Last week, the mainstream news media and the Democratic Party leadership was all in an uproar over photographs of Border Agents on horseback “whipping” Haitians trying to enter the US illegally. It was an interpretation of the pictures without context, but that didn’t stop the media and the Democratic Party political machine from moving at hyper speed in all the talk shows invoking racism, slavery, crimes against humanity, and, oh yes, blaming former president Donald Trump. When photographer Paul Ratje told KTSM NBC 9 in El Paso that the media was misrepresenting the photos, it didn’t matter. By that time, there was no reining in the narrative that Haitians were being whipped by border agents.
Joe Biden led the charge, telling media, “It’s outrageous. I promise you, those people will pay. There will be an investigation, underway now, and there will be consequences. There will be consequences.” He said, “It’s an embarrassment. But beyond an embarrassment is dangerous, it’s wrong, it sends the wrong message around the world or sends the wrong message at home. It’s simply not who we are.”Kamala Harris, told ABC’s The View, “I was outraged by it. It was horrible and deeply troubling…there needs be consequences and accountability.” Press Secretary Jen Psaki, said Biden “believes that the footage and photos are horrific.” Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) blamed Trump for the policy. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called the photos “heartbreaking.”
Then civil rights groups, including the NAACP and the Urban League among others, played the race card in a letter to Biden: “We are hard-pressed in the year 2021 to find more horrific, traumatizing and blatantly racist images than those coming out of the Del Rio area. White (and white-presenting) men on horseback with lariats are seen chasing, yelling and cursing at vulnerable Black asylum seekers who have for weeks and months been fleeing toward what they thought was safety. The actions of these Border Patrol officers are disgraceful and show an indifference to the humanity of Black migrants.” It didn’t matter that the very photographer who took the pictures said he “didn’t ever see them whip anybody.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, ”To understand and articulate an issue, problem or injustice facing a person, community, or institution you must do research. You must investigate and gather all vital information from all sides of the argument or issue so as to increase your understanding of the problem.” In other words, get your facts straight before you shoot off your mouth. The New York Times first claimed that border agents were “using the reins of their horses to strike at running migrants” then changed its story to say the agents were “waving their reins while pushing migrants back into the Rio Grande.” There is a huge difference between waving reins and whipping people, but truth doesn’t seem to matter to some.
Truth: It’s really bad optics for white men (or white-presenting men, whatever that means) to be herding black people on horseback, but the border agents were doing their job irrespective of the race of those entering the US illegally. The knee-jerk reaction of “leaders” who refuse to listen to the facts present a grave danger to all citizens in many ways. In John 8:32, Christ said, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” There is freedom in truth. There is bondage in lies. If you don’t know, or want to know, the difference between reins and whips, you are deceived. These people crossing the border illegally are breaking laws and trespassing. Border agents and the horses they ride are protecting America and enforcing the law. Biden and the media are outraged by it. What does that tell you? Say it with me…Stupidocrisy.
