TO THE EDITOR:
It seems that in every news story lately, race plays a major role. The reason race has resurfaced as the topic of focus is due to a horrible tragedy in Chapel Hill where three students were killed by a middle-aged man. However, notice in the last sentence I did not use race or religious affiliation to describe either party.
Although race can simply be used as a way of describing a person’s appearance, news articles seem to fixate their entire story on race or religion. When you look at news stories about the shooting, most of the titles say three Muslims rather than just saying three students or three young people.
Why is that? Well, society has become desensitized to stories about people being killed, so the media tries to overcompensate by dramatizing stories and being quick to label something as a “hate crime.” I am not saying that hate crimes aren’t still a reoccurring issue, but the media tends to portray the story that is more likely to grab the reader’s attention.
UNC, a school known to create positive social change, should try to put out stories that focus more on the people in the stories rather than on something as superficial as race. However, in cases where acts of racism are a factor, I think race should definitely be emphasized.
Hannah Richey
Freshman
Chemistry
