Zurana Horton was a hero - she just didn't look like one | Teresa Wiltz

This woman died to save the innocent children of the shooting, but it was not enough to save it to trial

At first glance, this is the kind of story made for the cycle of instability News Media in the 21st century: a mother picking up your child's school sees a Brooklyn rooftop sniper is released to the line of fire to protect a group of school and at the same time, savings, shot and killed himself.

more likely if Zuran Horton were white and blonde, she was catapulted to the top of the news, the story of his short and tragic material of the cover of People magazine and on the segments of breath Today Show. After all, we are a society obsessed with the stories of very white women and girls who are missing or dead. Witness the endless coverage of Natalee Holloway, Caylee Anthony or more, or fear of the story of the day: the baby missing Lisa

But Horton, who was 34 years old, was no white, blonde and photogenic in particular: the first picture published a blurry photo, she had large dark glasses most of his smiling face. Nor had the kind of story that easily integrates immaculate in the mold of welfare history. Was poor, single mother of 13, lived in Brownsville, one of the most famous Brooklyn. And she was black. Monday, police charged three youths with the shooting.

Instead of being announced by their courage, life Horton is being held in the examination and debate in the blogosphere. A typical message - Scott Laurence, a commentator on Global Grind, writes: "13 children and pregnant women living in public housing WOW Rome burns ..." Meanwhile, the website of the New York Daily News, its commentators attack - and among them - with ferocity. "I wonder how my taxes, both federal and New York, will support these 13 children for decades to come," wrote one commentator. "Hero? Would have been a hero s' He had stopped at two, at least in the rest of the company must now pay for their social protection, education, Medicaid, food stamps. "

• at the root, an African-American website published by the Washington Post (full disclosure: I am the editor of the site), some have taken the "blame the victim" route. WandaDoesIt wrote: "Where is unmarred [sic] women with 13 children without a father can almost expect to have children and young people shooting up the place ... It's so tragic, but you can not disconnect the way to die the way she lived. "Then there BLKSeaGoat, who writes:" His death was sad and heroic act, but given the demographics of the neighborhood with the fact that she was working in his 13 [sic] of the child, can we honestly believe [sic] that this result could be expected? "

The first reports that Horton was pregnant when she was killed not do things (according to Daily News, the coroner in the case denied the reports.) Image of a black woman living in the projects and working on baby No. 14, evokes the old stereotypes, aging of the "welfare queen" fruitful vilified by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, who liked to talk about how much the queen had 80 names, 30 addresses, 12 social security cards, and collected benefits for "four nonexistent deceased husbands' cheating the social security system" more than $ 150,000. "

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