THE MEDIA AND OUR COUNTRY'S AGENDA
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Clark, "is garden variety racism precisely because the racial posturing
on the part of blacker-than-thou racial militants mocks all middle-class
patterns of speech and grammar as 'white,' while reserving for the
exclusive use of blacks the uncouth and the vulgar."
The giant media has the nerve to compare the Al Sharptons to Mar–
tin Luther King, Jr. I know that Martin Luther King, Jr. was not perfect.
It
is al leged, and it is true, that he plagiarized. But you have to at least
read to plagiarize. Martin Luther King, Jr. was an intellectual. He read,
and he reflected; he didn't just preach. And he was appalled by all forms
of racism. But the giant media today is obsessed with people who break
the laws with impunity, not immoral laws, but any civil law. They want
that instant celebrity on the air. The giant media wants to hear that
sound bite. They want to see the big bad racial minstrel. And if the
racial minstrel goes on a hunger strike, it doesn't really matter that later
on they find out that he didn't have a hunger strike, but that he was on
a hearty diet of soup. It doesn't matter. They keep resurrecting him, rein–
venting him, rehabilitating him, because, as the
New Yorker
put it, if
there weren't an AI Sharpton, we'd have to create him.
Who is this
we?
The biased giant media. Because the truth lies else–
where. The racial militant does not speak truth to power, but con–
tributes, as I've said, snap sound bites, some funny, most angry and
feverish, to complicated issues. The black militant constantly calls boy–
cotts at the drop of a dime, but the adoring media scribes give him much
coverage and clam up or do not follow the multiple campaigns of the
racial militant to their dead ends, just like they overlooked the treks to
black nationalism. I remember one black militant in New York who was
asked a question about the black racist Khalid Abdul Muhammad-and
he was just that, a black racist-the militant replied,
"It
is not Khalid
Muhammad who is talking hate, it is Rudy Giuliani." Now, what kind
of world do we live in where we compare putrid racism on the part of
a black so-called separatist nationalist with the mayor of the city of
New York who was doing his best, in his view, to bring the races
together?
It
is an
Alice in Wonderland
culture.
Elevating racist demagogues to the exalted status of mass leader is a
flagrant, pathetic attempt not only to imbue black leadership with the
characteristics of flamboyance and hucksterism, but to emphasize emo–
tionalism, public relations gimmickry, and self-adulation, as well as self–
destructive antics over mature ethica l substantive leadership capable of
making reasoned argument about issues and thoughtful contributions to
the public weal in terms of what is required to bring into existence
