So often we see terrible acts of violence committed by people of all ages, races, and genders. Why is it that these crimes of the same exact nature are labeled so differently, doing a vast injustice to the perpetrator and the victims? A white man bombing a church would leave him labeled, ‘mentally-ill’ while a Muslim man committing the same crime would constitute the label of ‘terrorist.’ The media manipulating these representations emphasizes on a heavy race bias as well as an inescapable hypocrisy that dooms these people to a life with the odds stacked against them.

When mass-murderer and white supremacist Dylann Roof shot and killed nine people of African-American descent while they were engaging in prayer at church, he was portrayed by The Wall Street Journal and many other news outlets as, “a loner” and “mentally ill.” When mass-murderer James Holmes killed twelve people in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater, he was also described in The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and in the TPA Muckraker as something less harsh than he deserved.

To contrast these characterizations, when people of color commit these crimes they tend to be portrayed as actual criminals without their actions being excused. This means they receive no fabrication when it comes to how their personalities are portrayed, but rather harsh judgment and crude stereotyping. They are automatically put at a disadvantage, placing them into a sort of personality caste system. This unjust act of media bias places these people at a lower position than their counterparts who committed the same crimes yet receive less judgment.

Commonly, the terrorist stereotype is tacked onto innocent Muslim people who are most likely never going to commit a crime during their lifetime. They unfairly receive this stigma while criminals of white descent dodge the sometimes fitting title of terrorist. Terrorism is described as the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in pursuit of political aims (according to Google Dictionary). Terrorism is defined by violence, not religion. Nevertheless, media bias places the label of ‘terrorist’ on primarily religious attacks done by people of Islamic descent, creating a harmful stereotype.

Another example of this bias is how, after committing a crime, black youth often magically transform into threatening adults while white people are characterized as children even if they are well into adulthood. In 2014 Tamir Rice, a twelve-year-old African-American boy, was shot by a cop while playing with a toy gun that was mistaken to be a real one. After this occurrence, Rice was referred to as a “young man” by The Washington Post. Yet James Holmes, the twenty-five-year-old man responsible for the murder of twelve people in Aurora, Colorado, was characterized by The Los Angeles Times as “a normal kid” by USA Today as, “a typical American kid,” and by the TPM Muckraker as, “a smart kid.” How is it fair that this very guilty mass murderer be treated as a “smart kid” while an innocent, real kid be treated like a “young man,”?

Media bias is greatly skewing the factual integrity of modern-day journalism. It is painting false images of those in our society, altering how we the people understand imperative information about them. This bias unfairly characterizes sometimes innocent people. It depicts people we’ve never met in a way that we can neither control nor turn our eyes away from. It puts faulty images into our minds that consequently alter how we judge and treat others.