One of the things that perpetuates ongoing racism is the belief that African Americans in general and Black men in specific, are violent and dangerous. And white America believes this-despite crime statistics that don't support it. Want to know why....
Because the media wants us to believe it.
WBBM reported recently about a shooting in a Chicago neighborhood that was witnessed by several young children. As part of the story, they interviewed one of those young witnesses and then aired the interview on their nightly broadcast.
The video contains both the edited interview that ran on the broadcast, followed by the whole interview uncut. Note the comments by the anchor leading into the child's interview
"and kids.....had a disturbing reaction" (at 0:37)
and after the interview portion ended (at 0:56)
"That is very scary indeed"
There is NO reason that the media should have EVER interviewed this young child. Particularly after he witnessed a shooting. The only reason to interview him was to get the "how horrible that little child is already planning on being a gang banger" response from their viewers.
(Never mind that fact that what he is really planning on being is a police officer)
A response that allows white America to write off Black children living in poverty because clearly their path of violence is self selected before they even start school. If we believe that they are prone to violence from an early age so they are going to end up in jail (or dead) anyway- then we don't need to worry about our underfunded schools, or poor nutrition or any of the other things that plague low income neighborhoods.
And just to make sure the message comes across as intended- a little creative editing and editorializing never hurts either.
That is very scary indeed- just not for the reasons they might think
Because the media wants us to believe it.
WBBM reported recently about a shooting in a Chicago neighborhood that was witnessed by several young children. As part of the story, they interviewed one of those young witnesses and then aired the interview on their nightly broadcast.
The video contains both the edited interview that ran on the broadcast, followed by the whole interview uncut. Note the comments by the anchor leading into the child's interview
"and kids.....had a disturbing reaction" (at 0:37)
and after the interview portion ended (at 0:56)
"That is very scary indeed"
There is NO reason that the media should have EVER interviewed this young child. Particularly after he witnessed a shooting. The only reason to interview him was to get the "how horrible that little child is already planning on being a gang banger" response from their viewers.
(Never mind that fact that what he is really planning on being is a police officer)
A response that allows white America to write off Black children living in poverty because clearly their path of violence is self selected before they even start school. If we believe that they are prone to violence from an early age so they are going to end up in jail (or dead) anyway- then we don't need to worry about our underfunded schools, or poor nutrition or any of the other things that plague low income neighborhoods.
And just to make sure the message comes across as intended- a little creative editing and editorializing never hurts either.
That is very scary indeed- just not for the reasons they might think
4 comments:
Hi hiking-
I hope you do not mind but I posted this blog post to my FB today. I am disgusted that the reporters perverted that child's words all to sensationalize a story which perpetuates racism. By our media. This is unacceptable and it utter garbage. Thank you for your posts- I always find them insightful and thought provoking, if not occasionally depressing.
I love reading your posts because you say what I am thinking but in a much more intelligent well reasoned way. I just want to yell and swear :-)
I had a good friend in high school who became a radio journalist, and who went on to marry a guy in the same field. They both left the field because they were tired of being steered into MAKING the news instead of REPORTING what happened. One of my cousins, while in the military, often escorted journalists in a war zone -- and was repeatedly asked by them to take them to see such-and-such a situation, or type of town, or group of people so they could get film/photos to match stories they'd written before even leaving their home office.
I don't watch much network TV news any more... Wish I had an answer for all this... Kudos for putting it right out in the public eye.
I would like to say that I find it unbelievable, but it would be a lie. Especially since I have long said that I feel that the greatest cause for the continuation of racism in the metro area that I live in is the nightly news. This is beyond horrible though.
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