Like so many people, I tuned in to the news during the “sniper attack” hoping there would be no new killings each day and that the shooters would finally be caught.

But I also watched curiously to see how the event itself would be staged and manipulated by the government and its colluders in the media.

I was poised, awaiting the “power elite’s” unfolding of another hand of the “race card.”

While many hate to admit it, our “schemas” of the sniper involved a racial profile of serial killers, one that comedian Chris Rock calls the “crazy white boy” phenomenon.

Like many others, I expected to see young white men caught and charged.

Amid my surprise at the race of the alleged sniper, I was disturbed by the racial posturing of officials who played the “race card” in profound ways preceding the arrest.

White institutions have long played the “race card” to maintain dominant racial ideology.

Government officials and the media alike ensure that the images the public receives of each racial group stay within certain prescribed formulae.

Such “racial profiling” by the media maintains that black people receive preeminent coverage as athletes, entertainers and violent criminals, while white people receive the most coverage as decision-makers, public servants and protectors of the community. (Not to mention the equally narrow and limiting profiles of Latinos, Asians and Arabs.)

Charles Moose, the black police chief of Montgomery County, became the spokesman and face for this important investigation.

The case of the sniper was laden with incompetence. From false accounts by the public (a non-existent white van), to criminal profiles by experts (who were challenged each day as the sniper defied their profile) to law enforcement officials (putting in maximum effort but each day failing), the case was a national embarrassment.

By most accounts, Moose was not really in charge. The investigation was replete with power struggles over jurisdiction, resulting mostly in Federal responsibility for the case, with help from local and state officials.

The government / media’s frame of reality, however, remained local (and under supposed ineffective black leadership) as long as the suspects were at large.

Chief Moose’s face would become the representative and official line of chaos, embarrassment and the daily failure to stop the sniper.

Four press conferences every day ensured that his face, race, and seemingly uninformed analysis were etched into the minds of viewers as incompetent and ineffectual leadership.

Ultimately, the snipers were caught by their own call into detectives, not because of superior investigative work or the competence of D.C. area officials.

Such posturing of black “leadership” by officials and the press exemplified another classic in U.S. racial ideology: the set-up of the black official, something that goes hand in hand in any setting where black people have earned notoriety and leadership.

In this case, whether the search for the sniper was successful or an embarrassment determined the race of the “official word” on the subject. If anyone in the audience (“American public”) was keeping score, a successful investigation would go to the white official; an embarrassing 21 day, 11-dead investigation would be pinned on the apparent inadequacy of another black leader.

Once the officials and media had a new image of black male violence to replace “incompetent leadership,” Moose moved to the back seat. Instead, sketches, mug shots and photographs of black violence moved to the front.

Once the suspects were black, the media invoked its century-old vocabulary of racist language, likening black males to animals and illuminating the imagery of darkness.

It was no longer a “search” for the suspect, but instead a “manhunt”; officials were no longer seeking to “arrest,” but instead to “capture”; as Newsweek’s subheading indicates, it was now “the story of a journey into darkness. . . descent into evil.”

In addition, the quick and uncritical highlighting of suspect John Williams’ Nation of Islam name, Muhammad, both banked upon and contributed to anti-Arab sentiment already epidemic in the press.

Since the snipers’ arrest, new faces of the investigation have stepped forward; they have been the faces (and races) of government that is effective, competent and committed to ensuring the public’s safety.

With Moose virtually invisible, the “great white hope” emerged. John Ashcroft and various other white officials now provide the official word, reminding viewers of the effectiveness of white leadership and that we are once again “safe.”

The dominant (racial) order was restored.

Now, as the snipers’ story unfolds, so too will another hand of “race cards.”

I’ll put my money on another round of subtle racist imagery.

Emily Drew is a visiting assistant professor of sociology.