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#TeamBeautiful promptly covered the attempted bombing of Colorado Springs’ NAACP building (and to be fair, online newspapers like the Los Angeles Times did as well) but yesterday, social media revealed that if it wasn’t for Twitter and Facebook statuses, many wouldn’t have known about it, which is unfortunate.

CNN barely covered it, and soon after, Black Twitter started the hashtag #NAACPBombing to raise awareness about the lack of coverage. #NAACPBombing was the number one trending topic with 120,000 mentions. Twitter defamed the mainstream media for only wanting to feature Black issues if it involves death or crime.

Why did the media choose to ignore or graze (what the FBI has referred to) this “domestic [act of] terror” on one of America’s most historically impactful organizations? What kind of message did the media send when, for two months, people of all colors have marched the streets of New York, Ferguson, Philadelphia and Los Angeles to let it be known that #BLACKLIVESMATTER?

When the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown became national headlines, we remained hopeful through focus and outrage that justice would be served (that didn’t happen).  We also pondered if the media became engaged in these tragic stories because of its potentially sensational elements that would’ve been prime for a TV movie: Black youth in Southern suburb shot in broad daylight by cluelessly racist White cop. Towns panics and starts campaigning for justice. Cop gets off. Riots ensue. Racism still exists in America. These are all ingredients that we know the media devours because it features Black person or people with the desolate reminder that we aren’t safe.

The media behaving blase about the crime scene at Springs’ NAACP is just another bullet point of the a new generation amazed at seeing history from their eighth grade textbooks repeat itself. The incident scarily recalled the attempted murders of the Freedom Riders and even the bombing of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King‘s home in 1956. In 2015, when a building that houses the NAACP is under attack, it should be taken seriously, and not just because of these fragile times on race in America, but also because this is how race wars starts.

If the media doesn’t pay attention to important developments like these, what will someone like the attempted bomber think of next? They purposely chose a storied name to for this evil doing. The message was clear and the publications that we seek solace in to keep us informed need to show more genuine and evident reporting. Only covering us when our brothers and sisters die is not enough. Our lives matter, dead or alive.

Beauties, were you just as disappointed in the media for not covering the NAACP bombing enough? Share thoughts below on our Facebook page.

Should The Media Be Ashamed For How We Covered The #NAACPBombing?  was originally published on hellobeautiful.com