The nation has been attentively watching at the abundance of murders in Chicago this year. Well, in St. Louis we have had two shootings that have gotten local and national attention but it seems that those two cases have been handled differently. It is two different tales with two similar types of people with different resolutions in the same city. Some say the way the case was handled has a lot to do with race while others contribute the difference to the no snitching policy adopted in many urban neighborhoods. Megan Boken and Aniya Cook were two women who were murdered in St. Louis last month. Both women shared similar stories as they were both trying to better themselves through a college education but there was one glaring difference between both women’s cases being solved which has had the city of St. Louis upset…one was white and the other was black.
Megan Boken was a Saint Louis University graduate and volleyball player from Wheaton, IL (suburb of Chicago). Megan had come back to St. Louis for some job interviews and to play in an alumni volleyball game. Megan was murdered in broad during an attempted robbery attempt in broad daylight in the trendy area of the Central West End. Megan’s murder received nation and local press to the extent that the Chief Police and Mayor held press conference asking people to help solve her murder. Saint Louis University and Washington University also pulled together 20,000 dollars for someone who could identify the culprits of this case. A week or so later two suspects were apprehended
Aniya Cook honor roll student who had received a scholarship to Missouri State University. Aniya was sitting in the car with her boyfriend one night in front of her home talking when shots were fired at the car and where she was struck twice. Aniya would die a few days later from those injuries. Her killers are still at large. No resolution for the Cook family.
I have always had an ongoing tongue in cheek joke where I would say the only person society cares about is white women with blonde hair and blue eyes. We are looking for Natalee Holoway still and we get monthly updates about JonBenet Ramsey’s which happened almost 16 years ago. They have all kinds of ransoms and money out there for people to get solve these cases. If a black woman is missing all you are going to see for ransom is… “Help Us Find Keisha…We May Have a Bucket of Chicken For You!”
In all seriousness if you look at both of these cases they aren’t too much different but the way the media and government responded to it. Megan Boken was given a national case because of her being an innocent student while Aniya Cook is just now getting a spotlight(Mayor Francis Slay attended a vigil for Aniya). This awareness and uproar over Aniya’s story has only come after people have looked at the way the city of St. Louis and the local media ejaculated all over the story. Both cases are tragic things that shouldn’t happen to anyone and both families should have the opportunity to have some closure about their loved one’s death. Is Megan’s life worth more than Aniya’s? This year regardless of how many feel about it but black people were reminded that a black life isn’t worth the same as a white life in America (Shout out to Trayvon Martin case). Is this another case where we only care about one’s life over another?
On the real, I get the economics of the game and why there was a ransom for the killers of Megan. Some people have commented that Megan’s case was covered more because she was a scholar athlete at SLU and that most of the other senseless murders in St. Louis are gangbanger vs. gangbanger. But, isn’t Aniya in essence the same woman as Megan but that her skin is black and her incident. We as a country have to ask ourselves if we want to believe in this so-called American Dream we have to reevaluate what life is. St. Louis is a city notorious to crime but why settle in on this one case and try to find a collective way to St. Louis safer? We have people out here fighting for the pro-life of unborn kids but don’t even give a damn about the kids that here in the world now unless they look like the American ideal.
Then on the other side of the coin the black community has a wack and warped idea of “Stop Snitching” that would help many murders be solved. Money talks and bullshit runs the marathon but my question for you to go forth with is why are two women who in all circumstances were great and intelligent women lives valued differently? Why didn’t any of the universities throw any money at the Aniya Cook case since that is the main reason some people are saying her case wasn’t solved? Oh, you know what I get it I guess some lives in America are only worth “50 dollars and a bucket of chicken”
“Either they don’t know, don’t show, or don’t care what goes on in the Hood”- Doughboy in Boyz in the Hood
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This article is riddled with so much race bating. Why does race have to be a factor in this? The school raised the money for that student. Get off your Al Sharpton writing high horse
Race bating?, only a white person says that. Now, 20 white children dead in CT, breaks my heart but if it’s 20 black children they would be wondering what these children did wrong, then, it would be moving onto someone white who is dead. Dead white child=missed hope and bright futures gone Dead black children=just gone. Now, even our president is saddened by these white deaths when Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit have had beyond 20 black deaths, but no one sees them as hope gone so, go find a bright white “human.” who is missing.
Great post. I’m a native st. louisan, and I’ve been watching stuff like this happen all my life. I always wonder what can be done to stop the prevelant attitudes like this in st. louis and in other cities.
Great post. I’m a native St. Louisan, and been watching things like this happen all my life. I always wonder what can be done to stop prevelant attitudes like this. Marty, yes race is a factor. Why didn’t the media cover Aniya’s case as well?
You know, one reason why I turned off The Propaganda Machine is my blood pressure.
The other reason is the blatant and glaring way AmeriKlans glorify white life. Especially white female life.
I’m not shocked anymore by this. Trayvon Martin has blown the lid off of this theory when the media substituted pictures of a “gangster” boy who they claimed was Travyon Martin. Then they dug into his school records and found the empty baggie.
Rekia Boyd proved that black women mean naught in this country.
I’m tired and fed up. And frankly, I’ve come to expect nothing less from the Eurocentric Jewish run media.
Blame the white man for everything why dont ya!
I think there were plenty of other factors that separate these murders. Yes, the race of the victims were factors. However, in this particular case, I think the place and time of the murders are also important factors. I personally,don’t believe it should matter where you live, but in STL there is a sort of expectation of violence in North Saint Louis. There is no expectation of violence etc in the CWE. Also, Aniya was murdered at 1am, while the other girl, Megan, was murdered in broad day light. (2pm?)
The mayor and other city leaders jumped all over Megan’s murder because there is an expectation that the CWE is a safer neighborhood….where these things don’t happen. We are all too accustomed to murders in our neighborhood so that when a bystander is murdered in the middle of the night, it tends to not rattle the cage as much as a bystander (robbery victim) in “the safe zone” that our city leaders portray the CWE be. Unfortunately, I tend to feel more unnerved by Megan’s murder because I have been in that neighborhood. I go there. I eat there…at that time of day. Conversely I don’t frequent north stl…and I certainly don’t sit idle in cars there late at night. I’m obviously not blaming the victim here. I’m merely attempting to explain why it’s easier for other people to put themselves in Megan’s shoes. We perceive the north side to be dangerous and aren’t ( surprised? ) when our perceptions are shown to be reality.
I think that if Aniya were murdered at high noon at the same spot as Megan, there would have been much more press…(not an equal amount, mind you…..but more than she got)
This what I am saying! What do you think is going to happen to you sitting in a car at 1 am on the North side of St. Louis! Megan was killed in broad daylight just minding her own business and looking for employment in a safe area. Things like that just happen on the North side and people have to take heed to the danger there
Heard about the megan girl even up this way but you gotta know that we live in America and male patriarchy protest that prestine white woman with blonde hair to the highest degree. Its not racial it just the way that it is look at the discrepancy between black missing children and white ones being found or the culprits arrested
You know the answer to your questions. you know that black violence is expected as two of your commenters have said, and white violence is the exception. That’s BS!! Why is black violence expected and accepted? Why is their surprise and a search for the cause when a white person is murdered but when a black person is murdered the blame goes the community and parenting.
I should be able to sit in front of my house at 1 am and chat with whomever w/o fear of being shot. Lack of police presence, effective policies, and resources, and lack of commitment by the hood itself is why this foolishness goes unchecked.
#stopkillingtheGO
The Central West End is only blocks from what our fair skinned counterparts call “the hood” and “north St Louis.” All the swank restaurants and Universities you cherish are in the heart of the city and therefore next to some of the most impoverished neighborhoods in the city. Three or four blocks away from the CWE you have liquor stores galore, payday loans and rent to own furniture stores, derelict houses, and businesses that are smart enough to know there should be bars on them. You can walk to Natural Bridge and Kingshighway from the Straubs in CWE, so why people think it’s so safe I’ll never know. When I worked at WashU med school, our lab got robbed. Someone came right in with no badge and everyone assumed the guy was a custodian because he was black. It didnt make the news because people routinely get robbed at WashU. The media dare not taint the name of WashU. Maybe people need to use common sense. Maybe if the closet racist white folks that litter STL take off their blinders and open their hearts, a few more lives can be saved. Young women have no business walking around this city alone, I don’t care what time it is or what color. Especially the CWE. It is demographically one of the most diverse areas in STL, but also one with some of the highest crime rates. Maybe you should stop assuming black people = crime and start ACTUALLY thinking.
Maybe Black People should start turning in the Killers of our Communities. How many murderers would be taken off the streets, how many young people will still be alive? Check out article by the Chief Happiness Officer. “STOP SNITCHING is BLACK COMMUNITY SUICIDE.
http://thechiefhappinessofficer.blogspot.com/2012/09/stop-snitching-is-dumb-as-fk.html
I have lived in Stl all my life and I totally understand a week b4 this incident a 20 year old and 15 year old females were gun down in a park need I keep going…… ;(