TOW #19 - Black South Carolina Trooper Explains Why He Helped a White Supremacist

“As racial tensions in the divided south intensify…”  This sound bite sounds like something taken out of an 1875 news story, when freed slaves were just beginning to integrate into society.  Unfortunately, this headline is just as applicable to news in the summer of 2015 as it was back then.  In his article “Black South Carolina Trooper Explains Why He Helped a White Supremacist” Dan Barry effectively explores and explain a recent incident involving a Ku Klux Klan rally in front of the South Carolina state house by providing proper background information and using testimonials.

Barry has a specific job of reporting a relatively minor, although certainly with larger ramifications, event to an extremely large group of people.  He realizes that a large portion of his audience will not be aware of the incident and thus he succinctly and effectively summarizes the event.  He gives important and interesting details, but doesn’t drown the audience in minutia.  I will attempt to harness my inner Dan Barry and recapitulate this event: there was a Ku Klux Klan rally in front of the South Carolina state house.  A black state trooper noticed an older white man, donning a shirt with a swastika, suffering in the heat.  He heroically helped this man, as he would help any other civilian, and brought him to the state house to get medical treatment.  A fellow state employee snapped a picture of this incident and shared it on the internet, where it received a bunch of attention.

Additionally, Barry uses testimony from the trooper himself, Leroy Smith, in order to fully give his readers the perspective and awareness that is necessary to understand the story.  Barry quotes Smith as saying “I think that’s the greatest thing in the world — love, and that’s why so many people were moved by it” when he was asked why it went viral.  This gives the perspective of the officer as well, as Barry’s perspective as a bystander.  This contrast give a real depth of feel to the article and lets readers truly understand the incident.

*This is the fourth installment of my project of exploring Dan Barry’s writing.  Barry is, of course, a reliable source.  He is columnist for the New York Times and he writes about sports (among other things) and how they affect our lives.