One of the reasons I’m wary of talking to mainstream media reporters and doing taped interviews for mainstream news shows is bias.
As a conservative and, let’s face it, a black conservative at that, I know there’s a fairly large gulf between my views and those of the reporters, producers, and most of the audience. I don’t trust those news organizations to be fair and accurately portray what I say.
Actor and conservative columnist Joseph C. Phillips, whom I consider a friend, appeared on CNN’s “Black in America,” a show (series?) I didn’t see because I don’t watch TV. (Remind me to share my “off TV” story sometime.) I can’t comment on the show’s content, but I believe Joseph when he says CNN gave his liberal counterpart much more time to make his point, while giving Joseph a mere sound bite that put him in a less than favorable light.
I understand how the process works. You can talk to a reporter for an hour, but you’re lucky if the story includes one sentence from the conversation or more than a few seconds of your comment.
Fortunately, CNN gave Joseph a forum to expand on his point about racial disparities in sentencing. From “Black Americans should be masters of our fate” (emphasis added):
“I have little sympathy for men and women who prey on the innocent hardworking members of the community. I am particularly critical of men who are guilty of criminal behavior, as this runs counter to what I see as one of the primary duties of men: to be guardians of the home and of the community, not parasites on that community. I am, however, uncertain that society gains very much by sentencing thousands of young black men to prison for nonviolent drug offenses. The sentences introduce them to a system from which it is difficult to extricate themselves and begins the downward path to joblessness, absentee fatherhood and more criminal behavior — in short, creating more of the very behavior we are trying to discourage.
“The disparity in the guidelines’ impact does not in my mind prove systemic racism. I would, however, argue that it does not represent the best the American justice system has to offer and in fact undermines faith in that very system, especially among black folk.”
Agree or disagree?
If you watched “Black in America,” tell me this: Was it more of the same “Jim Crow is returning!” hysteria or something reasonable and balanced?
(And read my review of Joseph’s book, He Talk Like A White Boy.)
Update: It appears that “Black in America” is available (legally?) on YouTube. I don’t think I’ll watch it. Not interested. 
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“Black in America” was pretty much a shame. As most people tend to think Blacks are a monolithic group of two extremes this show cashed on that same tired theme. They simply rolled the same shallow hot button topics of primarily enforcing the same old stereotypes (successful vs. downtrodden). So, as they rolled the same know nothing subject matter experts (selling or promoting something) nothing was learned or gained.
I can’t comment on the show’s content, but I believe Joseph when he says CNN gave his liberal counterpart much more time to make his point, while giving Joseph a mere sound bite that put him in a less than favorable light.
Sorry, La Shawn – I did not see it, either. But I have to wonder why conservatives like Joseph Phillips would agree to do something like this in the first place. Did he think that CNN would suddenly develop a sense of fairness and do more than promote the liberal point of view? In an election year? Come on!
Mwalimu Daudi:
A sense of “fairness” is relative when the topic is revolving non-whites.
Now..
I saw the broadcast and it was as lackluster as the old school Afterschool Specials that use to air on ABC.
One thing to note is that non-white celebrities, politicians, activists, writers, and pundits who go on these shows and “speak” for “black” people are NOT the friends of “black” people at all even though they visually may be the blackest face on the screen.
One of whom was not surprisingly, but typically disappointing, was Julianne Malveaux of Bennett College.
And I disagree about the avoidance of “systemic” preconditions that lead to present conditions for certain groups in America, though I wouldn’t necessarily say that CNN has anybody on their payroll with the emotional and spiritual insight, nor did ANY of the people who participated in this special have those qualities either.
So, it was just “meh”, to me.
I actually thought about watching it, but considering it was CNN, I thought again. I’d rather get the WHOLE story, instead of just what they want you to hear. CNN isn’t notable for their objectivity. “Most trusted”? Pfft! Not likely!
A sense of “fairness” is relative when the topic is revolving non-whites.
I think you meant involving.
Just be glad you did not accidentally type evolving – someone somewhere would have gone ballistic.
I didn’t see all parts of it, but what I did see was a huge disappointment. It was more of the same old woe is me the world is all gloom and doom if you are black. There definitely needs to be a series that covers a wide spectrum of black America.
“involving”.. “revolving around”.. “in the interests of”.. “pertaining to..”.. it’s all the same, it’s going to be de-legitimized, and deemed metaphorically unclean.
I too consider JP a friend, and he was painted as the heavy during his (less than) 2 minutes of air time. Statiscal claims abound many with erroneous or out dated data. Posted 2 video responses located here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd9yGWMReUc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev0H0BOzGtE&feature=user
LASHAWN:”I didn’t see because I don’t watch TV. (Remind me to share my “off TV” story sometime.)”
Please do. I’d be very interested in reading about it. As I’m “off TV” also. For the most part anyway (as a huge sports fan still I schedule specific sporting events to watch). I made the conscious decision about 18 months ago. I’d love to hear your initial and long-term experiences. For me I couldn’t believe how hard it was intially.
For the record, even if I still watched TV the way I used too, I wouldn’t of bothered to watch that series.
David
The funny that there are many mentions of sweeping generalizations of Blacks in America successful vs. downtrodden, etc. But I see that there are many people who wear the crown of conservative and state that “liberal” station CNN won’t fairly display the thoughts of black people. News flash, NONE of the media will fairly display the disparity that occurs and has occurred in society today. I listened to the comments made by Joseph Phillips, who stated that the problem with drug dealers could be handled by one thing, stop selling drugs. Are you serious? Is the cocoa leaf only indigenous to the inner city? Are the large agrarian inner cities intermingling cannibus with the corn and lettuce normally grown? His “conservative” views failed to touch on the real issue as well. Issues that if touched on, I believe you’ll find out are directly related to the machinations of the Republicans and Democrats, and their national and international alliances. So let’s not put on a Liberal or Conservative tag on everything and start putting a Right or Wrong tag, and hold those people accountable. You know I watched this thinking that our Black women would comment about the discouraging images of Black men that are prevalent in movies and sitcoms today, and address noone seems to notice that black women are being objectified and easily obtainable for white men. Let’s take those blinders off and start looking at the whole picture so we can get a better grip on what’s REALLY going on!
Good show, JM.
I found that the most poignant commentary regarding the CNN special came from grassroots people.
And though you have to take a lot of what ANYONE says with a grain of salt, the best, IMO, commentary in response to the black women who claimed they couldn’t find a man because of the lack of viability came from Tariq “King Flex” Nasheed. You have to go out to the MackLessons page an listen to his podcast about the CNN special. It was funny, eye-opening, and too many other things to name.
I watched it. At first I was pleasantly surprised and excited at the thought of seeing a black conservative viewpoint when I saw Phillips’s face pop up on the screen. But that quickly turned to disappointment when CNN skillfully (by use of selective editing) made him out to be some angry uppity narrow-minded and stereotypical condescending “neocon” (Isn’t that what black liberals call us?).
Thankfully, I’ve read enough of his writings to have a decent idea of what the brother stands for and I know he’s not like that at all.
The term used is “neoCOON”, and not unlike the term “moonbats” when referring to liberals. It’s all scandalous and lowdown.
I’ll add that the special wasn’t about Joseph Phillips – and he isn’t the conservative voice of the black community either.
In my opinion, it’s not being black and conservative that’s the issue, but the company you keep.
In that vein, this special didn’t do just a disservice to this man (Phillips) it did a disservice to everyone involved – period. It sucked.
There are enough pathologies in every community, and I could grace you by naming them ALL, framed in a Biblical context if you want, but liars and phonies can’t be tolerated.
It was nothing but four hours of heathens quoting every exaggerated or out-of-context negative statistic they could dig up about non-whites.
You can get that from Fox News, VDare, TownHall, American Renaissance, or the Vanguard News Network if you wanted.
“You know THOSE people kill us 98% of the time in interracial violence!”
“You know 70% of THOSE people are born out of wedlock!”
“You know THOSE people are unemployed three times as much as us!”
“You know more of THOSE people proportionately have AIDS more often than us!”
“You know THOSE people have men more likely to go to jail than college!”
“You know THOSE people make up half of the prison population despite being only 13% of the population!”
“You know THOSE people are on welfare more than us!”
“You know THOSE people have average IQs of 85 (borderline retardation) while OUR average IQ is 100!”
“You know THOSE people didn’t have any civilizations before slavery!”
“You know THOSE people have women with 6 kids by age 25!”
“You know our tax dollars are paying for THOSE lazy people!”
“You know THOSE people only have an average income of $29,000/year!”
“You know THOSE people only live to age 67 on average! They should thank us for taking them out of the jungle and making sure they live past 45 unlike their brethren in the African eden dung-hole.”
“You know THOSE people don’t know who their daddy is on average!”
“You know THOSE people kill each other as much as they kill us! Animals.”
“You know THOSE people are FAR more racist than us! 90% of them are voting for the Black guy cuz he’s Black! You know they ALL say “kill whitey”.”
Just another emotional pick-me-up for mainstream Americans.
I watched part of it. What I thought was lacking was commentary on the ordinary middle class black people…the teacher, the fireman, the guys and gals who work from 8-5 every day and take their kids to school activities, that kind of thing. But, that wouldn’t be sexy enough for a tv special. I’m white, but I know several middle class black people. In this show, they didn’t exist..at least the part I saw.
Drugs are a choice. People are making the choice to sell drugs. And, people are making the choice to use drugs.
Yes, there is such a thing as addiction, but that’s after you make the choice to take that very first drink, or take that very first hit of crack, or break that very first law which seemed so petty—before you got caught.
If you never take that first drink, you won’t be taking the second, third, or fourth.
There are some blacks who aren’t making the (moral) choice to not take that first drink.
And, then of course, they want to complain about the treatment they receive once law enforcement intervenes….
As a fellow member of THE Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., I must say how proud I am to not only call Joseph C. Phillips a Fraternity Brother, but to say that he is also a highly respected friend of mine. Personally, I am somewhat appalled, and at the very least, disappointed, at the hack job that CNN called “editing” in regards to my friend Joseph and his “contributions” to this documentary.
Without actually sitting there with a stop watch, I would have to guestimate that out of a 2 hour program, Joseph appeared sporadically for all of 3-4 minutes. It was not the amount of time he was featured that bothered me immensely, but the way his words were thrown into the mix, in such a way, as to present his comments without any sort of context.
Personally, I think that Joseph is being far too kind of diplomatic in is response to the hack job that was done to him. I wonder if CNN would ever be willing to acknowledge how many hours of interview they did with him, relative to how many minutes of those interviews that they actually decided to use.
Because I know him, I know that not only is he a dedicated husband and father, but he is also a proud Black Man, who is dedicated to improving the lives of other young Black males and females by serving as a mentor and example of Black Manhood. If CNN really wanted to give a “balanced” view of being “Black in America”, they could have and should have spent as much time focusing on Black Men like Joseph, as they did on the men who were absentee fathers.
I wonder what audience CNN was trying to reach. If they were trying to inform their White audience of the “plight” of Blacks in America, I feel like it was a waste of time. If they were trying to reach and preach to the relatively large pool of lower economic class Blacks, then they also wasted their time.
Does CNN think that the average lower economic class Black person is not aware of what life is like (at least as CNN showed) to be “Black in America”? If they were trying to reach that particular economic class of Blacks, they should have seriously considered spending more time focusing on Blacks who also came from the lower economic class, commonly referred to as “The Hood”, or “The ghetto”, and through hard work, sacrifice, delayed gratification, focusing on EDUCATION and making good choices, managed to rise up above living in, and being ghetto.
I applaud CNN for making some type of effort, but unfortunately, I think they missed the mark, mainly because they started from the wrong premise
I only recall “drugs” being a small part of what the special spoke about, and if you had watched it, you would know that.
So you all need to fall back on that for a second, especially you, Glamchild, since either you’re back on the wagon, or you don’t know what you’re talking about.
I’ve read Joseph’s book. It’s excellent. I also agree with his statement about prison sentences. The solutions are not simple, however. Children, particularly poor, inner-city black children need adults who will be good role models and, as Proverbs says, “teach them the way they should go.” I think churches can help. I work in a predominately black neighborhood, and too often I see people singing and praising God in church on Sunday, but living like hedonists the rest of the week. Alas, this is a problem throughout our society, but I think it harms the black community more than any other, because church is such an important part of the social fabric. I think if more churches in black communities would preach less “liberation theology,” and more responsibility and hold congregants accountable for behavior, and implore them, if they accept Christ, to sin no more, it would do a world of good.
He makes some very good points. Once these men are introduced to the system it’s near impossible for them to recover from it and become a productive part of society.
Dear Sirs and Madams,
I’ll admit to being a tad uncomfortable about entering this discussion.
I, like La Shawn, do not watch much TV. My reason is that the information content is so low. You can read about 4-5 faster than you can listen. Being quite ancient I feel a need to optimize my time.
I am a conservative Republican. I am so conservative that I was very proud that my state at the time, Massachusetts, elected the first black Senator: Edward Brooke. I am glad that two of my heroes, Milton Friedman and William Buckley, recognized the innate insanity of Nixon’s war on drugs. I have said for years that the war on drugs is a war on black people and brown people.
The major problem that we face viv-a-vis race in this country is that it has become a political football. Not by accident, but by cynical design. I’ll not even attempt to point fingers. There’s more than enough blame to go around for the next millenium. I don’t have any answers except love your neighbor and don’t let the bastards wear you down. Profound only in the sense that it paraphrases The Savior.
Regards,
Roy
I watched it. Phillips was given just as much time as the others. Maybe because he was outnumbered in regards to their being more left leaning and independent leaning commentators he felt that he was slighted. The show gave an overall snapshot of the dilemna facing black america. Although they didn’t touch subjects like religion or sexuality (homophobia) much which are hot topics in our community.
I watch some of it and most of that was
embarrassing and reinforced stereotypes. After viewing most of the panel discussions and the segment on black women, I would say it was not reasonable and balanced. The education segment was not too bad. The one thing that I did not like from that segment was the promotion of paying children to learn.
I have always thought there should be more black conservatives on these kinds of programs, because they are so dominated by black liberals. But not if CNN and the likes are going to limit and/or edit out conservative views and responses.
I saw the show and didn’t like it all. Once again, the media has managed to show nothing but negativity and more black male bashing. A few statistics were thrown in to back up its point of view, but I found the show nothing more than promoting the same age old stereotypes. I would like to have seen something other than the peril of a people. Unfortunately, this portrayal Black America is does nothing but do a huge injustice.
CNN should do a groundbreaking show on the survival of Black Americans with statistics showing our contributions to society our various successes and how far we’ve come. If I had children, they certainly wouldn’t be allowed to watch such bad TV.
To hr,
Larry Elder wrote a column on a black conservative participating in “Black in America.” The column did not mention the conservative’s name, but I assume it was Joseph Phillips. The column was in part about CNN editing his responses. CNN kept the viewing audience from hearing Mr. Phillips’ complete views.
I was so frustrated with this series that I took it out on my blog. You can read my comments in full here: CNN’s Coverage on Black American – Why?
The show was not balanced. And yes, the quip they showed of Mr. Phillips was him borderline berating Spike Lee for his assertion that certain discrimination still exists in Hollywood. As always, the black conservatives are made out to be Toms in the liberal media.
But back to the show. It showed more negativity than positivity: a single poverty stricken father of two gifted children having to move because his building was sold, Michael Eric Dyson’s imprisoned brother (the last bit showing of one of the shows at that, with his brother returning to his cell), so on and so forth.
There was some positivity in that there was one family that sent 5 kids off to college with a 6th hot on their trail. There was another which featured an interracial marriage where the family was successful (but depending on the viewer, that might not be entirely positive, I dunno).
I didn’t watch it for the simple reasons that being Black for 75 years, here in the US and many countries around the world, I am certain that neither silly soledad nor anyone else can tell me what that means. I find that CNN in particular and most of the popular media can only identify Blacks as victims.
I’m pretty sick of being “Black in America”. I wish I could just be American.
Mark La Roi wins!
This is a continued effort by the media to keep us divided. I don’t care if you are black, red, yellow or purple, we’re all Americans and are in this together.
The sooner some of you “but I can’t cuz I’m Black” people get that through your head the better off this whole country will be.
This country being better or worse has nothing to do with what “black” people do.
It’s a country at enmity with Father Yahweh for all KINDS of reasons.
If the country and people get any “better” at what they do, it’s going to get worse.
It needs to do DIFFERENTLY.
i believe that you did a great job on black in america and what you said was true i think you could of spent more time on the whole drop rate. in my opion if you get the drop out rate to go down then so will things like violence and teen pregnancy. tell me what you think about that.
I saw CNN’s “Black in America.” I thought there were parts that were insightful. I thought there were portions that were your same old and tired excuses and complaints. But, we can’t complain about what CNN (white media) puts on the air about us. If it really bothered us, we would create our own news media. We have the talent, the skills and the money. Let’s see how many of us will support J. C. Watts’ Black News Channel in 2009. Let’s see how many of us will bad-mouth him because he will either be too liberal for some and too conservative for others. As my grandmother used to say, a chicken will never know what it feels like at the top of a tree because it’s too busy pecking in the dirt. Until we stop pecking in the dirt (relying on other folks to define and represent us), we are stuck with what we get.
I am not conservative so go ahead and label me. To be conservative you have a cult-like devotion to your movement various stances. No one else can have a good idea or be right so I totally disavow being conservative.
That being said, Black In America was awful. Not worth the weeks of e-mails or promos promoting it. What new was said? Soledad used to be a top flight journalist but her spiral downward is evident. This show was made for whites. Black In America-lite. Nothing profound at all. And for Mr. Phillips, each time I have seen him he bashes blacks. I hope he does not turn out to be another Armstrong Williams who was paid to demonize the poor blacks in this country. I will withold judgement on him until I hear him at length, something he did not get on that sorry CNN special.
LaShawn, I saw that show advertised and I thought to myself that it would be a “train wreck.” Honestly, my stomach for TV grows weaker each day. I watch very little in the way of television. It used to be at our house, “57 channels and nothing on them.” Now it’s “400+ channels and nothing on them.” As you can probably guess by now, I’m a huge fan of the public library and bookstores around here.
I agree with Mark. I don’t understand (and find it discouraging) that we have become a nation of hyphenated Americans. Any more it seems we’re Irish-Americans, or African-Americans, or Mexican-Americans… What happened to just being an American. In the great immigration push during the 1800’s people came to this country, and for the most part left the “old country” behind. They came here and renounced their ties to the places they used to live and devoted everything to assimilating into American society. Learning English, earning a living, supporting their families, and becoming a productive member of their community. I fear that in this age of being a hyphenated American we’re loosing that. I fear what that means for the future of this country. People need to remember that this country is a melting pot, not a salad.
As far as the prison issue raised above; I agree, once these men / boys get into the system it’s anywhere from difficult to impossible to get them turned around. I believe that it truly takes a change of the heart that only Christ can provide to do it.
What’s the answer? I think one of the ground floor answers is to have more fathers involved in their children’s lives, and to have these families teaching their children that that kind of behavior is unacceptable.
Give them goals to aspire to. Don’t let them settle for mediocrity. Why can’t they be a Supreme Court Justice, or Secretary of State, or a Congressman, or President? Don’t let certain factions get away with telling our children that they can’t because of this or that, and keep good influences in our kid’s lives. Keep the bad influences away from them. That means bad friends, bad TV, and yes, even bad family influences.
One of the most painful things my parents had to do was to keep an aunt away from us because she was simply a horrible influence. Looking back on it a decade and a half later, they were absolutely right in what they did.
Thanks,
Jim C
Hello there!
I was happy to see Joseph Phillips on the show because there are many black people who have the thoughts that he expressed… ALL black people are not looking with sympathy at trifling black people who want to blame their race on the state of their lives rather than discussing EVERY wrong decision that they have made in life based on a poorly developed value system…and no…I do not think that just being in an impoverished community is a sufficient reason for not having constructed a sound value system as an adult.
Thanks for this discussion and please feel welcome to stop by my blog and jump into some deep conversations!
Peace, blessings and DUNAMIS!
Lisa
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