While it may not be out of the ordinary for the media to go out of its way to make a connection between hip-hop and violence, Atlanta’s Trap Music Museum decided it wasn’t having its name dragged through the mud as it relates to acts of violence.
Earlier this week, Atlanta news outlet 11 Alive posted a story about a fatal shooting that took place in northwest Atlanta with the headline “Deadly shooting kills 1 at house near Trap Music Museum, police say.”
Museum officials quickly took to the official Instagram account to issue a since deleted rebuttal to the article that featured a series of photos including one that read “This is how Black owned businesses get shut down,” and another showing a map and notating that the location of the shooting is only a ten minute walk from the museum.
In a statement titled “An Open Letter To Atlanta Media Outlets,” museum officials wrote:
This is why black businesses continue to get closed down!!! We are not a HEADLINE to your negative story!!! @ml115 @11alive.
Despite these false narratives that are pushed by our city media and bad reporters, we’ve done a great job of being a pillar in our community! No incidents and no violence – @trapmusicmuseum has done nothing but uplift the community in a positive way through community clean ups, food/toy drives, mental health initiatives and other community based efforts in-which NO ONE seems to cover as much in the media.
We want to understand why our small black-owned business is always mentioned being near crimes associated in our ten block radius? There are so many other businesses, mega churches and arenas in the same radius but we are always singled out!
We are Trap Music Museum, purposed to keep a record of Trap Music, an asset to our community and culture while bringing in tourism to our great city of Atlanta. How can we work together to no longer be the tagged location target when violent crimes happen in our community?
Soon after the museum’s post went viral, 11 Alive updated their article headline to read “Atlanta shooting leaves 1 person dead, police say” with an additional editor’s note that read “This headline and story has been updated to clarify and accurately describe the location of the scene.”
