Media and Its Implications for Afrikan People

[Tyehimba]

With the accelerated use and development of technology, the role of media in shaping how people think and act, has become a very powerful one. Who controls the bulk of mainstream programming as it relates to TV, Internet and radio and what are the implications of the information/disinformation that is propagated? The engine of globalization is humming and the tentacles of Hollywood are traversing the globe injecting the minds of people with its neo colonial venom. What is the impact of this on our children, what is the implication of this for following generation? What is the role of InI is this era where homosexuality is becoming as prevalent as toxic fast food. From America/Hollywood that brought us the fast food fad laced with carcinogenic toxins comes another western promoted fad: homosexuality. What is the effect of the promotion of this, especially on our young children who turn on the TV and are bombarded by images of two men in bed. Homosexual behavior is currently being shown on TV and promoted as being normal. And its about to get much worse as MTV is planning to open a new station targeted at gay audiences.
 
 The continuous images of white people and the bombardment of these images on the psyche of non-white people is very damaging especially to children who are at a very tender stage of development. These images by their very nature perpetuate an inferiority syndrome that is very pervasive in some Afrikan people. This inferiority syndrome is one of the main reasons for the Afro phobic mentality often displayed by the recipients of this brainwashing. They see the white world as portrayed by the silver screen as the epitome of civilization and thus they want to be white. To be white is good to be black is to be bad. In this craze to whitewash themselves they ruthlessly pursue the American dream, only  to discover that the American dream doesn't include them.

Among young people entertainment through movies and music videos are very popular, with Bet and Mtv being the prime stations. Analysis of the content of these is enough to make one retch with disgust as these stations are deeding the public with a steady diet of promiscuous sex, drugs, homosexuality, and carnal gratification. It is the peak of unconstructive and destructive entertainment/pop culture. The rap artists do quite a lot of damage, spewing images of fast cars, 'bling bling' jewelry, brand name clothing, half nude women, and alcohol. This image that these things are the aim of life, and are the requirements for a good life is one of the most damaging images perpetuated on black people second only to the image of the white Jesus. These black rappers are just pawns, controlled by the American system to spread the word of American supremacy global. It is highly symbolic and significant that these rappers proudly call themselves 'niggers' Only a ignorant person would address themselves in such a self demeaning manner.

News media is very critical especially as it relates to how people view themselves and by extension their environment.(the World). The situations in Venezuela, Palestine/"Israel, Zimbabwe and Iraq has left no doubt (in the minds relatively conscious people), that the mainstream media are interested in upholding the principles of truth, justice and freedom.
There is a very urgent need for alternative sources of media especially news media, owned and controlled outside of the dictates of any neo-colonial imperial entities. If I have an argument with someone and I'm explaining it to you, whose side will I represent? Mine of course! Naturally! Until the Lion has a historian of its own the tale of the hunt will continuously glorify the hunter. How on earth can we leave our education in the hands of those who are profiting from the exploitation and suppression of so called 'third world people' of which the majority are non white people. The true story of the past, present and future will continue to be ignored in the mainstream media (education, radio, TV, newspapers etc) until more people become conscious of the need for alternative media. The growing prevalence of the internet across the globe is helping to offset the monopoly of mass media which entities like BBC and CNN have on the minds of the masses. There will be dire consequences if the role of western media in perpetuating the arrogant/Eurocentric/patriachial/ white supremacist attitudes that are currently imbedded in Western civilization are left to continue unchallenged.
 
   It is imperative for the more conscious people of this time to propagate conscious ideas and alternative ways of doing things that starkly contrast how things are done in the mainstream, totally mindless of humanity. In every sphere of activity it is necessary to offer alternative means void of the biases of western civilization. In education, religion, science, business, media and entertainment it is necessary for the divine self, inherent in everyone to be held aloft and accorded its rightful place.

 It is necessary to rewrite our history, using the often-ignored evidence to expose the myths of this generation. No longer must the trust of shaping our future be places in the hands of those that benefit from our continued ignorance.
In this age of (mis)information, the principles that have guided ancient indigenous people for thousands and thousands of years must be permeated into the modern consciousness. The use of modern technology must be guided by these eternal truths, emphasizing that technology was created to aid humanity not destroy it. Globalization is threatening the survival of people across the diverse landscape of this so called global village and as the stranglehold on third world countries increases, what choice is there but to continue the battle against all forms of imperialism and cultural degradation.  Institutions like the IMF and the World Bank continue to be agents of modern day colonialism, with third world countries reeling under massive external debt. No mention of the wealth stolen from them for hundreds of years and used to fund the industrialization and development of the current developed countries.
In spite of the poverty, the cancer of greed, the wanton materialism, the bloodshed and the ignorance that exists today, the world is still a very beautiful piece of creation, for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. In spite of the often overwhelming burden of everyday life, there is a deeper meaning to our existence that the masses are not conscious of. Every situation happens for us to learn something and so we must delve deep deep into our consciousness in order to bring about a wider change. The individual is where the impetus for change must resonate from, for there to be any significant global change. There will be no conscious progress if vital history continues to be ignored in the mainstream. It is impossible for us to move on until we've come to terms with ourselves as it relates to the past. I see spirituality as becoming conscious of how past events have shaped the present, and how our every action will affect the future. It is the process of extracting divine energy from ourselves/from the power of our choices. It is impossible for Afrikan people to reach the heights of this existence if we let others define who we are, what we should do, what we should eat, what we can be.............. Nearly every sphere of activity was/is manipulated to control us, and in the spirit of the revolution we must break the shackles in every sphere of activity especially in terms of media, education and religion. The drums of Pan Africanism must reverberate throughout this global village, waking up the many that are fast asleep, inspiring those who have inspired us and partaking in the Doctrine of the Supreme Good* as we have done for thousands and thousands of years.




*This doctrine propagated by the ancients in Alkebulan (Afrika) stating that the highest aim of this existence was to become God-like/One with God.

                                                              Ras Tyehimba

[Princess Tracey]

yes Ras Tyehimba...hit the nail of insight on the head once again!

False media has become such a dominant means of misinformation these days..ACROSS THE BOARD..with many groups of people relying heavily on it's non-subsitive content as a whole source of TRUTH, and settling for it as seen!  The notion being that what you see, you will believe in.  And as such, are the plethora of images that reflect quite a superficial society in all it's superficial glory!  

Yes..a point is def to be made how often the views presented are the by-products of the neo colonial white-washed mindset which seeks to perpetually prop itself up by any means viable..keeping the shackles of mental slavery alive and well through it's blue glow mantra of subtle overt/covert mind control...

The producers and mego media corporates def want you to see THEIR side of the lenz to promote their own self interests...and media propaganda will pay a mighty price to dispense it's power over di half mast eye...as do the many people who subject themselves to this daily diet of mental spiritual junk food...such power and control over the bastions of wasted minds..whose watching of constant television has become synonomous with the likes of mental masturbation
...beating the head senseless over and over till it's literally drained dry of pure essence..

But I would attest most greviously to the situation regarding our youth...this is no joke!  what they are absorbing into their fragile fertile minds is astounding...I came home from work  only to see what my teen daughters were watching...a show on MTV called "dismissed"...where 2 people vie against each other for the victory of winning a date with an unknown recipient...here...they don't even KNOW the person...and yet they pull out all the stops...teen age girls sinking lower than ho's and the guys just gettin their freak on...NOW...they are even highlighting homosexuals, and had 3 men all goin at it!!!kissing and fondling right there on my screen in my living room!!...so the tube gets turnd OFF..with ensuing great discussions...but then I am there/at least THIS time...what about the other times I'm not?

To the African youth... there is not much to look up to as sighted...BET/MTV, and the now growing black sitcoms also have nothing positive to contribute to subsitive content worthy of acknowleding...the messages gleaned hold nothing...cause media on the whole has nothing!

Unfortunatly in media.. it's the money that talks...and is the foundation that walks..if ye don't have money..ye don't have a voice...and you will not be represented..guaranteed!

Strong African people who know who they are...are a mighty force to reckon with, and a threat to the status quo.. for it shakes the bloody foundation pon which it's built!

yet they WILL have to soon recognize...for the voices will not rest until heard!!

continue to fight for a new day, until a new way is realized!  

"It is imperative for the more conscious people of this time to propagate conscious ideas and alternative ways of doing things that starkly contrast how things are done in the mainstream, totally mindless of humanity. In every sphere of activity it is necessary to offer alternative means void of the biases of western civilization. In education, religion, science, business, media and entertainment it is necessary for the divine self, inherent in everyone to be held aloft and accorded its rightful place. "


yes bredda Tyehimba...continue to SPEAK THE TRUTH with knowledge, power and stregnth!!!

many are willing to stand and fight alongside for truth, justice,  and peace

warriorPrincess

[IanI]

Greetings,

The questions here concern mass medias impact upon the youth of today. And surely there is an impact. That is why much of it has been created and propogated... to con-trol.

Having raised youth who are now into adulthood, I must say that I do not find these answers difficult or solutions complex. You know, many seem to feel that because these mediums exist... they must have them. But the Reality is that you do not have to have them at all. And if you have the courage and the consciousness... you will NOT have these things in you home. That does not mean that you children will not be exposed to them elsewhere of course, but as we raise our youth it is imperitive that we be the guide... not the marketplace, the school-system, the church or state.
And as you have the guidance in you control, even when the youth do see the TV or the internet at friends or in the school room... them have a firm foundation on which to judge what them a then exposed to.

Now I am well aware that these things are enticing and youth gonna want what all a them friends got... but that does not mean that them have to have it.
I can only use me own experience as the example. And compare the results with others. It was not easy. Youth want what them want! But I can see the results of raising them away from media... and so can they. I remember saying to them... "you will thank me some day!"... and now that day is here. And they say to me..."oh thanks! and we will never have TV and satilite or cable when we children a young!"
So it go.

Now the only way for these medias to survive is if the people buy them... and buy the products that support them. And these ones are quite clever and know how to sell them things... how to "con-vince" the people them a in need of all of it.
But if you say you conscious... and you no like these things and what they do to you youth... then DO NOT buy them!! Do not have them around you!
And no tell me easier said than done or none a that...
cause me do it and know.

The only reason me got computer is because me children a grown and gone and because it given to me by one friend to do just what you see here.
Mediums can have their POSITIVE purpose... but Ones must be well Aware and well Conscious before them a go have them and use them.
Otherwise babylon a got it's grip well tight upon you! And all of it's subtle influences a guide you!

The computer can be well used for the education of the youth... but it must be guided by the adult. Youth cannot be left unguided!
And if there is no guidance...
then do not have these things for youth to use alone!
seen

Give thanks.

ONE LOVE/HEART/MIND
IanI Rastafari
Guidance and Protection

[Rose]

Any item can be used as a tool to educate. Positive value does not lie innate in any object it has to be extracted through sensible use. Television/Media is one of them. They provide an excellent base to build discussions with our children. Remember that children are naturally curious and they exist here in Babylon so like the use of the 'English' language they must be familiar with all the tools of the oppressor, how it is used and how they can use it.

Is it that one item is bad and another is good, or do we show the 'good'/'bad' in things and provide our children with a CHOICE and the power to discern? Let us not throw the baby out with the bath water, or even wait till they experience it outside. This is the purpose of home a safe place where things can be experienced in an intimate setting.

[Princess Tracey]

yesss SEEN Rose!...one must learn how to extrapolate the values from the functions... the truth from the lies within this world lived..wise discernment learned indeed...and most appropraitely within the home...as everything provides an opportunity to choose...and to choose WISELY!  Something def worth cultivating in our youth!

but yes, most respectfuly IanI... GUIDANCE is key with regards to our youth...having raised 2 full grown sons...and now 2 daughters soon on their way...I must also attest to the power of loving spiritual guidance in every step of the way.

As Rose so poignantly mentioned..."any item can be used as a tool to educate"...
I learned early on, I cannot keep them from all the ills of society...they must learn how co-exist and find their spiritual compass amongst, and through, experiancing the many contrasts within Babylon's gates. They must learn how to listen to the inna/ innate spiritual guidance that avails itself continuously.

I must allow my children to a great extent learn how to make their own choices and live by the consequences of their decisions...but I also recognize, the responsibility I have to also stand by them AS they make their decisions, and to offer to the best of my ability, the best wisdom I can from what I know at that time...and though I rarely watch tv...as I do find nothing worth watching...only here and there...they choose to watch certain things within reason...and soo...that day, after we turned the tube off...catching a glimpse of the nonsense yielded great discussions about sex, homsexuals, how young girls put all their "stuff" out on da plate...how what you advertise you WILL draw pon yourself...etc...etc...

yes, we must teach and guide our youth in every way, utilizing the many things that cross our paths, and come into our lives, and through our livity...and yes, some things we must learn to refrain from, as they are indeed harmful and best kept away from...period!...

to He that them choose...let Him choose wisely!


May I share some inspired writings on children from the great  Lebonese poet Kahlil Gibran:

Your children are not your children
They are the sons and daughters of Life's
longing for itself.
They come through you but not from
you,
And though they are with you
yet they belong not to you

You may give them your love
but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies
but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow
which you cannot visit
not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries
with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinate,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer's hand
be for gladness;
For even He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.
~

bredda Tyehimba...I know this took the post in another direction than it's original flow and point of meaning...yet how integrally interwined these tapestries weave...with such lovely threads that string ideas into new designs within such a beautiful cloth...yes?...smile

blessings

[RasIene]

Rastas deal with reality and factuality. Now! Earth-wide Rastas hold view that homosexuality is unnatural. There are many accourence of homosexual practises been burnt out, wiped out through destruction of an entire city yet it stil lremain with us today.
It is a scrouged which remain alike the four horsemen spoken of in revelation. What shall we do now! how can we separate the act from the person.
Warriorprincess your barrowed poem by Khalil Gibran is well taken especially this piece, "we cannot give them our thoughts". So what is the solution. Since, homosexuality already exist despite the killing, the preaching and the teaching it is still on. It has gone underground and now it has come forward aground. No doubts there are young and old homosexuals, there are repressed homosexuals and there are closet homosexuals. Many of them are young people teachers, doctors, lawyers...you name the professions-they are there. Basically, Follywood only respond to the market and the need of its followers. Right now...dont ones and ones site the shift in what they produce. They are competing with the gaming industry, the internet prone sites or adult sites properly called in the industry. Thus now they are reinventing themselves to keep their million dollar industry going by presenting all kinds of things with any bars. They are opening up their ethic cage now undefine where anything goes.
Since ones and ones childrens are in the school system ones and ones child cannot escape the influence of peer group and
other adults around them that supports these industry.
I and I knowledge that everyone has a sense of life, including ones and ones child. Now! as Ras_tehimba have open our eyes to the length of their follywood antics we must sit at the foot of our children and let them know that there is a way that seemeth right to ones and ones but the end thereof is destruction. That is I and I assuming that they are not already caught in the follyness of homosexuality or other act deem negative by Rastas. Now! if things forbid that they are homosexual. The parent must try to dialogue with them to make sure it is their choice and not some one else choice made for them. And if it is their choice, they must be loved without curse or doom. For "can the leopard change its spot"  

It is time Rases do not be caught in fantasy and emotion about homosexaulity as it is real. It is that realness that follywood is trying to make money off which just make it wrong. But again most Homosexual or gay want to see themselves in films and in everyday activity. Aids is a real killer and we must protect the young ones and teach them how to handle their feelings, relationships. But that can only be done if they include their parents or can trust their parents. IandI I overs what the I said. But! Iyah time have changed since you have raised your sons and Jah bless you for keeping an iron hand.
I and I detest that I and I's have to be even speaking on this issue but it is serious. Follywood cannot be totally blame for what people are about.
Fine topic Ras_tehimba I hope more Idrens and Sistrens will respond to this posting.

RasIene.    

[natydread]

Do you know the Unabomber? know also under the name of Freedom Club and of Theodore Kaczinski? he was against technology and as nobody was hearing at what he had to say, he sent boody-trap parcel post to university teachers and computer scientists. from mai 1978 to âpril 1985 he kille 3 people and injured 23. He promised to stop if newspaper published his manifesto. his way to act might have been wrong, his ideas he exposes manifesto are not all so bad...

here are two links where you can read this manifesto
http://www.panix.com/~clays/Una/
http://www.soci.niu.edu/~critcrim/uni/uni.txt

[Ayinde]

Homosexuality is a sore point among Rastafarians especially those who try to define the standards by which all others should live. All people will not be Rastafarians and Rastafarians should not be so hurry to outright dismiss people without clearly definable reasons.

How is their lifestyle denying Rastas the right to do anything including open businesses, getting a job and developing spiritually?

What is the reasoning on the subject?

If some Rastas choose to dissociate from homosexuality that is their choice but the tone of the chatter on the subject is usually about dissing others outright only because we do not share their sexual preferences. Certainly many homosexuals were misled and some have biological abnormalities but it is not our business to make rules for everyone.  

Who don't like it and feel to lobby Hollywood are free to so do and who feel it is worth promoting are always free to so do. Sensible people would not be looking for role models in Hollywood they would be busy developing alternative media.

Those who reason with people instead of trying to dictate to them will learn that some fair perspectives on life do come from homosexuals (both male and female). You really do not have to consider having sex with everyone you reason with, it's that simple.

It is not only homosexuals that I disagree with in regards to sexuality. I also disagree with many 'regular' people's views on sexuality but that is only worth sharing if that aspect of them becomes an integral part of our reasoning.

That does not mean that we cannot reason together or that I want them wiped out. It simply means that we have a different understanding on the functions of sex.  I cool as long as people's preferences does not infringe on my rights/freedoms.

[Princess Tracey]

yes seen Ayinde!

This issue came front and foremost to me most recently and has called me to another level...with 2 sides to the coin revealed yet again...which indeed also became another topic of great discussion with my 2 daughters.

I am a massage therapist and take my calling seriously...I feel it is a great priviledge and opportunity to extend the hand of healing on many different levels.  With regards to homosexuality, an interesting development has evolved through my practice, which now calls me to new heights of overstanding.  I have 2 sistas who live together and who have been my steady clients over the past several months. These women are absolutely deep and beautiful people who
offer a conscious respect towards who I am, and what I do... I do not feel threatened at all by their sexuality because I know who I am sexually, and therfore dismiss any notions that they're gonna pounce and seduce me..what my energy puts out does not court any receptivity to even allow anything to go in that direction...and so..I reflect who they are as people, and also refelct...who am I to say their livity is wrong?  I  suppose because their livity is respectful towards each other AND towards me...and that they do not parade their sexuality all up in people's faces acting all crude and lewd...but rather are 2 women with families, who find a nurturing, loving, sustaining relationship with each other.

However, what I see coming cross the media is a whole nother story...one that I find offensive and insulting...and the media seems to take great delight in assaulting our minds with this kind of overt, in your, face nastiness..

I agree it is crucial to watch what one slings out as judgement pon anothers lifestyle...as we are all in process of growing...sometimes we need to pass through certain gates in order to come to deeper realizations about ourselves...I really cannot say if anything justifies homosexuality...certainly as a woman who flows in symbiotic rhythm and dance with male energy I view things from my viewpoint...but I do see so many struggle with this...some really seem born with genetic traits with a propensity to dip into the other gender...and some just yield to the normalization of an abnormal lifestyle
through the condoning and submission of a society that now says it's alright....

I personally see two sides to the coin...one side seems so absolutely WRONG, and does beg the question of allowing such permissiveness to exploit, degrade, and infiltrate our society with such lewd filth..but then I guess, if not tolerated...then does that gives creedance and permission to commit gaybashing? ...and is THAT acceptable?

The other side gives me pause to ponder....and I find myself simply thinking -  to each his/her own...if you treat me with respect..I in turn will give it back!

People must choose for themselves is all I can say...I know NOT the inner dealings of their heart and mind. I DO know I am responsible for my OWN actions...and thusly, must act in accordance to thine own consciousness and give rightly to my children that which comes from me to them...and then THEY must choose for themselves!

[RasIene]

Respect to all reasoning. Rastafari Iance and Seance. Word sound and Power. Quake all weak hearts and cramp and paralyze all backbiter.
On this boad respectfully devoted to Idrens and Idrens voicing their view point it is pointed out that Rasta is Sacred thing. However, their is no law to judge and deem ones and ones view point over the other. All is in grounding, reasoning to come to an overstanding. Just as ayinde had said, that
we all have our view point. And warrior princess do have a practical point as she relates to people who differnet from her in her business. Therefore, she may have some weighty reasoning.
I and I knows that Rastas are in the dark about allot of things. For example, there are Rastas that visit pornography sites and are even members of some, there are Rastas that eat pork and all manner of meat and do all manner of drugs and liqour. Now one approach such Rastas and say they are not Rastas, they may very well do some damge either to one ego or body for disrrespecting them. So yes! there are homosexual Rastas. I have seen once on Donahue show at the time when it was the king of good outlet for talk show.
A group of Rastas were the subject of the panel. The audience were all Rastas. They call them selves Rastas. They were afrocentrically dress, have their rods, dreads of bongo style, and beards extensive. Chiefly they had their leader who sat with Donahue. He answered all the questions posed to him. One of the question was how could they be homosexuals and given the mantra of most Rastas they denounce homosexuality, and therefore that makes them wrong and could never be Rastas. The audiences roared and rant and cried out Rastafari stand firm in their leader or representative.
I could overs the Idrens. They are able to separate what they know as Rastas from their sexuality and they do not let that define them. I will have to research more into that sect of Rastas to see how their group have evolved. However, we need to dig deeper to put proper overstanding on this subject and how it affects our community and its livity. Denial about what is sacred to Rastas and what is not must be looked at.
Many young ones are coming up and even some adult Rastas hear are starving for information and honest guidance. Whatever, I and I can provide must be base on reality and factuality. I shall be making some intelligent posting soon on Rastasexology if not here on Rastafarispeaks.com I shall else and thus will provide the link.
RasIene.

[Ayinde]

http://www.blackcommentator.com/

The New York Times should be ashamed of itself for abrogating "the trust between the newspaper and its readers," as chairman Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. put it. But the Jayson Blair affair is the least of the newspaper's transgressions against truth. Racism, not affirmative action, is what ails the Times.

By rights, the Times' embarrassment should be of no collective concern to Black people. Whites control every important aspect of the publication's decision making. White management devised their own version of what they chose to call affirmative action, hiring those Blacks that appealed to their corporate tastes. Black people in general bear no responsibility for white people's hiring decisions. Yet, in the wake of 27-year-old Blair's alleged plagiarisms and fictions, media racists immediately sought to somehow blame the very concept of affirmative action for what is, at root, just another instance of white management incompetence. "Affirmative action" didn't hire Blair, and Blair didn't hire and assign himself--white management did.

There is a deeper current underlying this story, one that allows the Times to escape its own responsibilities by hiding behind supposed good intentions. The paper poses as a social do-gooder, when in reality it is an unreconstructed bigot. The Times needs an affirmative action program because it does a terrible job of hiring competent Black reporters, many hundreds of whom are willing and able to perform the corporate mission. The same racism that has historically prevented the Times from sufficiently staffing itself with minorities also causes it to hire the wrong candidates. White people have been screwing up affirmative action since before the term was coined, sometimes on purpose, more often through an inability to objectively assess non-whites--one of the definitions of racism.

Assault on The Gray Lady

The Blair denouement was bigger news than a thousand dead Iraqis. Basically, the story was framed as an affirmative action-induced erosion of standards at the highest levels of journalism--an assault on American media integrity as represented by The New York Times. Blacks were having their corrupt way with the Gray Lady--a symbol of white intelligence and competence as potent in some respects as Lady Liberty, a few miles south of Times Square.

The starting point of American racism is the assumption that white people and their institutions represent the proper, normative standards against which all other people and institutions are judged. Once the white normative assumption is internalized, a racist worldview flows from it as surely as water to the sea, polluting every social space in its path.

The logic of this seminal assumption dictates that people hired by the New York Times are either gifted human beings, or people who have been bestowed a gift. It is a circular kind of logic, since the Times has the power to set standards based on--itself.

The New York Times functions as a corporate arbiter of white American discourse. We gain vital clues to the workings of white corporate minds by noting the content and treatment of "All the News That's Fit to Print." We do not learn what is actually important, but only what the Times deems important enough to publish. And that's critical to know, if only to understand how the mighty think, and what they think about.

Those who are shackled by racist assumptions are led to conclude that a Black person fortunate enough to measure up to the standards of The New York Times--one who is privileged to breathe that rarified white air--carries a double obligation. He must prove that the brilliant whites who hired him picked the right Black person for the job, and he must insure by his comportment in the position that other white institutions will hire more Blacks to assist them in their corporate mission.

Should the Black candidate--a person picked by whites--fail, it is the aspirations of Black people as a whole for upward mobility that are made to seem unreasonable, ridiculous, even criminal. This is white mischief at its most automatic and insidious.

Jayson Blair failed his white folks, giving the New York Times a "huge black eye," as Sulzberger said with a straight face. The Times compiled a 7,500-word account of the Blair affair, essentially concluding that the newspaper had allowed its good intentions to be "betrayed" by a bad Black.

Lunatics control the asylum

Nowhere has the newspaper acknowledged that Blair was an affirmative action hire--this is simply assumed to be the case. In one sense, however, all Black recruitment at historically white work environments is affirmative action, in that it is reluctant hiring--white people doing what does not come naturally, and is against their distorted judgment. Persons who are reluctantly hired are often reluctantly supervised and not mentored at all. It is crystal clear that Jayson Blair was not part of any formal or informal "team" at the New York Times. Had he been connected with the life of the paper, half his stories would not have later been found to be bogus in some respect, including "frequent acts of journalistic fraud." Blair acted utterly alone.

Yes, there is something inherently wrong with affirmative action as practiced in the United States and at The New York Times: white people still make all the decisions. The perpetrators of the historical crime, the people whose delusional worldviews created the societal distortions that plague Black America in the first place--the same people that make the New York Times an unfit interpreter of reality--remain the arbiters of societal standards, values, and hiring. They decide what is "Fit to Print," and who is fit to engage in the process. Let them live with their choice of Jayson Blair--that's white folks' business.

African Americans did not craft the New York Times affirmative action program, nor are there enough Blacks in the organization to decisively influence the paper's editorial or workplace policies. Blair's alleged transgressions are proof only that the New York Times is a bad judge of Black people--as is normal among racists.

African Americans should not be drawn into a conversation based on the assumption that The New York Times sets a high standard for journalism, or that the paper's white managers are capable of recognizing any aspect of reality whatsoever, in hiring decisions or news judgments. Black people bear no onus for white incompetence in selecting Black people to carry out white corporate missions.

Petty frauds and mega-lies

The New York Times violates truth, every day, with no assistance from African Americans. Jayson Blair is accused of writing stories about people he had not spoken to, and places he had not been. For this, he is crucified, and made a symbol of Black pretensions. The Great White Liar William Safire wonders, "How could this happen at the most rigorously edited newspaper in the world?" Yet Blair's misdeeds, so innocuous that he could commit 36 of them before being caught, pale when compared to the Stalinist crime against reality perpetrated by valued Timesman Adam Nagourney, May 5, in full view of the paper's editors.

Nagourney was entrusted to divine the larger truths that emerged from the televised Democratic primary debate, in South Carolina. Instead, as BC noted in last week's issue, he disappeared three of the candidates:

"Nagourney then proceeded to delineate the opposing Democratic camps, comprising six of the nine candidates: Lieberman, Kerry, Edwards, Gephardt, Dean and Graham. In over 1,000 words, Nagourney not only failed to once mention the names Al Sharpton, Carole Moseley-Braun or Dennis Kucinich, he did not indicate in any manner that the three candidates existed on the planet Earth! The two Blacks and one lefty white did not rate even a throwaway line about the "others" vying for primary votes. The fact that they lived and breathed was not deemed fit to print--an amazing but honest exposition of the world as it should be in the judgment of the New York Times and corporate media, in general."

The New York Times erased three important politicians from a nationally televised event in which they were full participants, leaving not a trace of their presence in the Newspaper of Record. Presumably, the editors were pleased. Stalin's scissors men would have been proud.

One of the disappeared, Sharpton, is likely to come in first or second in South Carolina, next February. Will Times readers wonder how and why that happened? "It's an abrogation of the trust between the newspaper and its readers," said Times chairman Sulzberger. But he was talking about Jayson Blair's little tricks and inventions, not Adam Nagourney's racial and political mutilation of a nationally significant event. Jason Blair invented quotes of transient interest from rather unimportant people. Adam Nagourney whited out a national debate.

The Times vastly underestimated the October 26 anti-war march in Washington, reporting that turnout was only in the "thousands," far "below expectations." Actually, between 100,000 (police estimate) and 200,000 (Pacifica's count) people gathered that Saturday on the Mall for a protest of global, historic impact. It took a monsoon of emailed complaints to prompt the Times to issue a corrective story on the following Wednesday, confirming that the huge turnout had served to "Invigorate the Antiwar Movement."

Times Executive Editor Howell Raines neglected to assemble a task force to investigate "how such fraud could have been sustained within the ranks of The New York Times" by reporter Lynette Clemetson, an assassin of history, itself. Such language is reserved for petty revisionists, like Blair.

The Times prints only the news that fits its version of reality, and discards the rest. It now pillories Jayson Blair for doing the same thing, piecemeal.

We think he is a Timesman, after all.

http://www.blackcommentator.com/

[Ras_Joe]

Blessed Love Brother,

   Yes brother there must be divine change in order for ones to move forward in life. Ones cannot allow outside entities whose purpose is to suppress and oppress the masses to rule. Brother humanity must overstand and embrace the fact that the Earth belongs to all and not the so called superiors who today hold on to information that is essential to the upliftment of all. Ones must also overstand that to take a stance is not at all wrong especially if the stance is a righteous stance. We people of the Mighty Nation of Alkebulan cannot continue to stand back as if INI ability isn't needed. It is now time for INI to direct INI focus and energy into the liberation of the minds and souls of INI people. Without a stance it is like saying to the system, do what you want I will just wait until it's my turn. But as a follower of INI higher self which is Jah I will not be moved by the negative of Babylon. I will make sure that righteousness prevails because I know this is INI divine duty. So let's all fight a righteous fight and show Babylon who truly rules the World.

Peace,
Ras Joe

[Ayinde]

Reflections On White Privilege And Hypocrisy

by Tim Wise

If Jayson Blair did not exist, white America would have to create him. The confirmed New York Times plagiarist and all-around journalistic con man, after all, is the perfect foil for those whites who have always needed to find a dark face capable of confirming pre-existing biases towards, suspicions of, and fears about black people.

Indeed we have long invented proofs to fit our prejudices.

Racist beliefs about blacks and their propensity for savagery were confirmed (for racists at least) by slave rebellions.

Racist beliefs about black intelligence are confirmed (for racists at least) by any black student who drops out of an elite college, no matter the reasons.

And now there is Blair, who confirms (for racists at least) that blacks are a little less honest, a little less truly talented, and taking jobs from more capable whites because of misguided racial preferences; preferences that allow them to get away with fraud or shoddy work in a way that whites presumably never would be allowed to do.

But really now, who are these folks trying to kid?

Whites have been doing our fair share of lying and cheating since long before this nation even became a nation. Indeed, without a healthy dose of both it would have been rather difficult to have become a nation at all.

And when whites lie we are rarely pilloried the way Blair has been as of late, or as Janet Cooke--another black journalist who fabricated stories in the early 1980's--was. Indeed, in just the last several years, over a half-dozen white journalists have been busted for plagiarism or fabricating stories, some every bit as serious in scope as Jayson Blair, and even at the Times; yet none provoked this kind of outrage.

In fact, one of the guilty parties even has a new book from a major publisher, which provides a somewhat fictionalized but overall lighthearted account of the author's deceptive exploits.

Of course, there's nothing particularly unique about light-skinned liars managing to get by without too much damage to their reputations or the shelf lives of the tales they've told.

The stock narrative of American history, created by whites to be sure, is nothing but a string of fabrications, after all.

Christopher Columbus discovered America and was the first to prove that the world was round. Wrong.

George Washington chopped down a cherry tree and then 'fessed up to his father because he could not tell a lie, though apparently historians had no such compunction.

The nation was founded by people who, despite their persecution of those with religious beliefs different from their own, were seeking religious freedom. Strike three.

One nation, with liberty and justice for all: by now you probably get the picture.

Truth be told, Jayson Blair is really quite the amateur trickster compared to the chroniclers of American propaganda and triumphalist pseudo-history. But this should come as no surprise, as the powerful by necessity must be more talented at bullshit than anyone else, if for no other reason than to maintain said power.

Ronald Reagan lied about a welfare cheat with dozens of names and Social Security numbers who collected over $100,000 fraudulently and drove around in a Cadillac. It was completely fabricated, an intentional con, but it certainly didn't hurt--indeed one might even say it helped--his career.

When he was a reporter in St. Louis, Pat Buchanan took internal FBI memos blasting Martin Luther King Jr. and passed them off as his own work: a form of plagiarism to be sure, but his career was hardly damaged by his lack of ethics.

George Will brags about procuring--one might say pilfering--Jimmy Carter's 1980 Presidential Debate handbook and passing it on to Reagan so as to prepare him for his televised tête-à-tête with the incumbent. But in Will's case, an action called theft by those who are intellectually honest hasn't prevented him from being a respected columnist and commentator whose smug mug we can see each Sunday morning on "This Week."

George W. Bush lied about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction--what with his claims of 300 gallons of this, and 500 gallons of that, and such and such tons of this other thing--and most people don't seem to care. When white folks lie, even if those lies result in a war that kills (so far) at least 4000 Iraqi civilians according to news reports available in Europe but not here, the apostles of integrity and virtue have nothing to say. But let a black man perpetrate a fraud, especially if that fraud besmirches the good reputations of white men, like the bosses at the New York Times, and all hell breaks loose.

And then that black man becomes a poster boy in the eyes of white reactionaries for why affirmative action and "diversity" efforts are misguided. That such insipid buffoonery passes for wisdom in the eyes of so many, rather than being seen as the epitome of a racist double-standard is stunning beyond belief; or rather it would be were it not so numbingly common, so cliché, so pedestrian.

After all, when white men ripped off the Savings and Loan industry, costing taxpayers a few hundred billion in bailout funds, no one suggested that we should be wary of hiring white men to run banks: even white men like Silverado's Neil Bush, brother of W., who had no prior experience in the field.

When white men commit major corporate fraud (think Enron) no one suggests that we should eradicate the workings of the old boy's networks that are so instrumental in getting white guys top executive jobs in the first place.

When a half-dozen white pilots in six months get pulled off planes because they're either drunk or hungover, or when a couple of others strip down to their underwear in the cockpit just for shits and giggles, no one recommends that white pilots might be too unstable to serve the nation's commercial fleet, or that whatever channels white men have exploited to receive the lion's share of jobs as pilots should be shut down so as to preserve the integrity of the profession.

When a white man runs a business into the ground, after having deserted his military assignment during war time, not only do whites as a group not bear the stigma of that one white man's incompetence and duplicity, but the white man in question gets another shot as a chief executive: this time as President of the United States. The same job his daddy had; a man who lied about taxes and reading his lips.

Recent revelations of widespread cheating by affluent white suburbanites on the SAT, using any number of ingenious scams to con the college entrance exam, haven't prompted calls for extra security at testing sites in Pleasantville, or greater scrutiny of white college applicant's scores.

Ultimately, if blacks screw up or do something objectionable they become exhibit A in the racist fantasies of the weak-minded, but if whites screw up, we get to remain individuals. This is the essence of white privilege: the privilege to rise or fall without implicating your group in the process or calling into question the mechanisms that brought you to your current station.

People of color, on the other hand, constantly have to answer for the whole. So when Jesse Jackson was running for President, everyone wanted to know his views on black crime, out-of-wedlock childbirths in the black community, and whether or not he would distance himself from Louis Farrakhan. Yet I can't recall a single white politician being asked his views on white serial killing, disproportionate child sexual molestation among whites, or being asked to distance himself from David Duke.

Even when blacks succeed there is no escaping the backhanded compliment that they are a "credit to their race," itself a racist comment since it implies that the group as a whole is rather lacking in the shining star department. Needless to say, such a thing is never said to a successful white person, since we already have a rather unlimited credit line, so to speak.

The most pathetic thing about the Blair incident is this: to an awful lot of whites--and certainly the zombified denizens of talk radio--this scandal proves that blacks are somehow getting opportunities they don't deserve; that racial preference has turned the notion of merit selection upside down. Yet they fail to acknowledge the reality that whites continue to get far more jobs, irrespective of actual ability, than people of color do.

According to the National Center for Career Strategies, more than 85 percent of all jobs are filled by word-of-mouth as opposed to merit-based competition through open advertising. What's more, nine in ten executives got their jobs through networking. So just who do we think are the folks in these networks, and who are those persons disproportionately left out? To ask the question is to answer it.

Studies for years have found that employers tend to prefer hiring people who remind them of themselves, and that too often they make judgments about merit and ability that are less about talent than their comfort level with the potential hire: a comfort level heavily influenced by race. Once again, just who do we think benefits from this form of subtle racism, and who is harmed? And once again, to ask the question is to answer it.

And finally, a recent study found that when resumes of equally-qualified job applicants are sent to employers, those with white sounding names are fifty percent more likely to get called in for an interview than those with black-sounding names. So who's getting preference?

At the end of the day, white America may delude itself into believing that Jayson Blair is the epitome of racial preference run amok, but until we clean out our own stables, filled as they are with liars, cheats, and a plethora of incompetents, we might want to avoid any and all mirrors for a while.

Tim Wise is an antiracist essayist, activist and father.