Senior government and politics and information systems major

A new craze spreading throughout New Jersey, New York, Illinois, Missouri and Washington, D.C., dubbed the “knockout game,” typically involves a group of young thugs attacking strangers on city streets. Footage of these attacks shows perpetrators casually passing by strangers, then immediately sucker punching them just for entertainment.

Though this game has been played in some form for the past few years, only recently have major news networks begun to shine light on the growing trend. Even back in 2011, court records in St. Louis, Mo., concluded a perpetrator killed an innocent man as part of playing the knockout game.

As the Associated Press reports, “in New York, a 78-year-old woman strolling in her neighborhood was punched in the head by a stranger and tumbled to the ground … In Jersey City, a 46-year-old man died after someone sucker-punched him and he struck his head on an iron fence.”

Amid recent video coverage and firsthand accounts of this incident, some news publications, political organizations and law enforcement officials have been denying the severity of these crimes. Last week, The New York Times even stated, “Police officials in several cities where such attacks have been reported said that the ‘game’ amounted to little more than an urban myth.”

However, in New York City, the police department’s hate crimes task force is investigating some assaults in Brooklyn because the attacks have often targeted Orthodox Jews, the Associated Press reported.

The New York Post and conservative columnists have written that young black gangs sometimes play the knockout game in urban environments to attack whites or people of Asian ancestry. During a mass attack in Milwaukee, for instance, the New York Post reported that one attacker casually looked at one of his victims and stated, “White girl bleed a lot.”

The main issue concerning these events isn’t that news organizations haven’t been covering them. (CNN and USA Today have been catching up with coverage, publishing several articles on this topic.) The main issue is that news networks and social justice leaders haven’t been addressing all forms of racial conflict.

Let me assure you — I do not believe we live in a post-racial society. I understand that incarceration rates disproportionately impact black people. I think it is unfair that massive media attention is placed on people like Elizabeth Smart and Natalee Holloway when young girls of other races are also forced into the sex trafficking industry.

With that said, I think the only way to become a part of a post-racial society is to address conflicts that are targeted against any and all racial groups.

Political leaders on both sides of the aisle will only be capable of practicing what they preach once they address any and all racially heated events. Where are the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton on this issue? Why haven’t they condemned these attacks, so we know their movements are above ignoring these types of events?

From what we’ve seen, it’s like these leaders only address issues that victimize their own racial group — issues that only put people in their communities at risk — because this is what perpetuates their fame. I’m not asking for leaders of black organizations or social justice movements to write columns about these events, but they should at least make a public statement condemning these attacks.

Being politically correct does not fix the problem; rather, it exacerbates it by allowing certain violent acts to occur, premising that they are not targeting specific racial groups.

If we allow this political correctness to permeate the minds of our future political leaders, what will happen next?

Caroline Carlson is a junior government and politics and information systems major. She can be reached at ccarlsondbk@gmail.com.