Faith in Action

I’m watching TV trying to keep track of the Super Tuesday results. I turn to Fox and there he is. Karl Rove is on the screen with the label “political strategist” or something under his face! Unbeknownst to me until like 2 minutes ago, Rove is on staff at Fox News now.

Wow.

The man who was often called “Bush’s Brain” has now found a safe haven to spew his ideology - Fox News. Does it concern anyone else that President George Bush’s former political strategist and chief mastermind is now sitting behind a “news” desk telling the nation what it should think about the upcoming presidential election.

Immortal Technique is right. American media, by and large, has become the Fourth Branch of the Government. And we know what that’s characteristic of right, Ladies and Gentlemen? You guessed it. FASCISM.

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This should’ve been the headline in all the local media today, however, Baltimore’s media is the fourth branch of this city’s government. They wouldn’t dare present the facts as they actually happened.

Here are the facts - an unarmed Black Man was shot at least 4 times by a police officer at the Hamilton Shopping Center around lunch time yesterday.

Local media attempt to soften the reality so that the masses are not riled to revolt. WJZ News’ headline is “Man Killed in Police-Involved Shooting.” Notice that their headline is written in the passive…”Man Killed” separates the action from the murderous actor. “Police-Involved” leaves the door open to the thought that the police were there, but weren’t the ones doing the shooting. (Only the Baltimore Examiner gives this story the appropriate headline.)

Notice similar literary avoidances of the facts in this Baltimore Sun version of the story. (Pay attention to how they follow their headline with a pro-police byline)

Don’t miss the ‘code words’ they use to help the reader to justify murder by this cop. Code words = “drugs” / “officer feared for his safety” / “suspected drugs taken from the man”. The media uses these code phrases to signal to its base readers that they believe that this man deserved to be killed. His murder isn’t anything we should be worried about. He wasn’t deserving of the due process of law. The cop was justified in playing judge, jury, and executioner.

I elaborate on this technique in my post entitled: “Media and Police partner in production of Murderous Propaganda.”

The problem for the police department is that this murder happened around lunch time. There were a lot of witnesses. People were in the Murry’s grocery and the Dollar General Store looking through the glass when the 25 year old Black man was accosted by the cop and then shot 4 times.

IF YOU WERE ONE OF THE ONES THAT WERE THERE AND SAW WHAT REALLY HAPPENED, PLEASE CONTACT ME. (YOU CAN REMAIN ANONYMOUS)

The cops have declared war on the Black Man. The question now becomes what will we do?

As you contemplate the answer to that question, enjoy this revolutionary message by Brother KRS. As it is his custom, he speaks truth in this classic: “Sound of da Police“. Don’t miss the lyrics.

Last week, NBC Nightly News did a 5-part series on Black Women in America.  The first installment was broadcast last Monday night and focused on the career gains of Black Women.  I learned about it at one of the most provocative blogs on the net. I must say that the initial notification at that blog gave the series much more hype than the actual finished product warranted.  I’m sure that the sister at NBC that produced it pushed hard for the network to buy the idea, but they still played it during the last few minutes of the program and it really came off like it was an afterthought. (at least the first night anyway)

I was disturbed, however, by the aspect of the series that focused on interracial dating/marriages.  This feature talked about how more and more Black women are choosing White men as mates for various reasons.  Some of the featured women talked about the so-called “shortage” of quality Black men in this country.  Other women on the video talked about how as they aged they began to wonder if they’ll ever be married and so they broadened their horizons.  One woman talked about how she was married to a Black man and after their divorce she began dating White men in search of ”new perspectives” as she put it.  Here are the two clips from the NBC special on interracial dating/marriage. 

Love, in black and white

 Girl talk

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I’ve become increasingly perturbed as of late over the collusive alliance between mainstream media and the police department particularly as it pertains to the public presentation of police-involved shootings.

As Baltimore City’s homicide rate experiences a steady rise, many more eyes are focused on what to do to confront this problem.  Grassroots groups have bound together to challenge violence, candidates and politicians have made pledges for more police, and preachers, by and large, have held their peace refusing to say much of anything at all - about anything at all of social concern.

The interim mayor of Baltimore City is calling for the community to partner with police to challenge the violence in the streets, however, I would like to remind the interim mayor that partnership is a two-way street.

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If the conviction of Scooter Libby (aka Bush, Cheney, and Rove’s “fall guy”) isn’t evidence enough that the United States Government has run amuck and is being led by gangsters in suits, then perhaps you’d be interested to know that this past weekend another big story broke.  On Friday, March 9, 2007 Attorney General, Alberto Gonzalez, admitted during a Senate Briefing on FBI Surveillance that the FBI has been illegally (don’t miss that word) using the Patriot Act to spy on tens of thousands of American citizens. (i.e. wiretapping, opening emails, obtaining credit reports, and business information, & monitoring anti-war groups)

There’s a reason why this story broke late Friday/early Saturday morning.  It’s called the politics of news placement.  The Fourth Branch of the Government (aka mainstream American media) knows that if you want to slip something by the American people; you don’t publish it on Monday morning.  You wait until Friday when people have their minds focused on weekend plans and are less likely to give energy to heavy news items. That’s not hard to do these days.  Americans by and large are terribly apathetic - choosing to dedicate more attention to the all-important question of who is the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby…and how can I forget - the American Idol “controversy”.  (We have no idea of what a controversy is.)

This reminds me of a poster from my 7th grade social studies class.  It read:

THOSE WHO DO NOT STUDY HISTORY ARE BOUND TO REPEAT IT

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Now if that was the headline to the articles that detail yesterday’s airstrike by the United States in eastern African nation of Somalia; it just might get your attention.  But because mainstream “journalists” [can we still call them that?] are influenced by the will of the Administration; they put the label “terrorists” in the headline and that has come to have a numbing effect on the American public. 

It’s almost as if the general public has been conditioned to give the Administration a pass on whatever activity is set in motion toward “terrorist”.  In fact, even if the persons attacked or violated are just “suspected terrorists” - meaning there is no clear evidence that they really are involved in criminal behavior - they can still get it. 

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Mainstream American Media gets it wrong again. Last night, I came home and watched about 2 1/2 hours of SPECIAL REPORTS concerning people trying to pull there lives together after HURRICANE KATRINA. I was deeply moved by the stories of death, devastation, and survival. Throughout the programming I was praying for those impacted…really praying. On top of making a financial donation myself - I’m preparing to make plans with another minister to get this message on the radio this Sunday. (That is - IF they decide to stop the music for a while).

In the midst of the programs, I grew more and more annoyed by the coverage of “looting”….watching people walking out of stores with TV’s, appliances, clothing, etc. It just didn’t make sense to me that NBC and others would spend that much time on “looting”. While the TV cameras easily found Black Folk “looting”; the cameras couldn’t manage to find anyone else taking a few things back to the family. Why is it so shocking that those shown on TV were “looting”. The areas shown on TV last night were some of the most impoverished communities of New Orleans. Some “expert” got on TV and said that one particular area had a 30 to 40% poverty rate. So why is it surprising that when circumstances arise that puts impoverished people in a position to get some free things that they seize the opportunity? One of my friends also pointed out something that’s very interesting having to do with the racial bias as it relates to “looting”. Look at these two pictures below and their captions:

A young man walks through chest deep flood water after LOOTING (emphasis mine) a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Flood waters continue to rise in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina did extensive damage when it made landfall on Monday. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Now look at this picture:

Two residents wade through chest-deep water after FINDING (emphasis mine)bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans, Louisiana.(AFP/Getty Images/Chris Graythen)

Now is it ME or are the human beings in both pictures doing the same thing - namely - TRYING TO SURVIVE!! I dare say that if such a hurricane struck Baltimore (which was recently found to be the 6th poorest city in the nation among cities of similar size) that people would be doing the same thing…as well as in The Bronx, Philly, and other large, impoverished, and primarily minority (I hate that word) communities.

I have a heart for all of those who have been impacted by HURRICANE KATRINA; however, I cannot close my eyes and pretend that racial discrimination doesn’t exists even during times of national crisis.

As I reflected on the terror attacks of September 11,2001; I remember that afterwards people were talking about how everyone pulled together - people of different ethnic backgrounds were joined together - unified to bring healing to a hurting city. I wasn’t up in NY so I don’t know if that was true or just media propaganda; but I do realize the difference with this natural disaster. You do notice that you don’t hear the “we’re all pulling together” line right? Hurricane Katrina struck an area of the country where the tentacles of racial discrimination are still evident. (Mississippi’s own Ray Killen was just convicted of killing 3 Civil Rights workers - a crime he committed more than 40 years ago!) You also have large impoverished communities of people who didn’t have the means by which to evacuate side by side with their more affluent brothers and sisters. Granted some chose to stay, however, if all you had in the world was “Mama’s House” wouldn’t you think twice about leaving it?

It’s evident to me that Katrina did more than uproot a chunk out of the Gulf Coast region. Katrina uprooted and made plain that America still hasn’t, with brutal honesty, confronted its issues concerning its treatment (past & present) of people of color AND of the poor.