FILE – In this Jan. 8, 2016 file photo, Alton Nolen is led from the courtroom following his preliminary hearing in Norman, Okla.. Critics suggest that the conversation around our nation’s tragedies is often framed in divisive, racial code words.
FILE – In this Jan. 8, 2016 file photo, Alton Nolen is led from the courtroom following his preliminary hearing in Norman, Okla.. Critics suggest that the conversation around our nation’s tragedies is often framed in divisive, racial code words. If whites are blamed, they say, it is as individuals; for minorities, it is suggested that their crimes are part of a larger narrative. When Nolen was arrested in the 2014 decapitation of one co-worker and the stabbing of another, some were quick to blame his “radicalization” as a recent convert to Islam. They could have categorized the crime instead as workplace violence, since he was embittered by his suspension from his work at a Oklahoma food processing plant. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
