And what do you say to the family? What can you say? “I’m so sorry” seems like the most ineffectual, weak three words in the English language. But it was all I could think of yesterday. It was what I murmured into Darnetta’s sister’s neck when I hugged her. It was what I said to her oldest daughter and her other relatives in the receiving line as I squeezed their hands. But it just sounded horribly, horribly inadequate. [...] "Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s much of a story in [the media's] eyes. It was a straight domestic violence case. And the family was black.” Had this happened, say, in my parents’ community, to a WASP-y family, I suspect the media would have gone into its usual overdrive—interviews with neighbors, former co-workers, distant family members. Experts talking about domestic violence, warning signs.
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
[Archives: 2001 and after]
Archives before February 5, 2001
Search entries:
12/19/2001: vive la france
12/19/2001: princess, redux
12/19/2001: yemen and rumsfeld
12/18/2001: you're NOT in the army now
12/18/2001: interesting donation
12/18/2001: shame on winn dixie, indeed
12/18/2001: saudi princess
12/17/2001: new resolve
12/17/2001: a victim of the attack ... yeah, right
12/17/2001: polluters ho!