Thursday, March 5, 2009

Recent Black Lynchings in the Media

It is March 5th 2009 and I am watching Headline News report on Chris Brown's alleged assault against Rihanna. The reporter went into detail about the possible injuries that Rihanna sustained from Chris Brown's assault and said that he could possibly face five years in a state prison. As I watched them crucify this young man on TV, it occurred to me that the coverage of Chris Brown is completely different from the coverage of a prominent white actor who was in a similar situation several months ago.


I typed a search for "actor assaults wife" on Google and guess what popped up? A story I hadn't even heard of in which an actor named Sean Bean assaulted his new fourth wife. You may not know the name, Sean Bean, but any recent movie buff will know him as the actor who played Boromir in Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. He was also the bad guy in the blockbuster hit movie, "National Treasure". Sean Bean spent six hours in jail and was later seen with his wife smiling and kissing - as if it never happened. And for most of the world, it never did. Because the media didn't tell us about it.

Check out the short blurbgiven to his story.... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/2461106/Sean-Bean-spent-night-in-jail-over-alleged-assault-on-new-wife.html

The Chris Brown assault trial has been in the news constantly and is being used as a way to create awareness on domestic violence and abuse against women with Rihanna, a black woman, being the spokesmodel. I am not excusing Chris Brown for his actions, but the stark difference in media coverage between Chris Brown and Sean Bean calls into question whether the media is lynching Chris Brown for his assault against Rihanna while giving Sean Bean, a white actor, a pass despite being accused of committing the same crime against his wife.

One very famous example of media lynching is with the OJ Simpson murder trials and the comparatively low-key Robert Blake murder trial.

The older white actor, Robert Blake, was accused of murdering his wife in 2001 by gunshot. Now almost 10 years later, not a peep is said about him. Robert Blake's murder trial didn't garner nearly the same media coverage as O J Simpson, an older, retired Black athlete who mistakenly married a white woman. In fact, after 8 years since his acquittal, I could not even remember the actor's name. I remembered that there was an actor who allegedly killed his wife, but I couldn't remember his name nor what he looked like. In the case of Robert Blake, when the jury acquitted Blake of his crimes, the verdict was accepted and the case was closed.

As we all know, OJ Simpson is another story entirely....

Both men were acquitted but only one, the white actor, was left alone afterwards. Robert Blake has been allowed to fall into anonymity, while OJ Simpson is now sentenced to fifteen years in prison for just trying to get his memorabilia back from an unscrupulous dealer.

The point is that in the United States, Black men will never get a fair deal and it is best that all Black men realize this and fast! Every major Black sports athlete who has been extremely successful in life has also been lambasted by the media for some alleged misconduct.

Michael Vick - With extremely lucrative deals with the Atlanta Falcons, Nike, and Reebok is jailed because his relatives had dogs fighting in his house.

Barry Bonds -a Black man on the verge of beating both Babe Ruth's and Hank Aaron's record is slammed by the media for alleged steroid use. Although the white man who started the steroid use story is a man whose name I can't remember, Barry Bonds who hadn't used steroids in over a decade is the name smeared all over the news for weeks. And because of all the crap slammed onto Barry Bonds, I can't remember if he broke the record. Check out this white guy's honest perspective on the story....http://tabacco.blog-city.com/dave_zirin_a_white_man_on_barry_bonds_baseball__racism__it_a_1.htm


"Not enough evidence to charge Phelps, Sheriff says" reads the headline on CNN.com
despite an actual photograph of Michael Phelps smoking marijuana from a bong at a party. Unlike the black Michael Vick who lost all of his endorsements, Michael Phelps kept his endorsement deals with Speedo, Kelloggs, and Powerbar despite having a picture published of him smoking an illegal substance. http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/16/michael.phelps/index.html#cnnSTCText

Click http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/150832/14-times-Olympic-gold-medal-winner-Michael-Phelps-caught-with-bong-cannabis-pipe.html to see the marijuana photo.

In mid-August 2001, the story came out that Jesse Jackson had a 2 year old child from an affair with a worker at Rainbow PUSH Coalition who was 20 years younger than him. Two weeks later, Jesse Jackson Sr. pledged to make reparations to African-descendants of slavery a priority after attending a U.N. Conference on racism in South Africa. He demanded reparations payment from the United Kingdom for their role in African slavery. Great timing, huh?

The only reason Obama is still president of the United States is because he hasn't done anything illegal and has no misconduct to report. But, trust me, the white population is waiting for an Obama mistake before they pounce.

So since Obama has done nothing illegal or of ill-repute, the media will smear him by being the president who was unlucky enough to follow George Bush, Jr. and forced to deal with Bush's mess left behind.

As I write this, I am amazed at how so many media pundits are trying to put the U.S. domestic economic crisis on Obama. Every day, I hear a story about how the Republicans do not like Obama's stimulus package or Obama's spending bill or Obama's bill to slow foreclosures. They are slowly trying to link the economic crisis with Obama by publicizing every random critique a Republican has spoken against Obama's policies.

But, cynically, I ask myself...even if Obama did fix the problem, would the white media inform the world of such a feat and properly credit Obama for his intelligence and success? Or would they create a scandal around Obama (or assassinate him - you know it's possible) just to blindside us from the reality that he pulled off the greatest political slamdunk of all time by being the Black man who turned around one of the worst economies we have seen in over half a century?

We shall see. I hope the cynic in me isn't right. People, stay awake and aware.