Gorilla mask attack on Elder deplorable

It’s not surprising that Republican gubernatorial recall candidate Larry Elder encountered aggressive protests this week in Venice Beach.

What is surprising, however, is that hardly any of the coverage focused on the fact that the person throwing eggs at Elder was wearing a gorilla mask. Yes, a gorilla mask. A sampling of headlines include: “Larry Elder cuts short Venice homeless encampment tour after hostile confrontation” and “LAPD is investigating altercation involving Larry Elder at Venice homeless encampment,” both from the Los Angeles Times, while Yahoo News framed it as: “California recall candidate Larry Elder targeted by egg-throwing hostile crowd.”

Eggs? Check. Hostility? Check. But wait, something still seems missing.

Our editorial board tries to avoid playing the “What if?” game because it’s hard to prove; but seriously, what if Elder were a Democrat?

Do you think any headline would avoid the mask? Anyone who consumes media with any regularity knows the answer.

Predictably, the lack of coverage has been picked up in right-leaning media, like the

How to have your say:

New York Post and Fox News. National Review asks the question: “Why Isn’t the Attack on Larry Elder the Biggest Story in America?”

Indeed.

Selective outrage only serves to undermine all outrage.

To engage in such cynicism, when discrimination and racism only matters when it suits your ideological needs, is as abhorrent.

Is this true for every publication and every person who has yet to say something about the mask? Of course not. There are many reasons why people make the decisions they make, which is why we try to avoid the “What if?” game.

But considering we recently read in the Los Angeles Times that Larry Elder is purportedly “the Black face of white supremacy,” it seems bizarre that a gorilla mask is a non-issue.

Larry Elder has long been the subject of particular hostility precisely because of his status as a prominent conservative/libertarian who is also Black.

But violence of any kind, particularly with the optics of a mask that could be perceived as racist, is utterly deplorable. And so too is the reticence of “the woke.”

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