The laid back and trendy college town of Iowa City was plunged into turmoil a little over two weeks ago, after a black University of Iowa freshman claimed that three white men had viciously attacked him in the downtown and called him a racial slur. A media firestorm ensued, with the first report airing on a Chicago news station. Iowa City police quickly declared they were investigating a possible hate crime and even consulted with the FBI. City and university officials were on the defensive. Social justice warriors held protests.
The hate crime, however, turned out to be a hoax–just as more than a few observers had suspected all along.
Marcus Owens, 19, nevertheless found willing ears from media outlets and among university officials when claiming that racist college-age white men had attacked him in the mostly white college town–a city that social justice warriors have long claimed is pervaded with an undercurrent of racism, as reflected in all the “microaggressions” and standoffishness supposedly suffered by black newcomers. Many blacks from Chicago’s inner city have migrated to Iowa City in recent years–thereby ending its status (to the delight of liberals) as an orderly whitopia.
Owens, a business major, adroitly courted the news media with his harrowing story, and so did his supportive and media-savvy family, who live in the affluent and mostly white Chicago suburb of Naperville. The hate crime story was picked up by outlets as far away as New York. Some published photos of Owens’s bruised face and chipped front teeth–photos provided by his family.
Demanding justice, Owens’s father insisted during a television interview that his son didn’t embrace the thug life, but was just trying to get an education. Owens and family members met with the University of Iowa’s president, J. Bruce Harreld, who together with city officials expressed concern that a racially motivated hate crime had occurred. Speaking at a news conference, a university spokesman stated that the university was ready to help Owens in whatever way it could. ...
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