|
Did Dr. Gates' Life Flash
Before His Eyes?
|
Commentary
|
|
Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. Escaped the Fate of Oscar Grant
Another outrage---like Drunken Negro Cookies, Barnes and Nobles' Display of the President with Monkeys, Watermelon Patch at White House Email, Chimpanzee Shot Dead Cartoon Linked to President---the list goes on, but this outrage-arresting Harvard Professor Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr.
in his own house has elite Black Americans trembling in their "I pulled
myself up by my own boot straps" boots! The average Black American is
saying "welcome to my world."
Dr. Gates has a lot to be thankful for because he did not wind up dead at the end of one fast thoughtless moment like Oscar Grant who was shot to death while complying with police,
contrary to the "you can't believe everything you read" reports that
Dr. Gates was argumentative. Although arrested and charged with
disorderly conduct he was "home free" in a few hours and the charges have
finally been dropped. That is not the scenario for many people of
color in this country.
Where is all of this coming from? We
have a "Black President!" It's coming from the truth being held back.
It's coming in part from the experience I chronicle of having a major wire
service refuse to send out a news release "60 Minutes Report Affirms
Lawsuit of Former Employee Against CBS" (described in the commentary below). It's
coming in part from "group think" media resulting in "institutional racism."
Our reality is being altered by "group think" media blinded by its own
institutional racism while pontificating what is best for you to know.
"The whole truth and nothing
but the truth," where are you?
So what can you do? For
starters, 1) Stop with the "geez Louise" and "handwringing;" engage
the media in your own town, 2) Individually and corporately (social
justice organizations etc.) write media to right media, 3) Call and/or
write a journalist about a story you're concerned about. 4) Call and/or
write a journalist about a story they may be missing in your community.
5) Call or write editors. 5)Meet with editorial boards and news
directors. 6) Meet with media executives at broadcast stations. 7) Make
it your business to check the public file of a broadcast station once
or twice a year and be prepared to write the FCC if you have concerns.
8) Write advertisers when the media are not responsive. 9) Don't blame
the media for everything. Take a look in the mirror. What are you
doing to improve the social discourse in your community? 10) Have some
fun. Engage your next door neighbors and attend different ethnic and
community events. Let people see an authentic you, whomever you are
and whatever cultural background you come from.
*************************************************************************
Commentary on Media, "Black on Black Crime" & CBS Lawsuit:
Wire Service Denies Distribution of CBS Lawsuit Release "Not News Worthy"
"Why
are you looking at me like that, asked the young Black executive who
had just told me that the attached news release tying in 60 Minutes to a CBS lawsuit was "not news worthy." Although I was
prepared to pay, the news release was not going to be sent out to the
DC Metro media as I had requested.
After
a day of haggling back
and forth over the phone and in emails without a clear explanation and
my missing the news cycle, he just wasn't hearing what I had to say.
The following day (July 16-same day Dr. Gates was arrested) I
went into the news wire service in San Francisco, multicultural San
Francisco and explained the fact that I was suing CBS was just as valid and a news worthy story as the two White male reporters suing for age and sex discrimination which had received media pick up as this link indicates.
When I arrived at the company, I asked to speak to the person in charge of
the newsroom. A handsome young Black male in charge of
regional sales was dispatched to meet with me on the 39th Floor of a
skyscraper with views of Angel Island, Alcatraz, and the Golden Gate
Bridge, all appropriate landmarks for the conversation that would
ensue. Angel Island although used for picnics now is the place where
the Chinese experienced extreme discrimination. Alcatraz is the place
of the notorious escape proof prison and the Golden Gate Bridge isn't
golden.
Explaining the story was news worthy because of
1) the scientific information of Dr. Kang's work"Trojan Horses of Race"that states television news creates racism and that of the CBS Report about the fallibility of eyewitness accounts;
NEW RELEASE WIRE SERVICE REFUSED TO DISTRIBUTE
***********************************************************************************
Justice for the Community & Jackie
P.O. Box 884714
San Francisco, CA 94188
"Right is right and right don't wrong nobody!"
Mama Nora Henderson
For Immediate Release
July 14, 2009
60 Minutes Report Affirms Former CBS Employee's
Call for Day in Court for Discrimination Case in U.S. Federal Courts
San Francisco-Leslie
Stahl's "Eyewitness " report aired on 60 Minutes, Sunday, July 12, 2009
is affirmation of Jackie Wright's plea before the U.S. Federal Court in
San Francisco that her case filed in February against CBS Television, Inc. should not be thrown out as the media giant has asked the court.
The
60 Minutes report focuses on an innocent Black man, Ronald Cotton
spending eleven years in prison as a result of the eyewitness testimony
of a White rape victim, Jennifer Thompson. It outlines the scientific
findings that show how memory can be faulty and how law enforcement
techniques reinforce faulty eyewitness reports and should be changed. 
"If memory can be faulty in short-term intense
criminal investigations as science proves, what is
the
impact on society if memory is daily bombarded by negative images of
people of color," Wright asks. Wright, a three-time Associated Press,
Emmy-nominated award winning journalist, believes the answer can be
found in "Trojan Horses of Race,"
by UCLA Law Professor Jerry Kang, a document she references in her plea
to the court and outlined in a July 4th news release about Wright vs.
CBS et al.
Jackie Wright
Kang's
article demonstrates television news creates racism as a result of the
disproportionate reporting of sensational crime stories involving
racial minorities. The recent change in FCC policy on ownership to
depend on news for localism and diversity to serve in the public
interest has backfired and reinforces racial bias, according to Kang.
"Trojan Horses of Race"
"In this sense, the local news functions precisely like a Trojan Horse virus. We invite it into our homes, our dens,in
through the gates of our minds, and accept it at face value, as an
accurate representation of newsworthy events. But something lurks
within those newscasts that programs our racial schemas in ways we
cannot notice but can, through scientific measurements, detect. And the
viruses they harbor deliver a payload with consequences, affecting
how we vote for "three strikes and you're out" laws, how awkwardly we
interact with folks, and even how quickly we pull the trigger. "
Dr. Jerry Kang
In an article "Oscar Grant is Sean Bell. Chauncey Bailey is Sean Bell. Kenneth Walker is Sean Bell. Sean Bell is Emmitt Till!" Wright
says media are in part responsible for the merciless deaths of people
of color. Wright adds the "Eyewitness" report on the malleableness of
memory gives additional credence to the scientific findings in "Trojan
Horses of Race" and the anecdotal experiences of people of color in the
United States of America.
Wright,55, who raised two of her three siblings after the death of her parents including her father, Sp5 Wyley Wright, who died in 1964 in Viet Nam while escorting then Secretary of Defense, Robert S. McNamara, says experiences of hard working people of color do not get covered by media like the sensational crimes.
Wright
contends that media being essential to the democratic process must have
racial diversity across the media spectrum (broadcast, print, Internet)
and it's imperative that broadcast stations have strong public affairs
departments to offset the negative impact of news.
At the core
of Wright's case that claims discrimination on the basis of race, sex,
and age, Wright, who was laid off as Public Affairs Manager in January
2007 after a series of alleged racist actions, recently responded to
CBS' claim that the case should be dismissed. In documents filed this
month, Wright tells U.S. Federal Court, her dismissal was not just a
personal loss of a job but also has had a negative impact on the Bay
Area community. "Public Affairs Departments bring some balance, not
complete but some balance to the disproportionate negative stories
broadcast daily by news departments and to cut back on public affairs
is to cut back on the media tenet to be "fair and balanced," says
Wright."
According to Wright, all across this nation, social
justice organizations and people concerned about social justice should
once again begin to check the public file at broadcast stations,
examine whether public affairs shows and public service announcements
(psas) are relegated to the "ghetto of bad time slots", and use their
power to ask for better programming by confronting the stations and
engaging the FCC. In a statement before the San Francisco Board of
Supervisors April 21, 2009, Wright said "Much attention has been given
over the years to the pollution and danger of PGE plants in the City,
but something as detrimental to the quality of life in the Bay Area has
been overlooked. The smoke stakes of television stations that spew
out racism, because it is not recognized, have been totally over
looked."
Wright stipulates, the lack of personal interaction
with a group of people coupled with frequent news reports of criminal
acts by the same group of people creates a false mental reality that
'those people' are bad says Wright and weak public affairs department
and the lack of diversity in media fuel the bias that is detrimental to
individual lives and society as a whole.
Wright observes, even in CBS' attempt to bring light to the subject of the need for law enforcement change, in the "Eyewitness" report,
the examples of how lineups are done and how they should be done
focused heavily on Black men, once again reinforcing a negative
stereotype of Black men. Wright says," the "60 Minutes" report
broadcast July 12th affirms Dr. Kang's "Trojan Horses of Race" and my
point to the court, 'you can't see what you are blinded by' and that's
why diversity in media is so necessary."
For more details about the case read the July 4th news release.
Wright says of media coverage, its interesting to note that in the
highly touted "multicultural" Bay Area, local media picked up a story
about two former CBS employees' suit against CBS for age and sex discrimination, but no similar article has appeared concerning Wright's suit to date. (See story-click Here).
Wright
has set up an email address asking people to share any discriminatory
experiences they have had with CBS by emailing
justiceforcommunityandjackie@gmail.com.
Media Contact for Jackie Wright: 415 8243990/415 525 0410.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
