Back during the days of slavery, when the wicked slave master was curious about what was going on in the slave quarters he asked questions.
The slave master didn’t ask the cotton pickers or the nanny. He didn’t ask the tobacco choppers or leaf rakers. And, he damn sure didn’t ask the runaways or the rebellious freedom fighters that hated him.
The slave master would question the house negroes that loved the slave master more than the slave master loved himself about slaves in the field or outside of the big house.
Four hundred years later, communications and conversations between whites and Blacks are pretty much the same.
Those Black people in America that are arrested the most, over charged over sentenced and jailed the most, brutalized the most, mis-educated the most, denied the most, oppressed the most and exploited the most still don’t have a voice when it comes to discussing their lives and the conditions in their communities.
Today, when the major news networks and major national newspapers want to interview or ask questions about African American, Black, inner city or urban events and activities of national or worldwide interest, they parade the same old neocolonialist puppets onto the front pages, the television shows and the radio shows to articulate the status of Black America in the way that the modern day slave masters want them to articulate!
If you are white, you can be liberal, conservative, moderate or indifferent when you go on Meet The Press or 60 Minutes. You can be a Christian, Muslim, an atheist or an agnostic and still be acceptable to any media outlet if you’re blond and blue-eyed.
However, if you are a Black man or woman that refuses to be told what to say, refuses to be contained or controlled and refuses to abide by white definition of “political correctness” you will never get a chance to share your views on American media’s most watched and listened to programs or in the publications that have the greatest readerships and distributions in The United States and the world!
It is even harder to get people that look like you to give you a voice on so-called Black shows that are financed, supported or paid for by white advertisers and/or white individuals!
Don’t take my word for it, line up all of the Black network or white network TV show hosts that you love and tell them you would like to watch and hear some different voices and view points from the diverse talkers and writers that represent the Black community.
Call The Tom Joyner Show and ask him to interview someone from The New Black Panther Party. Call Steve Harvey and tell him you want to hear Yahweh Ben Yahweh tell his story on Steve’s TV or radio show. Call Creflo Dollar and T.D. Jakes and ask if Henry Lyons, Victor Curry, or Geno Jennings can appear on their TV shows as a guest preacher. I’m sure they all have testimonies and experiences to share.
Yes, I know Arsenio Hall and Kathy Hughes both interviewed Muslim Minister Louis Farrakhan at one time or another but so did Lucius Gantt and the questions asked the ministerwere as different as night and day!
If you want to hear diverse, different and unadulterated Black views about Black life you’ve got to have a good AM radio, a computer fast enough to stream video and audio and the time and desire to search for Black “alternative” media programs. And if you want to read hard hitting Black news stories and editorial columns all you have to do is visit a Black web site or pick up a Black newspaper that is not afraid to print the truth regardless of whether modern day slave masters like the truthful Black information or not! (Buy Gantt’s books and contact Lucius at www.allworldconsultants.net)
Lucius is a contributing columnist to NNPA newspapers around the nation, and the author of “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing,” available on Amazon.com and from bookstores everywhere.