The Christian Chronicle (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 73, No. 6, Ed. 1 Wednesday, June 1, 2016 Page: 4 of 35
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NSIDE STORY
4 THE CHRISTIAN CHRONICLE
JUNE 2016
JOURNALISTS: Does'Black Lives Matter'mean other lives don't?
BBB
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President and CEO: Lynn A McMillon
lynn.mcmillon@christianchronicle.org
Editor: ErikTryggestad
erik@christianchronicle.org
Race and policing highlight
Faulkner's Fred Gray symposium
"All Lives Matter? The Constitutional Role of Race
in Policing" was the topic of the recent Fred Gray Civil
Rights Symposium hosted by Faulkner University's
law school in Montgomery. Ala. Gray, an attorney who
defended Rosa Parks and argued in other high-profile
cases of the civil right movement, is a longtime elder
and minister for Churches of Christ.
"We still have serious problems with proper train-
ing of law enforcement officials, because many of
these instances that have occurred,"Gray said at
the symposium, referencing recent, racially charged
shootings by police in states across the U.S.
Rob McFarland, an associate dean of Faulkner's
law school, said, "The topics discussed at this sym-
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sure we understand the narrative.
I think Robert Case, director of
the World Journalism Institute, said
it pretty well in a speech to a group
of students in 2012: “The dominant
role for the journalist who is a
Christian is an unrelenting striver
for verifiable truth.”
Jesus said it even better.
“I came into the world to testify to
the truth. Everyone on the side of
truth listens to me.” (John 18:37)
Most of the students in our course
didn’t understand the Black Lives
Matter movement going into the
weekend, said Doug Mendenhall,
assistant professor and journalist in
residence at ACU. With input from
two Christians in broadcast media,
“the students really got a chance to
see how this movement helped bring
a perspective to life,” he added.
The class ended on a Sunday after-
noon — almost the way it started —
with questions. Oprah Winfrey, on the
final episode of her talk show, shared
with her audience what she’s learned
after 4,300 episodes and more than
30,000 interviews. The three ques-
tions people most need answered are:
“Do you see me? Do you hear me?
Does what I say matter to you?”
I pray that future generations of
Christians in media will understand
those questions — and that they’ll
be willing to quickly raise their
hands and answer yes.
held responsible.”
By the end of the course, it was
clear: Covering this movement and
these cases requires a sense of
understanding. We must recognize
that everyone yearns for validation.
And sometimes, when it doesn’t
come through traditional avenues,
people pave their own path.
Our role as Christian journalists
remains the same no matter what
we cover. Look for the objective,
compassionate story and tell both
sides fairly. We just have to make
FAULKNER UNIVERSITY
Fred Gray speaks during
the Faulkner Law event.
posium address directly real issues concerning our nation."
See www.christianchronide.org for more on race and Churches of Christ,
including Lynn McMillon's Dialogue with Gray, "On Ferguson, faith and the fight
for equality." Also, see "The broken soul of Baltimore," Bobby Ross Jr.'s report on
Christians in the riot-torn city after the death of Freddie Gray in police custody.
The Society of Professional Journalists'Oklahoma Pro Chapter recently honored
Ross'story from Baltimore with a first-place award for diversity coverage.
researched the cases, highlighted
the role of the media and the Black
Lives Matter movement, interviewed
their peers and wrote a public rela-
tions response. They presented the
results in class.
“I found this very disturbing,”
said senior Daniel Block, whose
group profiled the Tamir Rice case
in Cleveland. He was a 12-year-old
shot by a police officer who mistook
Tamir’s pellet gun for the real thing.
“It just seems (that) in most — if
not all — of the cases no one was
FROM PAGE 3
commander for a gated community
in Florida.
The tensions sparked by the
case escalated with the 2014
shooting death of Michael Brown
in Ferguson, Mo., and grew from
there. Now #blacklivesmatter is a
social media tag for a movement
that showcases how black lives —
mostly young black men — are
cut short. And when it comes to
accountability — an arrest, indict-
ment or a conviction — too many
times justice seems to be denied.
As the tag started trending on
social media, so did the response “all
lives matter.” In the course at ACU,
we determined that this is a given.
People of faith should value all life.
But does the Black Lives Matter
movement imply that other lives don’t?
I brought up Mark Zuckerberg,
founder of Facebook. In February,
he scolded employees for what he
called several recent instances of
people crossing out “Black Lives
Matter” on the famous signature
walls at the company’s New York
headquarters — the real-life equiva-
lent of Facebook’s virtual walls —
and writing “all lives matter” instead.
Multiple media reported on
Zuckerberg’s response, posted on
a company announcement page:
‘“Black Lives Matter’ doesn’t mean
other lives don’t. It’s simply asking
that the black community also
achieves the justice they deserve.”
The ACU students delved into
stories that continue to stir the
movement. They split into teams,
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Tryggestad, Erik. The Christian Chronicle (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Vol. 73, No. 6, Ed. 1 Wednesday, June 1, 2016, newspaper, June 1, 2016; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1509366/m1/4/?q=coaster: accessed June 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Christian University Library.