The White Media, Enough To Make A Negro Turn Black...

If there has ever been any question about the glaring need and important role of Black Media in this country, then CNN’s Black In America Series gave credence to that. Black in America was purported to be nightly documentaries dealing with "The Black Woman and Family" and "The Black Man.” It was supposed to be their insight into Black America, forty years after the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Their focus was to be on “fresh analysis from new voices about the real lives behind the stereotypes, statistics and identity politics that frequently frame the national dialogue about Black America.”

What was bothersome for me was the proclamation of “fresh analysis” For the most part CNN presented a slanted and stereotypical view of African-Americans. To me it did nothing but give fodder to those who are anti-black and further marginalize people of color at a time with Sen. Barack Obama’s historic Presidential run. Issues such as education, single-parent females headed households, black male incarceration and black economics are topics that should be on the table for discussion. But when CNN’s lack of linear connection to the problems of slavery, Jim Crowe, institutional racism and public policy are not researched, examined and explored especially by black academia, then you’ve made the victim (black folks) the problem. It was disturbing that all they did was focus on common themes of perceived black life. Drugs, crime, incarceration, unemployment, absent fathers, HIV-AIDS, blacks in corporate America and oh yes young black men in hip-hop. It purveyed the message that anything black has no value.

“Black In America,” was framed mostly by white producers and journalists from CNN. Soledad O’Brien was the moderator. Where were black producers and journalists? It clearly brings to light the continuing and widening gulf that exists between mainstream and the black media. In my opinion, only Black Media can tell our story better than anyone else.

The role of black media has been to speak from the lens of the black perspective. Since 1827, the black press or media has chronicled the lives of our people to give fair and equitable balance. In other words, tell the truth that the white media dares not to tell. One-hundred and eighty-one years later, African-Americans still struggle to have their perspectives presented in television and radio newsrooms and in mainstream newspapers. Not only just with being hired into these institutions, but most importantly ownership.

In Dr. Kristal Zook’s book, I See Black People: The Rise and Fall of African American Owned Television and Radio Minority Owned Television and Radio; raises the point that the airwaves are public resources; they belong to the people. And yet minorities, who form 33 percent of the population, control only 3 percent of the broadcast media. African Americans own less than 1 percent of all television station in the country. Some have made millions while the vast majority has struggled until being forced out of the industry, contributing to the decline of African American media ownership. To that point Zook details the story of Cathy Hughes.

Hughes is the founder of Radio One and TV-One. Hughes's tenacious rise to power is legendary. She aggressively acquired radio stations, becoming the first black woman to head a firm publicly traded on the stock exchange. However, in 2004, Radio One launched TV-One in partnership with Comcast. While securing its place in the marketplace, the company is now just 20 percent black owned.

In Chicago, we have been blessed with black media outlets such as the Chicago Defender and WVON Radio for years. But despite their struggles they have persisted and have told our story. CNN’s poor attempt to “show black life,” was only possible because of our inability to be able to consistently tell our side of the story on a macro-level.

But crafting our message, talking points and imagery of our culture now takes a more delineated approach. Black newspapers need to use the power of technology. The blogosphere, black news web content and black oriented programming on public television are now necessary in framing the message of the black journey in America.

Also, African-Americans have to very careful not to believe everything that is fed to us through the white controlled media. For example on young black fathers, The Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study, led by researchers from Princeton and Columbia Universities, found that most unwed fathers are involved with the mothers of their children and say they want to be involved in raising their offspring. The study, which started in 1998 and has been funded by the federal government through 2009, is following 5,000 African-American, Latino and white children born in 21 cities, most to unmarried parents under the age of 25. Many of the fathers did not graduate high school.

This research, which is part of the national study, found that the majority of unwed fathers are involved in ways not measured by court-ordered child support. Whether they lacked custody or did not reside with their child, many gave money to their child's mother during pregnancy, visited the hospital after the baby's birth and, when gainfully employed, provided money each pay period to support their children or bought diapers and formula. The strongest predictor of involvement after birth was whether or not the father had a healthy relationship with the mother of his child. When the relationship between the father and the mother collapses, so does the relationship between the father and the child. The men, who are often unemployed, incarcerated or earning poverty-level wages, said they feel that if they can't contribute financially, there is no place for them in the children's lives.

Waldo Johnson, an associate professor in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago stated, "African-American fathers have been viewed in a monolithic way and, in many instances, become the poster men for non-involved fathers. Too often, [to those]who have become fathers early on, we kind of say, 'If they can't step up to the plate, then write them off,'" Johnson said. "That's entirely the wrong way to think about this. What we find in the more recent research is that the ways in which these low-income fathers are
involved with their kids are not the traditional ways."

Another example of white media bias has been the Presidential Election. If black media had balanced access to the market through fair and equitable ownership, There possibly may not have been the attack on Barack Obama regarding Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright to the level of what we saw. With fair black media ownership and market access there may have not been a need for Obama to repudiate Wright nor leave his church. While white media supposedly exposed the truth, black folks already new what the deal was.

But the white media must be willing to accept black media as a trusted and valued source of news and opinion, otherwise they will continue to present a generalized caricature of black people. However, the power of black media should never be taken for granted. For it was black radio station in Chicago that pushed the idea of Harold Washington, a black man becoming Mayor of Chicago in 1983. We should never forget that. But it’s always time to build upon that.

I can just imagine hearing the great Lu Palmer with “Lu’s Notebook” watching CNN’s charade, saying his famous closing hook-line, “It’s enough to make a Negro turn Black.”

Pass It On….

Copyright 2008 © Algernon H. Penn

The African-American Public Square