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I don't believe that is OP's argument at all. He is complaining about why Till got into history books, and the Zebra killings did not. OP is not complaining about how they were treated at the time -- and in fact the Zebra killings were a big deal at the time, and were seen as a harbinger of things to come (of a piece with various violent radical movements, such at the Weathermen, and the SLA, and the Red Army Faction, etc, etc). And, had they turned out to be a harbinger of things to come, they would be better known. But, that didn't happen; radical left terrorism died out, it was a blip, not the leading edge of a new reality.
Basically, both were seen as a big deal at the time, but only one of them turned out to be at the leading edge of historical change. Hence, it is hardly surprising that only one of them is widely known.
I have never heard of the Zebra killings before now. I would have expected to hear of 70+ racially motivated serial murders in a "non-historical" manner the same way as I have heard about Dahmer, Ted Bundy, the Unabomber, etc. None of those serial killers had a historical impact that you could point to, yet they all have Netflix specials.
There are ways to shape this into a historical narrative (or counter-narrative):
Why did the public have a growing taste for Tough On Crime policies in the 1970-90s? Why did large swaths of the public support racial profiling or de-facto racial profiling (stop and frisk, etc.) where Civil Rights organizations did not (as documented in the Zebra wiki)? People trash Biden today for Crime Reform in the 90's (strict sentencing, "Superpredators", etc.), but crime was a top issue in politics in this era.
If the NYT (especially with their writers who are very skilled at crafting narratives) repeatedly reminded the public of the Zebra killings, it would be on everybody's mind every time the topic of racial profiling or Criminal Justice Reform came up. Instead it's just deemed "not relevant".
The Zebra killers also spawned books and TV specials back in the day. And I am unclear what your discussion of crime rates has to do with anything.
Yes, if the NYT repeatedly reminded people of X, more people would know about X. What does that have to do with Emmitt Till?
Earlier you had suggested that the Zebra Killings are not discussed in media because they lack "historical" relevance rather than the story being memory-holed for uncomfortable political reasons. Modern political issues can be given "historical" salience if there is motivation to do so. Bizarro Right Wing-NYT: "Activists say black on white crime is rare, the grandchildren of Zebra Killings victims beg to differ" could be used to promote racial profiling. In this scenario, activists would have statistics on their side, but enough repetition leads to a distorted view of the world.
Emmitt Till is relevant because the story of his murder gets reinvigorated every time progressives want to push for Criminal Justice Reform or to tie it in with some tragic police shooting, giving the story narrative throughline. Between him and George Floyd, people mentally have an anchor when it comes to lynching and police brutality. Vivid stories of "black on white" violence exist but don't receive the same level of obsessive coverage because it would lead the general public to have more right wing views of policing/crime. I don't think obsessive coverage of "black on white" violence is good because it would enflame racial tensions and because they account for a relatively small number of crimes. However, you can't get mad a people noticing the double standards in coverage.
No, I did NOT talk about why the Zebra Killings are not discussed in media, because that was not the question. The OP was talking about why "few outside the US have heard of the Zebra murders . . Yet practically everyone in the entire Anglosphere has heard of Emmett Till," and opining that it must be because of some sort of racial bias.
I simply pointed out that OP's unspoken premise -- that the events are otherwise indistinguishable* -- is incorrect.
*Actually, OP claims that the Zebra killings were "worse," apparently because, not being an American, he does not understand the historical context, symbolism, etc of the Emmitt Till case; which was "worse" is irrelevant. The Emmitt Till case is well known because it ended up having historical significance, not because it was particularly "bad" -- there were certainly worse lynchings than his; as far as I know, for example, he was not castrated. And, at the time, the fact that he was a Northerner was probably more significant that how "bad" the event was.
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Yes, even a movie The Zebra Killer (1974). In which a Black detective, after his Black girlfriend is raped, finds that the murders are commited by a white man in Blackface.
And you think that that movie -- by a director whose oeuvre includes "Three on a Meathook" and "Asylum of Satan" -- is representative because ...? Look, I know a lot of people here are very young, and hence have no memory of events like the Zebra killings, but the idea that somehow they were ignored is just wrong.
I literally went to the Wikipedia page and saw 20 years of people trying to remove references to the nation of Islam and the perps being black, with the page being left orphaned with no links to other articles referencing it.
Yes, it has been deliberately memory-holed to the point that assigning reading on it got a college professor mobbed and punished. Are you trying to claim it was not suppressed?
So, apparently some Nation of Islam types have repeatedly gone on Wikipedia and (unsuccessfully) tried to remove references to the Nation of Islam, and THAT is supposed to be evidence that "the Man" has suppressed knowledge of the Zebra Killings?
All I know is that if a topic is included in a 2019 "San Francisco Trivia Quiz" as well as in a 2017 iteration thereof, as well as a 2012 feature on SF's crime history, all published by a website established by the San Francisco Chronicle and which is "the second most popular news site in California, after the Los Angeles Times", then, no, knowledge of that topic has not been suppressed.
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