From Monica Guerra, 17, Balboa High School Student

On January 1st, 2009 while many celebrated, Oscar Grant was shot and killed by a BART Police officer at the Fruitvale Bart Station.

A few days before this incident happened, I was thinking about what to write for my blog. One thing that really pissed me off was how all of the kidnapping and murder victims we see on TV are mostly Caucasian women. Terri Schiavo, and now Caylee Anthony. If a white person is missing or murdered, there are interviews and discussions about them all on CNN, FOX, and practically every mainstream channel. Constantly telling viewers to find this person, or report to the police if anyone knows anything. Not only for one day, but for months, to the point where it gets annoying.

I remember watching a comedy show, where Chris Brown talked about how someone stole a woman’s purse. He imitated how she spoke and said, “I didn’t see his face, but I know he was black!”

I never see any airtime for missing or murder victims of color. Maybe once in a while, a quick 30 second mentioning of their disappearance or murder once and thats it. The most you ever hear of people of color in the media is when they are the kidnappers, the rapers, and trouble makers.

When I heard of the Oscar Grant murder, I was furious. Oscar Grants murder was different from the ones I had heard because there were are about 3 videos taken at different angles when the shooting took place. If you look at the video, you see many people sitting, and BART police officers keeping things under control. Oscar Grant was face down, and shaking. You clearly see the BART officer take out his gun quickly and shoot. How is it that this guy is still not under custody?

A few years ago, a police officer came to my JROTC class, and answered questions we had. I guessed it was to try to ease the relationship between the police and the students (most of the people in JROTC are people of color). He explained to us when police officers were allowed to shoot a gun. He gave an example, if the police thought someone had a gun, he would tell the person to raise his arms. If the person didn’t, they would ask again, and if they saw that the guy was not listening, and posed a threat to someone else, then thats when you shoot. But it is obvious that Oscar Grant was controlled. As he was held down, there were a few other BART police officers!

If the shoe was on the other foot, this would’ve been a completely different story. It upsets me how only local news is covering the some parts of the case. Most information is on blogs, social networking sites and newspaper. But not enough on television, or this mainstream channels.

But with Obama recently being sworn in, I have more hope for minorities in the media. I feel that with Obama in the white house, people there is a possibility of those who were previously prejudiced see African Americans and minorities in a different light. It gives hope to minorities, especially African Americans believe our system is rigged in a way that that keeps us from succeeding. It really makes one believe that if someone really puts their mind to a goal, they can reach it.

—Monica Guerra