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New York Times on Michael Brown Is Everything the Media Gets Wrong About Black Teenage Boys (276 hits)

This story was updated at 4:53 pm ET on Monday, Aug. 25.

As hundreds of Ferguson, Mo., residents attended the funeral of teenager Michael Brown on Monday, the New York Times came under fire for claiming that Brown, who was shot and killed by a white police officer on Aug. 9, was "no angel." Here's the offending passage:

Michael Brown, 18, due to be buried on Monday, was no angel, with public records and interviews with friends and family revealing both problems and promise in his young life. Shortly before his encounter with Officer Wilson, the police say he was caught on a security camera stealing a box of cigars, pushing the clerk of a convenience store into a display case. He lived in a community that had rough patches, and he dabbled in drugs and alcohol. He had taken to rapping in recent months, producing lyrics that were by turns contemplative and vulgar. He got into at least one scuffle with a neighbour.

There's so, so much wrong in this passage. When the news of the unarmed 18-year-old's death went nationwide, many young black men around the the country used the hashtag #IfTheyGunnedMeDown to highlight a disturbing trend in how the media portrays black men: ...

http://mic.com/articles/97182/new-york-tim...