You can’t see what you don’t have a frame of reference for

In my recent talk at the LFI conference, I referenced this quote from Karl Weick:

I was reminded of that quote when reading a piece by the journalist Yair Rosenberg:

Last week, two Jews were shot as they left morning prayers in Los Angeles. And yet, the twin attacks received little national attention, which is why you're probably hearing about them for the first time. I wrote about the antisemitism we don't discuss: https://t.co/OMzMEKfPvC

— Yair Rosenberg (@Yair_Rosenberg) February 23, 2023

Rosenberg notes that this particular story hasn’t gotten much widespread press, and his theory is that the attacks, as well as other uncovered antisemitic events, don’t fit neatly into the established narrative frames of reference.

"When Americans do not have a convenient partisan frame through which to process an anti-Semitic act, it is often met with silence or soon dropped from the agenda." https://t.co/OMzMEKfPvC

— Yair Rosenberg (@Yair_Rosenberg) February 23, 2023

Such is the problem with events that don’t fit neatly into a bucket: we can’t discuss them effectively because they don’t fit into one of our pre-existing categories.