Actually it's an accurate reflection of very many white Americans' priorities, kind of like when all those over-privileged, emotionally-stunted white folks got all in a wad over some "great white dentist" drilling a lion in Zimbabwe, but shrugged their shoulders in indifference to the fact that American cops gunned down 1,100 of their HUMAN neighbors, most of them unarmed, and some of them children as young as six or seven.

It's pretty much common knowledge among black folks--especially those in or originating from the south, that white folks value their 'pets' lives more than they do black lives.  I see similar tendencies among white Alaskans vis-a-vis native Alaskans' lives.  Is the 'lack of common ground' an element of the perverted priorities exemplified here?  Probably.  Is it a valid excuse?  Absolutely not.