Black Lives Matter protest, Columbus, Ohio, June 2020
As we know, Donald Trump, Fox News and many Republicans right now are trying to distract from the COVID disaster by complaining about Black Lives Matter. Specifically, these Republicans are framing the Black Lives Matter protests as the big problem in America, rather than the police killing of black civilians that led to such protests. That is why it was noteworthy when a discussion with Republicans a few days ago contained a wonderful moment of Democratic reframing of a major Republican argument.
You may recall that “framing” is essentially the meaning that each side brings to a discussion, wherein they try to set the premises or terms of the discussion using words and phrases that favor their point of view. If one party is able to force their framing onto a debate, they will usually win that debate in the eyes of others. For example, if Republicans are able to frame black people as dangerous “thugs,” then it’s much easier for them to dismiss Black Lives Matter protests as wrongful “riots” rather than valid petitioning of government under the First Amendment. This GOP framing then distracts from the actual problem of police violence and discrimination against people of color (not to mention distracting from the deadly COVID toll resulting from Donald Trump’s lies and incompetence). The wide Republican advantage in framing issues favorably to them, and injecting those frames into our national debates via the mainstream media, is the very reason we started the Messaging Matters blog nearly 10 years ago.
That’s why it was so rewarding to witness the following conversation a few days ago between a Republican and a Democrat. The background is that the Democrat is white, but comes from a Third World country where the vast majority of residents are of African descent. See if you can spot the Republican framing, and the rather deft Democratic reframing of the discussion:
Republican: “Do you have a Black Lives Matter problem in your country?”
Democrat: “No, since almost everyone is black.”
Republican: “Even the police are black?”
Democrat: “Yes, so there’s no problem of police discriminating against black people.” (emphasis added)
See what the Democrat did there? The Republican was trying to force her biased frame — that there is “a Black Lives Matter problem” — into the discussion. The Democrat, without being confrontational or even stating that she disagreed with the Republican framing, instead reframed the problem more accurately as a police discrimination problem, which of course then makes it totally reasonable for folks here to protest in response to police violence.
In this case, the Republican was left essentially speechless by this Democratic reframing. And if the mainstream media were around, they just might have been reminded of what the real problem is when it comes to race-based violence in the United States.
Photo by Becker1999 (Paul and Cathy), used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/BiP0V3
