By Denver Louis

Torture, rape and deprivation conjure up images of a horror movie. Being forced to eat rat and dog feces, being sexually assaulted while hot water is poured on your body, being forced to drink from a toilet bowl or having your hair physically pulled out, all while being threatened with death by a knife to the throat for a week would seem like the details of an extreme Hollywood script. You know, like one of those indie movies that critics lavish with adjectives like “edgy” and “ground-breaking.” In the real world, in a real story, details like these would make headline news.

You’d be surprised how fleeting headlines can be sometimes. One detail I left out was that the victim was a black woman whose abusers tied her to a shed and called her a “nigger” every time they beat her.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a bad movie, but in fact the very sad and all too real story of Megan Williams. Police agree that what happened to Williams was “probably a hate crime,” and after a glimpse of the shady mug shots of the accused, one can only imagine the hatred that was projected at this young woman.

So where are the Nancy Graces of the world and why has this issue not caught on in the news cycle? Sometimes it makes you scratch your head at what makes the news and what struggles to get coverage.

The prosecutors in the case are debating whether to pursue actual hate crime charges, because the state penalty for kidnapping and sexual assault could carry the heavier sentence of possible life imprisonment.

Officers found the woman Sept. 8 after going to the house she was held at in Big Creek, W. Va., about 35 miles southwest of Charleston, to investigate an anonymous tip. Frankie Brewster, one of the suspects, was sitting on the front porch and told deputies she was alone. However, moments later the victim limped toward the door, her arms outstretched, saying, “Help me,” the sheriff’s department said in a news release.

If the details of the story aren’t alarming or shocking enough, try the fact that national networks didn’t think it was enough of a story to dedicate several minutes to. I would be fooling myself if I didn’t believe that part of the reason this story was not covered had to do with fact that the victim is black.

If Megan Williams was a white woman and her abusers were white or of another race, doesn’t it seem likely that this issue would have received more press? Think about this: What if the accused were a black family? Would this story be more marketable because of the reversed black-white racial dynamics? You better believe it.

Why isn’t this story receiving as much or more attention than the Duke lacrosse case? The answer is simple; It’s all about who’s involved. The Duke case involved white male students from a prominent college in the U.S. It was a sensational and easy story to exploit because it gave the media an opportunity to potentially expose a case of racism in a country built on racism at an illustrious school with a very successful lacrosse team and a lot to lose.

You take away the school (Duke) and the white college students and you are left with just a “racial” story. Often that’s just not enough to be covered anymore in a media constantly searching for a hook more pressing than actual news.

The truth of the matter is that the media too often reflects the mainstream notion of what black culture is instead of digging deeper to explore the stories that truly affect it. A young white girl getting lost in Aruba is major news, but a woman being tortured for a week by six white people for being black barely makes the news. Where’s the balance in that?

Not to say that when black people go missing it isn’t covered, but 9 out of 10 times the stories on network television are of white children gone missing.

If you don’t believe, then look at the story of the “Jena Six.” This issue has been stewing in a pot of good old southern racism (apparently encapsulated from the effects of the Civil Rights movement) for several long months now.

In Jena, La., when a black student sat under a tree that was traditionally reserved for white students, he set off a racial storm in a town with ugly secrets. The next day, three nooses were found hanging from the same tree. All manner of racial fighting took place until the situation eventually capitulated in the indictment of six black students who got into a fight with one white student.

The prosecutors accused the boys of attempted murder with a deadly weapon. The weapon? The shoes on their feet. Even though Mychal Bell, 16 at the time and the first participant to be prosecuted, was convicted of aggravated battery charges that would have sent him to prison for 15 years, a state appeals court tossed out his conviction.

Unfortunately, the other boys accused in the crime will be tried as adults under Louisiana state law.

The fact that these boys are still on trial is an indictment of the mainstream media and its continuance to drop the ball on serious issues that impact the black community. Why is there no round-the-clock coverage of this trial? Where are the defenders of free society? Do Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have to save every black person in America who hasn’t gotten a fair deal?

Issues like these take place more often than you would think. You will never hear about the Marcus Dixons, the Shaun Smiths, the Mumia Abu-Jamals or the countless others who have gone without justice.

The mainstream media may not have tortured Megan Williams or convicted Mychal Bell, but it’s guilty nonetheless of doing something just as bad-not doing its job.

Denver Louis is a senior print journalism student. You may e-mail him at [email protected].

Denver Louis