"Jury gives 4 cents to show black lives still don't matter"?

The title of an editorial in the Austin American-Statesman by Leonard Pitts Jr. in the Sunday, June 10, 2018 edition was "Jury gives 4 cents to show black lives still don't matter."

Maybe they don't, and maybe that's why the jury gave 4 cents to the family of a black man for his wrongful death at the hands of a St. Lucie County Sheriff's deputy.

But, Leonard Pitts saying it's so doesn't make it so.

Nothing in the editorial indicates that the jury gave 4 cents as a judgement because the dead man was black.  Could have been, but nothing in the editorial goes toward proving it.  Mr. Pitts doesn't even tell his readers what the racial make-up of the jury was.

I once supervised a case that went to trial where the jury gave one dollar to a woman because she was raped.  She was white.  Did the jury do it because she was white?  No.  They did it because the law required that they find in the woman's favor, but they didn't think she had been damaged.

It is possible that the jury in Mr. Pitts' editorial case felt the same way, and they would have felt exactly the same way if the deceased had been white.

So, all I'm saying is that we, Mr. Pitts included, should not leap to conclusions.  We should not assume that every bad thing that happens to someone black is because they are or were black.  Many times it's the case, but many times it's not.  There has to be some evidence, and Mr. Pitts offered none.