America, The Media, and Race

It has been a while since my last entry, and to be extremely honest, I was sitting in the background and observing the events of this election year as they unfold. I will say that I am less than pleased with the amount of media driven rhetoric. I am also disappointed in America as a whole. Not so much for the fiscal state of our nation, but more so for the state of social relations in America.

This election - for most - is not unlike any election in the past. The Republicans typically like their nominee, and the Democrats typically like theirs. I, personally, have the privilege of stating that I actually like both candidates. Believe it or not, that is the absolute inverse of my feelings for the candidates in the 2000 election cycle. Regardless, the truth of the present day matter is in the fact that I honestly like both John McCain and Barack Obama. Each have their positives as well as negatives. Perhaps John McCain's greatest negative is his affiliation with the party that produced two failed presidents from the same family within the last two decades. Still, I look beyond party affiliations, and focus on the perception of what each candidate can or will do for the overall benefit of our nation. With that, I do not have an issue with either candidate during the final months of this election year. I do, however, have an issue with the media and the fanning of the flames of racial divide in our nation.

I read the reports of the recent Stanford survey. Taking a controlled sampling of slightly less than 2300 Caucasian people and presenting them with questions such as "So, what don't you like about black people?". Is it possible to be more racially insensitive than that? OK, in fairness to Stanford, that study was most likely a grade for some enterprising undergrad, so I can not bring the hammer on the survey; however, I can jump on the overly zealous media for pouring lighter fluid onto the coals of the American Racial Divide.

America can exist for thousands of years, and the scourge of racism may never die. Somewhere, in the heart of some people, there will always exist negative feelings of race. Face it, America was founded by descendants of early Western Civilization. The nature of the west has always been that of conquering those whom were seen as inferior. The Europeans forcefully acquired land from the tribal Indian populations who inhabited this land for millions of years. They, those bloody Europeans, called he native population "savages", "redskins" and other derogatory terms. In short, anything that was not like them (white) was inferior in their eyes. That ugly mind set continued to flourish, and indeed still exists in lesser forms in our present day. The problem with that is now it is not just the white people who are harboring racist views. Seems as if everybody in America harbors racially motivated views towards Americans of other racial diverse backgrounds. Whites hate blacks, blacks hate whites, and so on, and so on, and so on. Personally, I am sick and damn tired of the crap!!

Our country is falling behind other developed nations in the area of education, research and development, health care, and fiscal security simply because our forward vision is obstructed by racism. We do not pay everyone the same, we do not ensure that everyone has the same access to the same social clubs, we still identify our people through an antiquated class system. Seems as if the media has become the unofficial gatekeeper of that out modded class system.

Our news stations selectively report stories, highlighting the negative qualities of one race, while accentuating the positive qualities of another. OK, let's call it as it is. The news highlights the crime in the black communities, regardless of how petty. In the same light, the news highlights stories about Hermes the smiling dog, and the soccer mom who hung a sign in her community. Movies often portray the hero as some finely chiseled, dashingly rugged, albeit scruffy faced white man, while portraying the black person as a loud, often under educated drug dealer, addict, or other form of criminal. No one given so much of a thought to the fact that many of our prisons are filled with white CEO's who embezzled millions of dollars from some corporation. No one takes into account that more murders are ordered from the halls of Congress than those from some second rate drug dealer.

Bottom line is this America, the media is now,and has always been a tool used to control the thoughts of a given population. Not every black person is a violent, bitching, underachiever. Truth be known, those qualities apply to less than 10% of the entire African American population. The same is true of the Caucasian population, a little less than 10% of that population are violent, bitching underachievers. So the big questions is this; why does the media take so much pleasure in highlighting the 10% or one population and the 90% of the other? Is that fair and balanced unbiased journalism?

America, we are all human, created by God and blessed with free will. We are going to have our feelings about people, events, things, and no two sets of feelings will be alike. That is what makes us unique. We are all entitle to how we feel or think. Where is it written that it is the right of the media to take advantage of how we think to control the outcome of anything that happens here in America?

Allow me to say one thing in closing. I am sure that by now most of my readers of determined that I am African American, even though my view point is not slanted. I have been incredibly critical of the Klu Klux Klan, and I make no apologies for that in the least. As a young adult, I befriended a young man whom we will just identify as Chris C. Chris C and I worked together, and we were part of a large group. Both of us had something in common, we were both ostracised by the larger body of the group, so Chris and I became good friends. As our working relationship grew, Chris invited me to meet his father. I agreed, and I will be honest, Chris's dad, although he did not agree with my perspective on certain issues, nor I with his, still he respected me, and I respected him. I felt blessed to have met Chris's dad. I realize that you may not consider that to be unique, but it was because of who Chris's dad was. See, Chris C is the son of a Klu Klux Klan Imperial Wizard. That's right, I actually broke bread with a Klansman. Is he still a Klansman? Yes, and an active one. Did that change my opinion of Chirs C? Yes, for the better. See, we have different views, but we allowed ourselves to understand each other's point of view. Why did I mention this story? The answer is quite simple. We will not be able to completely rid America of the scourge of racism, but we can seek to understand each other. One does not need to like a person to understand that person. Through understanding comes respect, through respect come tolerance, through tolerance come acceptance, and through acceptance comes growth (spiritual, emotional and collective). Our media would go a long way towards providing an excellent service if the focus would be on the middle ground of understanding. It does not matter if the skin is white, black, yellow, blue or green. If you cut an American we all bleed the same color, and that color is red.