During the recent trial of George Zimmerman, there was a constant battle between social and corporate media (cable news, privately funded blogs, etc.) over the content of Trayvon Martin's character. Throughout the debate, corporate media added fuel to an already blazing fire of discrimination and racism. My experience of watching the conflicting shifts of opinion, was that corporate media painted a negative picture of a young black man as a criminal, as someone likely responsible to be the aggressor in an altercation.
I watched as reporters made statements mocking Martin's lifestyle and his friend for her manner of speech. I watched speechless as white americans posted pictures on Facebook of themselves “Trayvoning,” posing as Martin lying on the ground playing dead with an iced tea and skittles lying next to them. This character rape of Martin throughout the media not only is insensitive to Martin and his family but it characterizes the majority of African American youth as criminals. Arguments arose, old feuds were sparked, further separating individuals and the healing of a dark time in America's history between black and white people.
I grew up in a neighborhood where crime, drugs, and violence were, and still are, prevalent. There are so many factors in understanding why, but part of it is a dire need for people to gain basic necessities to survive. The lack of education does not allow those in the "struggle" to advance in areas where higher education is needed. Without the confidence of having an education, many look to popular culture and media for alternate avenues to success. The message that youth often get from their “role models” in media is that in order for them to be successful they need to be competitive, aggressive, and dominating. This type of mentally has put people against each other instead of working on a common goal. In the case of Trayvon Martin, he is one of many underprivileged African Americans that has been portrayed as violent, a stereotype that the media both proliferates and profits from glorifying.
In the search for truth and understanding I cannot sit silently and allow corporate media to dictate and stereotype millions of young African Americans, causing them to be socially abused. This is why I am in search of the truth. Are corporate media, stereotypes, and racism dictating our perception of African Americans, or is it something else? I invite whoever may read this blog to share their opinions, articles, resources, etc., for all to discuss.
Also, two questions that have been driving my thoughts about black culture are:
What are the mental blocks that keep black culture trapped?
What creates a culture of visionaries?
Please invite friends, family, colleagues, any and everyone you know to this blog who has an opinion on this matter. With these questions there is no wrong answer and everyone has something to share.
Shane Sullivan by way of Patrick Masucci,
ReplyDeleteShane, in short, I believe there is one serious issue that exits:
The glorification of the life a gangster, the glorification of poverty, violence, drug dealing, and what it means to be authentic. Many young urban teens (black, hispanic, white), are raised by the TV, music, and the other adolescents around them.
We do lack role models, we do lack access to top-notch educators that have an understanding of how to teach culturally relevant material and how to relate to their students.
But, more importantly, many of us grew up trying to model ourselves after the Lil Wayne or the gangster character in some movie who got all the respect. It is an image thing, an ego thing. The way we self-identify is what this is all about. 10 years of one culture cementing into your brain that you must be a G, a fighter, a drug slinger, a respected no-BS type of person in order to be a REAL man or a REAL G or a REAL...you get it, this is a hard psychology to break out of.
This is why most people never change after 30 - their cultures shape the way they self-identify so much that they simply don't know any different.
So, to change this, pop-culture, we must change what being "cool" is. Chief Keef and Lil Wayne cannot be what we look up to as kids - it must be the scientist, artist, thinker, teacher that we aspire to be - we have a long way to go - my thoughts
sigh* theres so many thinsg wrong with this trial that in a way it can actually be seen as right if your mind is twisted enough to think out the box, but ill try to keep it short and to the point.
DeleteFirst up when it comes to the martin family last time i checked according to the state of pennsylviania there was a curfew of 10 pm due to all those kids wanting to flash mob with the idea that they were "gangsters" so he shouldntve been walking out side at 10 30 to 11 pm regardless of what anyone could say i swore that was illigal and punishiable by the state but ok were throwing law out teh window here i see because when I was young and my parents brought me up and told me to be in teh house i got tired of getting my ass beat so i learned to come home and now here i am alive and able to type this post so do you see the difference kids? Listen to your parents and maybe you wont get shot. Next up his attire since everyone wanted to make that into a big thing. maybe if he wasnt walking around with a hoodie on with the hood up he might notve drawn suspicious attention to himself while hes already traveling at an illegal hour for children. Hoddies are meant to conceal your face from weather or surroundings and if you wanna stay alive you need to be visisble at night but what the hell do i know im still alive right? Dress with real clothes that fit you and not look like a swaggot and maybe you wont get shot at. My family didnt raise me to dress like that I wear dress chlothes to my job every day except on casual frieday and i ALWAYS WEAR A BELT PROPERLY FASTENED WITH MY PANTS UP. As a BLACK man you cannot hope to achieve anything in such a shitty atire so if anyone wants to use that as supporting evidence please go have a seat.
Next up in this is a very simple question: WHERE THE HELL WERE HIS PARENTS? you didnt care when you let your CHILD roam the streets now you care when hes shot at? dont wanna be a parent when mistakes are made BE A PARENT ALL THE TIME. If your child is out late and you know things like this can happen then as a responsible adult you shoudlve went to get your child but i guess its too late for that now isnt it? you people as a scociety allow these thinsg to happen and then wonder how your life got so fucked up
DeleteBUT ANYWAY ON TO YOU MISTER ZIMMERMAN:
Now I personally feel no remorse for anyone involved in either party towards this nor do i favor anyone of them. It was such a big deal that a kid was shot and everyone cared yet my good friend nearly died in the hospital and almost no one came so when I get a card in the mail saying im sorry get well for my friend then ill feel bad about your loss but lets be honest its not gonna happen.... Now with that being said i cant seem to figure out houw you got away with this Zimmerman. I dont care about his age his family or his race YOU KILLED A HUMAN AND LAST I CHECKED IN THE REAL AMERICA WHEN YOU KILLED A HUMAN THAT WAS A CAPITAL OFFENSE. You killed a human and you got to walk? now if anyone out there can see this in my eyes a light bulb should come on as to how the fuck did you kill a human and get off? that means there had to be some sort of foul play involved in this trial and instead of looking to hate Zimmerman which yes is a capital offense as a government we could deal with that easily as we always have but anyone with intelligence should be asking: why did our judicial system allow a man to walk after killing a human? now that i cant fathom correctly and that question destructs out cultres, scociety and governement more and more with each passing event in the United
states.Eeveryone knew he killed that kid but he got to walk and at the end of teh day thats all that matters for some reason but my anger isnt nesseecarily directed just to him or the Martin Family but maily to our government. I know were a shady country and all but when did we start doin that shit and letting people off for killing? I guess around when OJ got off maybe? Now if anyoen wants to play the race card both a black and a white man has been let off for murder once so neitehr can say anything relevant about anyone as we have all seen it and any further invested time into this really would just breed hate or a lack of intelligence.
DeleteMy point is it takes two to tango so please dont act like you dont know the dance. We all watched it and as a community we all put ourselves in positions for things. I merely implore you readers to please think things through thourghly before deciding these actions you make as everything we do ripples into our scociety and everything we touch. Once we are aware of this magnitude we can begin to realize what we should be doing and how to get into better life positions as individuals and as a race. Its not that people dont have tools but merely they choose not to use the rules to work correctly. As a memeber of the black community you should know by now that we were not really dealt a fair hand and as an American you must know the rule of America; NOTHING IN LIFE IS FAIR SO STOP ASKING FOR A FAIR GAME. The trick is to use everything around you to improve. You should be using anything any kinds of information you can store up to imrpove this is how we truly learn in life.
Shane Sullivan by way of Dennis Robinson,
ReplyDeleteWhat are the mental blocks that keep black culture trapped?
I feel that some of the mental blocks is this constant search for freedom in all the wrong places, something I myself plan on discussing in great length very soon. Within our culture there seems to be an abundance of fear in that we crave this freedom and do any and everything to search for it. We're trapped by this because we search for freedom in mediocrity, frivolity, nonsense.... get lost in drugs, lose your mind in this music, forget your sorrow with this drink, ignore your individuality with this style of clothing/speech/mannerism, etc. We perpetuate our own sufferings by simply fearing positive change, many of us thrive off of drama and violence and continue to perpetuate this nonsense (Nonsense being an understatement) We chose to act as inferior minds do by simply being what we were influenced to become instead of defining who we ought to be, and what we ought to be. We're trapped and we don't know how to get out of it because we continue to hate ourselves, and each other, and choose ignorance on the subject of truly getting free. Truer words will never be spoken when N. Mandela said "our deepest fears are not that we are inadequate but that we are powerful beyond measure."
What creates a culture of visionaries?
A culture unafraid to speak up against the moral, civil, corporal and spiritual wrongs done towards us and others. We have to learn the power of protest, the power of words, the power of fight. Then and only then will we reach change. One thing I loved seeing in the B Com was the lack of riots in the streets, the lack of aggression in that regard. We transformed it into the more appropriate form of aggression and protested and rallied, and and campaigned, and championed for justice and still are until we see results... unfortunately it has to continue to truly hit home for us all to realize that we too deserve the right to the lives we say we want, the lives we're capable of living. We'll be visionaries also if our "Heroes" stop acting like cowards and do what's necessary to let the truth be known of our capabilities... thousands of black celebs and powerful political, corporal, societal figures and still enough isn't being done... the resolve either isn't enough or the priorities are completely out of touch. The NAACP needs to to go extremes to recognize the need for a movement for movements sake, they hardly did a thing months before this Trayvon situation ever took place, It starts with our leaders, they pioneer a shift, and we take notice, on a societal level though we tend to fight for things but we don't support each other enough however thousands will dress up in their church suits and go see Tavis Smiley talk about our problems and feel as though that's it, nothing more needs to be done... o_O