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Media Chickens Come Home to Roost
By amy
For years, news organizations have failed American viewers and readers in a fundamental way. And now we see the dreadful fallout of the racial denial that exists in the American press.
Senator Barack Obama gave a speech on race relations in Philadelphia on Tuesday that is now being called "historic" by many. To those of us who fall into the same age group as Senator Obama, the theme of his speech--that racial discord in the US is entrenched, distracting, and emotional, but not necessarily intractable--was not profound. But the tone, placement, and resonance of his Philadelphia talk is.
A day later, I have identified a major reason why this is the case.
(68) CommentsMarch 19, 2008
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Obama Aces the Farrakhan Test
By amy
In 1998, Grove Press published a nonfiction book, The Farrakhan Factor: African-American Writers on Leadership, Nationhood, and Minister Louis Farrakhan.
I edited the collection of fifteen essays by prominent black writers, academics, economists and historians because I felt that members of the mainstream press had hijacked the conversation about Farrakhan and black leadership in America. My goal at that time was two-fold: To allow blacks to define the meaning of political and social leadership, and to place Louis Farrakhan into historical context, in terms of the long line of blacks in the US who have been considered leaders over the decades.
Watching the Democratic presidential candidate's latest debate, the moment I've been dreading since Senator Barack Obama first announced his candidacy finally arrived: The Farrakhan Litmust Test, served up by a white male member of the establishment press, before an audience of millions.
(98) CommentsFebruary 27, 2008
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