AFAM Newsbits
June 2004
“FUTURE OF WHITE
JOURNALISM IN SERIOUS JEOPARDY?”
God bless Black journalist Leonard Pitts
for highlighting the differences between how the mainstream press treated the
Black New York Times journalist, Jayson Blair, and White USA
Today journalist, Jack Kelly. Both
fabricated and plagiarized news stories but, while the mainstream press focused
on Blair’s race and implied that his misbehavior raised questions about
affirmative action and Black journalists in general, their stories about Kelly
revealed nothing about his race and made no generalities about the state of
White journalism. Pitts wrote of Kelly:
“He lied so much I’m only half convinced “Jack Kelly” is his real name. Yet you, my colleagues, have not asked the
most important question: What does this mean for the future of white
journalism. Granted, you’ve pontificated
about our damaged credibility. You’ve
felled forests with your weighty ruminations about what this portends for the
future of our profession. But, evidently
cowed by political correctness, you’ve ignored the most vital issues. Did USA
Today advance a moderately capable journalist because he was white? Did some white editor mentor him out of
racial solidarity even though Kelley was unqualified? In light of this fiasco, should we examine
the de facto affirmative action that gives white men preferential treatment in
our newsrooms? Certainly, no one had to
beg for these questions to be asked when Jayson Blair
got his sorry backside in hot water.”
The
Republican, April 28, 2004.
HE MAY NOT HIRE US BUT HE WILL EXPECT OUR
VOTE!
Trying to explain why presidential
candidate John Kerry’s campaign is not “thriving,” columnist Joe Klein wrote
that Kerry “is engulfed by the sort of people Howard Dean railed against: timid
congressional Democratic staff members and some of the old Clinton crowd, less
hungry now, less rowdy, too rutted in past successes to try anything new. There are precious few sharp young people in
positions of responsibility and—very strange for a Democrat—no prominent blacks or Latinos in the inner
circle either.”
Time
Magazine, April 26, 2004.
WHO BARES THE MOST GUILT, HE WHO HELD THE
WHIP OR HE WHO MADE THE MONEY?
The
notion that New Englanders played a limited and passive role in the slave trade
is pure fiction. As journalist Sam Ellis
details, “The institution of slavery permeated life in New England for 200
years…By 1708…there were 400 slaves in Boston.
By 1750 there were 4,000 slaves in Massachusetts and 3,300 in Rhode
Island—about 10 percent of the population…Yankees were less slave owners than
slave traders. They owned ships that
carried men and women from Africa to the killing fields of the sugar islands
and beyond. Boston names like Boylston, Faneuil and Rhode Island clans like the Browns, founding
benefactors of what is now Brown University, all grew rich from the trafficking
of human beings. Most of the leading
families of Boston, Providence and Newport, R.I. had house slaves and
prosperous farmers often had one or two to work their fields. “Slavery was not a minor, weak institution in
New England…” It was a substantial institution that lasted for a long
time.”
Boston
Globe, April 25, 2004.
SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS?
A city where Whites “…control the money,
the politics, and the future.”
A city where “…intelligence is not
translating to positions of power and influence in the city’s business and
political structure.”
A city where Black people are “…too
easily placated by white(s) and (do) not help (themselves). “(a Black Community that) willingly lets
white politicians…use its churches for convenient photo opportunities. A few African American professionals deemed
acceptable are invited into the white power loop; the price is complicity in
maintaining the status quo.”
A city that “…takes care of black
(citizens) by putting the best and brightest in charge of the city’s nonprofit
community. Running the Red Cross or the
United Way provides a nice paycheck and pleasant evenings on the town for a
good cause, but no real power. People
who run nonprofits are basically begging people with money to share the
wealth. Politicians have little
incentive to respond to African-American constituent demands, because
African-Americans in (this city) do not turn out in large numbers to vote. Not enough African-Americans hold office to
make a difference.”
A city where “…real change first requires
a willingness to face reality and a refusal to be complacent about it.”
(Comments about Boston by columnist Joan Vennochi. Boston
Globe, April 6, 2004.)
CHARTER SCHOOLS CULL CREAM OF THE CROP?
A Boston College researcher’s study of
Boston charter schools revealed that charter schools teach significantly fewer
poor students than the rest of the public system. While 54 percent of Boston’s charter students
qualify for free or reduced meals, 74 percent in the Boston Public Schools
do. One in 10 city charter school
students are disabled compared to one in five in the Boston Public Schools,
which enrolls more non-English speaking students than the charters. The researchers believe that harder-to-teach
students are less likely to apply to charters.
Boston
Globe, March 29, 2004.
THE INVISIBLE MAN (BY
STATE REPRESENTATIVE BENJAMIN SWAN)
Opening with examples in which his name
was eliminated from news stories covered by the mainstream press, State
Representative Benjamin Swan wrote one of the most insightful articles on
invisibility since Ralph Ellison penned “The Invisible Man.” The following are excerpts from Representative Swan’s article:
“Think about it: in order to hide a
people’s history it must be done piece by piece, person by person, over
time. The historical and systematic
suppression of the contributions by people of African descent is so obvious
that, as we say in the black community, ‘even Ray Charles can see that…’”
“Is there an activity more sinister than
planned inequality reinforced by dehistoricizing the
struggle of black people to be duly seen and acknowledged as fully human…”
“If you have not experienced the
repetitive disregard of your person, being looked over and passed by time after
time, chances are you will not have much empathy and/or understanding for the
detrimental effects of inequality…”
“Our society needs a greater practice of
ethnic inclusion. Most importantly,
however, we urgently need to understand that inclusion is not merely a physical
proposition, but it is an intellectual proposition as well...”
“…the longer that our presence is denied,
the worse off everyone will be. To deny
a human being the reality of their presence is in fact to deny a part of one’s
humanity...”