposed alarmingly growing trend. Much of the crime footage has been edited and disseminated for shock value.

The videos, which displays unsuspecting victims being maligned by apparently ill-intentioned young men, depicts the knock out game as a racially motivated game where young black men target whites.

Fox News Pundit Bill O’Reilly used excerpts of the video, saying, “It all goes back to an alienation of

D. Demond King

young black men… primarily because their angry they didn’t have a family and their father abandoned them…”

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This markedly biased opinion being projected by media outlets across the country is only one example of the distortion of facts associated with this developing story.

D. Demond King is president of the Redemption Center. For more information about TRC, visit www.redeemedworld.org

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