So, in summary, “property cannot own property.” And the subjects of these photos were, unquestionably, property. So let’s just make sure that continues, right? Can’t go around retrospectively recognizing the humanity of property, after all, can we? Holy shit, this is disgusting. (To be clear, I am not exactly criticizing the judge, who was, I assume, applying the law as written. (IANAL) I absolutely am criticizing the law, though.)
This is a terrible problem in media coverage, which leads to questions about diversity in the companies that produce it. Just saw a follow-up story on Sharon Osbourne before reading the article you posted. Yet another example of the attempted reassignment of victim status at work, because the difference in reporting and consequences so far are telling (video clips are in the article from The Root):
They also use the formulaic, vague nonpology that never addresses the true nature of the offense or specifically names the people they offended - just excuses for their behavior. 
“I very much feel like I’m about to be put in the electric chair because I have a friend, who many people think is a racist, so that makes me a racist?”
while i don’t doubt it – that’s a strange representation of the data. the green and yellow obscure the demographic areas making the shaded areas outside of the covered zones stand out more.
a graph of coverage by county and population size per county / parish might make the argument in a more factual way. ( especially seeing as there are huge swaths that are shaded white and completely without radar on the top of the map – but those areas are probably? mostly empty land )
Push all POC and poor people into specific areas*, don’t spend money on infrastructure in those areas, and act surprised when people who live there are harder hit by disasters - natural or man-made. Sounds about…Checks out.
*Places with pre-existing environmental issues like flooding; contaminated air, water, or soil; and/or adjacent to sites that generate noise pollution, light pollution, and other types of pollution that make a bad location even worse.
Yeah. The main uncovered area of the map is Cancer Alley in LA and the Mississippi delta. Both have long histories of environmental* violence against POC. Floods (natural and man-made), undrinkable water, unbreathable air, …
*and of course non-environmental violence
Just a guess, but in Illinois many of the NWS S-Band radars are located at educational institutions. So if the pattern is similar in the south I could totally see why Black areas are underserved by radar coverage (lack of universities)
Don’t forget the more affluent areas shipping their contaminated waste to the poorer areas for burial. 
I am sure the explanation would be something along the lines of “protecting high-value areas” or some such code speak. Systemic racism isn’t a real thing, though, right?
Thank you, author and inspired thinker Charles Blow, for this new book.
I hear you.
Say it.
Call it.
I loved his interview here:
He’s giving us handles right now.
He is not mincing words.
I hope y’all can take some time to listen to the Freakonomics interview (I caught up on washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen). I found it very worthwhile.
I am grateful he’s getting airtime and support for this book.
I admit that, though I stay away from The New York Times for the sake of my own sanity and blood pressure, I am thankful that somehow the Times has wisely retained Mr. Blow as a staffer:
… his pieces are worth reading. Maybe not the rest of that dang newspaper but big yes to his stuff.
Just as an exercise, in case you are willing to flip over a few more rocks, would you be willing to check out how many HBCUs have NWS S-band radars on their campuses/properties?
Like, totally anecdotal and not some statistically randomized sampling with footnotes?
I am curious. And if you are willing, I’d be obliged!
After some digging the college-theory (guess) didnt pan out. The NEXRAD radars are located mainly at airports or military installations. Those at the universities in Illinois are also S-Band but not part of NEXRAD.
HBCU colleges, truncated to roughly line up with the twitter image.
I think the map up above has been manipulated / exaggerated a bit. The normal coverage map shows overlap to 10,0000 AGL, whereas the map provided above shows the radii to be truncated.
NEXRAD coverage
NEXRAD Sites
Interestingly the high number of military bases in the south (blue icons) contribute to a lot of the NEXRAD coverage.
I posted some links to some of his interviews about the book a while back, but can’t remember what thread they were in?
Ah! it’s upthread!
Good stuff. I look forward to getting this book and reading it at some point…
Documenting the lives of marginalized people matters…
