“Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.”
― Frederick Douglass [1]
Every now and then, while wandering aimlessly through the murky streets of the Internet, I run across something that absolutely blows me away. Most of the time, it’s purely by accident. As I’ve said many times before, I don’t like to watch the news or read the newspapers because I believe that they’re controlled by corporate factions whose personal agendas seem to be more important than telling the truth. I know that it seems like a contradiction that corporations can have personal agendas, but one has to remember that according to the United States Supreme Court, corporations have the same constitutional rights as human beings. [2] So it makes perfect sense that the people who control the corporations control the masses [3] with their monopolization of resources and like I stated earlier, their personal agendas.
I’m not really sure if that’s related to the topic at hand (to a certain extent… of course it is, but I’m not going there today), but when I read the article The Wicked Irony of Fox Hosts Accusing Others of Creating Racial Division and watched the adjoining videos on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor and The Five and their discussion on race relations in America [4], by accident of course, I was seething with irritation. And it’s my own fault. I know better. I don’t know, I guess I was feeling a little listless and needed something to get my blood pumping.
It worked like a charm. Now, there was nothing shocking or surprising about the article. It talked about the usual Fox conservative commentary, which blames democrats and black people for continuously keeping race alive in America. There was a video of Bill O’Reilly’s O’Reilly Factor in a segment called Running From The Truth, where O'Reilly advised his audience that, "The grievance industry wants to divide the country along racial lines because that's good for business."
And of course, the grievance industry refers to the people, “pushing racial injustice.” Like I said, nothing surprising there. Yet, it never ceases to amaze me how people like O’Reilly and the rest of the conservative pundits of the right wing like to think that people of color propagandize [5] racial discrimination and oppression. Let’s look at the word propaganda [6]:
prop·a·gan·da [prop-uh-gan-duh]
noun
1. Information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc.
2. The deliberate spreading of such information, rumors, etc.
3. The particular doctrines or principles propagated by an organization or movement.
So based on the above definition, everything ever, from religion to news to movies to education to literature of all kinds to… well everything – is nothing more than propaganda. But I think O’Reilly was unambiguously insinuating that democrats and blacks were deliberately spreading information, ideas, and/or rumors to harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc. To be more specific, he believes they mean to do harm to
the white, Christian, male, power structure, of which O’Reilly admits he is a part of. [7] [8]
But what got me fired up is the thought that these right wing conservatives, who are so influential in today’s society, try to play the role of victims in the “game” of race – which they not only control, but make the rules – by accusing blacks and liberals of creating and maintaining racial division. But it is, in fact, they who maintain racial division, for more often than not, it is they who bring up the subject of race. In fact, whenever anyone of color makes a public statement on anything outside of entertainment that does not represent their agenda, the conservative movement blasts it loud on Fox and/or other conservative media outlets that whoever it is that made the statement is making the situation about race. They have failed to acknowledge the existence of any form of structural or institutional racism, fought to tear down affirmative action and any other programs set to help eradicate the consequences of past and present discrimination against blacks and other people of color. They condemn anyone who is sympathetic to the oppression of people of color as race-baiters – or even worse – liberals! And they use dog whistle vernacular to conceal their racism, so instead of saying lazy and shiftless they use terminology like burden of the government. [9]
This dog whistle vernacular, by the way, is a learned tactic from which they have taken their queue from their late champion, political consultant and Southern Strategist Lee Atwater who, in 1981 stated [10]:
You start out in 1954 by saying, ‘Nigger, nigger, nigger,’ but by 1968, you can’t say ‘nigger’ — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff.
But none of this is anything new. It’s been like this since long before I was born. Maybe they didn’t call themselves GOP (Grand Old Party) or republicans (they were at the time, democrats… long story) or right wing conservatives, but their presence has always been with us. And I guess they’re necessary if the white, Christian, male, power structure is going to stay in control of the nation (and the world). It is what it is.
This reminds me of a statement made by Rinku Sin, president and executive director of the Applied Research Center and publisher of Colorilnes.com, when she spoke at a national conference in 2008, which addressed race on a panel that included Van Jones, Maria Teresa Kumar, and Tim Wise. She said [11]:
That the people who talk the most about race are racist conservatives, and so, they get to frame the entire discussion, to the degree that liberals could intervene, but they don’t. So what you have is a lot of right wing noise on race that individualizes the problem. If they admit that there’s any kind of issue, it’s always something that just lives in the individual people’s brains. It has no structural implications and there’s no need to change any of the actual rules of any of our institutions. Quite often, because they define racism in this individual way, quite often they can say that we are the ones who are actually racist. I think we’ve seen that play out again and again and again, when Andrew Breitbart and other people pick out a something that Sonia Sotomayor said, or something that Shirley Sherrod said, twist those things, and say, “See, there’s all those racist people of color. They’re the real racists; so white people are really ok. White people are really ok. So, in addition, don’t bother trying to change any laws, or institutional practices, or regulations, or don’t try to actually create any rules that protect people’s right.” So if they get to frame the entire debate, and they get to define racism, and liberals who have access to those same airwaves, are so afraid to talk about it, they – I don’t know – they don’t know how, they’re afraid of being race baited, it makes them nervous, it’s emotionally difficult and challenging…the only real public discourse on race is a conservative discourse. So that’s what pisses me of the most. That they get all this airtime, and they get to define our issue, and our lives, and our conditions, and nobody says anything otherwise.
But regardless of all of this, what prompted me to go on my present rant was the words of Fox News’
The Five host Greg Gutfeld, who in talking about the racial divide in America said [12] [4]:
The Media Academic Complex is largely responsible for the racial division because they teach race warfare in classrooms. I mean, they have studies that are telling you that the west sucks and also, when you look at the college drop out rates, it’s not helping minorities when they go to these colleges and take these crappy classes. Racial warfare right now is the crack cocaine of CNN, MSNBC, and most college campuses.
And he spoke with such disdain. I could help but to take offense to that. Let me back up for a minute. I’m from Milwaukee, Wisconsin who along with Detroit, Michigan, is the most segregated city in America. Though I lived in the inner city, I went to a parochial elementary/junior high, and was then bused to the suburbs for high school. This high school had a majority white population of students and needless to say, the curriculum was pretty much set up for them. But that’s another story. The point I need to make is, given the fact that I went to a Catholic elementary/junior high and a majority white high school, where was I supposed to learn about anything other that Martin Luther King’s, “I have a dream…” quote? And yes I said quote, not speech, because that was all I got from school.
I was as shocked as anyone when I went to college and learned the black history of slavery, Jim Crow laws, lynchings and burnings, the trial of the The Scottsboro Boys, the Dred Scott and Plessey vs. Ferguson decisions, Jackie Robinson’s desegregation of baseball, the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male experiment, the Pullman porters – who delivered hope of a new life in the north to southern blacks, the fight for equal education (e.g. Brown vs. the Board of Education, the Little Rock Nine, James Meredith), the deaths of Emmett Till and Medgar Evans, the Woolworth’s sit-ins, the Freedom Riders, the four little girls killed in Birmingham along with the other bombings in “Bombingham,” the beatings and gassing of the marchers in Selma, Alabama, the March on Washington, and Loving vs. Virginia decision (the challenge of miscegenation laws), not to mention the true impact of Malcolm X, and Dr. Martin Luther King.
It was in college that I learned words like whiteness studies, white privilge, and antiracist education. It was in college that learned about Japanese business man Takao Ozawa and South Asian immigrant and U.S. Army veteran, Bhagat Singh Thind, both of whom petitioned for the right to be considered white in America and lost their cases in the US Supreme Court in the early 1900’s. Where else was I going to learn about japanese internment camps, urban renewal, the destruction of the inner city through the erosion of the tax base by blockbusting, redlining and white flight? How ever in the world was I to learn about the Civil Rights, Voters and Fair Housing Acts of the 1960’s? [14]
I certainly wasn’t going to learn these things in elementary, junior high or high school – and as a matter of fact, I didn’t. And I probably wouldn’t learn it today, with the conservatives trying to take what little there is about black slavery and American Indian/Latin oppression out of the textbooks. [15] It’s important to remember that not remembering history forces one to repeat it, and maybe that’s why we are in the state we’re in… Because the conservatives feed the racist impulses of the unassuming, unaware American people through the corporate push, and in the process occupy the people minds with so much garbage that they are able to control not only the mind, but also the economy, and the human body. If I don’t know anything, you can tell me anything and I would probably believe it, and that’s what corporate conservatives bank on. The ignorance of the American people – and trust me – ignorance is not bliss.
I wouldn’t call what these colleges and universities are teaching crappy or preparing any one for racial warfare. That’s Fox News’ job. What these institutions of higher learning are doing is preparing students to become critical thinkers, who hear the arguments, analyze the evidence, weigh the pros and cons, and make educated decisions. And what’s wrong with that? Our future generations need to be thinkers.
It’s critical that as many able citizens as possible have a hand in making American society the best it can become. We need to be more than taxpayers. We need to be contributors. And we can’t make an impact when all we’re doing is fueling the fire for the conservative corporate think tank. I may not be right on this, but if I’m wrong, let the people decide, not the corporate-driven media.
Reference:
1. Good Reads (2013). Frederick Douglass Quotes. Retrieved from: http://www.goodreads.com/...
2. Kammer, Anthony (2012). What Is A Corporation? Demos.org, October 24, 2012. Retrieved from: http://www.demos.org/...
3. PBS (2001). Media Giants. Frontline, WGBH Educational Foundation. February 27, 2001. Retrieved from: http://www.pbs.org/...
4. Rabin-Havt, Ari (2013). The Wicked Irony Of Fox Hosts Accusing Others Of Creating Racial Division, Media matters, July 24, 2013. Retrieved from: http://mediamatters.org/...
5. Shapiro, Rebecca (2013). Bill O'Reilly Tries To Scold George Stephanopoulos (VIDEO), The Huffington Post, July 18, 2013. Retrieved from: ttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/18/bill-oreilly-george-stephanopoulos-this-week-host_n_3616633.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false
6. Random House Dictionary (2013). Propaganda: Definition, Dictionary.com. Retrieved from: http://dictionary.reference.com/...
7. Ironside, Andrew (2007). O'Reilly: Supporters of liberalizing immigration bill* want to "change the complexion" of America, Media Matters, May 31, 2007. Retrieved from: http://mediamatters.org/...
8. Raw Story (2007). O'Reilly fears end of 'white Christian power structure' with transcript, rawstory.com, June 1, 2007. Retrieved from: http://rawstory.com/...
9. Daniels, Ron (2009). Conservatives Use “Racism” to Confuse and Exploit, The Final Call, July 1, 2009. Retrieved from: http://www.finalcall.com/...
10. Alterman, Eric (2012). Right-Wing Racism: Past, Present—and Future, The Nation, March 19, 2012. Retrieved from: http://www.thenation.com/...
11. Youtube (2011). What Angers You Most About the Lack of Racial Discourse in America? Youtube, December 12, 2011. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/...
12. Youtube (2013). Greg Gutfeld "racial warfare right now is the crack cocaine of CNN, MSNBC, and most college campuses." Youtube, July 24, 2013. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/...
13. Baird-Remba, Rebecca and Lubin, Gus (2013). 21 Maps Of Highly Segregated Cities In America, Business Insider, April 25, 2013. Retrieved from: http://www.businessinsider.com/...
14. PBS (2003). Race – the Power of an Illusion. Episode Three: The House We Live In – Transcript, California Newsreel, April 2003. Retrieved from: http://www.pbs.org/...
15. Marquardt, Doug (20130. Conservative Strategy to Confuse the Public on Their Racism, All Things Democrat, April 10, 2013. Retrieved from: http://www.allthingsdemocrat.com/...