One of my entries from June here earned the attention of leaders at American Public Media's Center for Innovation in Journalism. I wrote about my concern over Minnesota Public Radio's interest in their next generation of reporters and storytellers. Because of the critique that I leved with entry, I feared that I was in for it when one of them called me. It was cool, though I was told that they agreed with me wholy.
Also I have applied for Third Coast Audio Festival's (TCF) "minority" student scholarship, so that I may attend the October event with fewer expenses. We'll see what the gods decide about that. To prepare for TCF I filed a brief piece for their radio ephemera competition. Who wants to show up for the biggest radio storytelling event without something to share and "show?" Please listen to it here.
There's other news about my concern for people, voices and sensibilities of color in public media, especially public radio: my basic, but candid question to the DirectCurrent forum at Current.org was important enough for them to acknowledge and link to it. I had to ask why so few people, of color and not of color, knew how well public media are doing in recruiting and hiring people of color. One crisis that remains is the terrible lack of programs that attract and reflect us.
Also, that experiment with the story what would commemorate Malcolm X's 83rd birth is still in flux. You can keep calling it an experiment! I could have been kinder and gentler on myself, and not opted for a seven-minute cut, but X's legacy receives too little due from people; I will not be one of them.
12 August, 2008
11 August, 2008
A rush toward a “post-racial” world?
New York Times magazine’s 8-09-08 cover story, "Is Obama the end of Black politics?” reminds us of the need to move beyond and away from “race.”
Perhaps 16 years ago, on Oprah, during an episode from her monthly series "Racism in (this year)," an Anglo from the audience pleaded “when is this (racism) going to stop?!” Jane Elliot of “Blue Eye, Brown Eye” fame blurted, “racism’s gonna stop when white people decide to stop it!” The woman who had asked looked hurt; Elliot did not give her the answer that she wanted.
Elliot is the elder Anglo who pissed off a lot of her peers when she conducted the blue eye, brown eye psychological experiment on elementary-age children forty-years-ago.
One must wonder about the fascination and eagerness toward “post-raciality.”
Who needs it? Do Anglos need to say it’s here so that they will feel less obligated to perform or genuflect on the agonizing topics that African slavery and its products spawned?
Most people of color - don't call us "minorities" - want to be known for "the content of our character," not our color or the kinks we may have in our hair. Here's a what if. In a "best of times, worst of times" situation, what if racism dwindles and only affects some quarters of the communities of color; what will the people of color and those not of color, who run things, do then..?
By the way, why "Anglos" and not "white people?" Why not choose a vocabulary that tries to remove color and other such traits from conversation? If you find a smoother way to do go, please go ahead. A "post-racial" world is a delightful and worthy goal, in some ways.
Who wants it? Are americans of African descent, especially those who have made or claimed financial comfort, desperate for this era? Do they await the day when their less-fortunate, less-educated and far less-satisfied brethren will find their own ways to rise above that social and psychological swamp of “race” and color-obsession?
Malcolm X (El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz) once declared, “…they (Anglos) haven’t even begun to pull the knife (racism) out…" During the last minute of a clip from Youtube.com, X observes what was then and what remains the context of intercolor or "racial" relations in america.
Will the losses or gains be worth it? One of the perhaps 200 subtopics or layers to this question is entitlements. Private, non-profit and federal government statisticians will be pressed to understand how the entitlement programs must change or evolve to truly reflect and serve the needs of those who will be the "new Blacks."
Anglos - if you insist on it, call them white people - have proven throughout human history that they are much more satisfied and comfortable when they can argue that some group must be beneath them. Anglos are not alone in this, but they sure seem to be the experts and the most accomplished at oppression.
Bottom-line: “race” or color-based thoughts and interpretations will only stop when those people in power foresee an overwhelming profit in it. No socio-cultural balance sheet has forecast those numbers yet.
Perhaps 16 years ago, on Oprah, during an episode from her monthly series "Racism in (this year)," an Anglo from the audience pleaded “when is this (racism) going to stop?!” Jane Elliot of “Blue Eye, Brown Eye” fame blurted, “racism’s gonna stop when white people decide to stop it!” The woman who had asked looked hurt; Elliot did not give her the answer that she wanted.
Elliot is the elder Anglo who pissed off a lot of her peers when she conducted the blue eye, brown eye psychological experiment on elementary-age children forty-years-ago.
One must wonder about the fascination and eagerness toward “post-raciality.”
Who needs it? Do Anglos need to say it’s here so that they will feel less obligated to perform or genuflect on the agonizing topics that African slavery and its products spawned?
Most people of color - don't call us "minorities" - want to be known for "the content of our character," not our color or the kinks we may have in our hair. Here's a what if. In a "best of times, worst of times" situation, what if racism dwindles and only affects some quarters of the communities of color; what will the people of color and those not of color, who run things, do then..?
By the way, why "Anglos" and not "white people?" Why not choose a vocabulary that tries to remove color and other such traits from conversation? If you find a smoother way to do go, please go ahead. A "post-racial" world is a delightful and worthy goal, in some ways.
Who wants it? Are americans of African descent, especially those who have made or claimed financial comfort, desperate for this era? Do they await the day when their less-fortunate, less-educated and far less-satisfied brethren will find their own ways to rise above that social and psychological swamp of “race” and color-obsession?
Malcolm X (El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz) once declared, “…they (Anglos) haven’t even begun to pull the knife (racism) out…" During the last minute of a clip from Youtube.com, X observes what was then and what remains the context of intercolor or "racial" relations in america.
Will the losses or gains be worth it? One of the perhaps 200 subtopics or layers to this question is entitlements. Private, non-profit and federal government statisticians will be pressed to understand how the entitlement programs must change or evolve to truly reflect and serve the needs of those who will be the "new Blacks."
Anglos - if you insist on it, call them white people - have proven throughout human history that they are much more satisfied and comfortable when they can argue that some group must be beneath them. Anglos are not alone in this, but they sure seem to be the experts and the most accomplished at oppression.
Bottom-line: “race” or color-based thoughts and interpretations will only stop when those people in power foresee an overwhelming profit in it. No socio-cultural balance sheet has forecast those numbers yet.
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