Predictable Front-Page Imagery from the NYT

26OctMMXI - Clk 2 Enlrg

The photo below was published on the front page of today's New York Times, right beneath an article entitled "8 City Officers Charged in Gun Smuggling Case."


Knowing that the Times would never publish a photo of a black person - much less a black female - accused of a crime as inconclusive as this one,  and on their front page no less, I had to do a double take after initially thinking that the woman pictured had something to do with the gun smuggling case.


It turns out that my reaction is exactly what the reality contortionists at the Times had expertly planned for:  the photo in question was in fact taken in a haunted house. So no, it's not a front-page crime story involving black females. The New York Times would never do that to a member of their favorite protected class.

But they did want their readers to assume, in a split-second judgement call, that the lady below and her nostrils, were somehow part of the gun smuggling case. Then the Times wanted you to feel guilty for even thinking such a thing. Then they wanted you to realize how enlightened and unbigoted they are by publishing Miss Neverending Nostril's pic in the first place, right below a story about New York cops doing all kinds of illegal nonsense.

And of course, besides these obvious points, the subliminal intrigue goes deeper still: what likelihood is there that the NYT would have published this photo, right there on the front page, if the scary white girl had been a 300-pound black dude, and the screaming, hysterical couple had been a pair of skinny whites?

The New York Times IS: 24/7 Diversity Enforcement No Matter What