The State of Things

As conglomerate corporations peruse the planet on the hunt for big and little news organizations to add to their cache, and as the fate of journalistic integrity looks more and more like water running down the drain, can the alternative, grassroots news publications hold their own?

The alternative press, throughout the history of the United States, often represents the underrepresented and reports the issues that go unreported in the mainstream media, particularly for low-income racially diverse groups that do not fall into the majority stronghold. Because of the role the mainstream media does not play in the exposure of issues affecting the working poor and non-white population, the alternative press plays a vital role in the function of democracy, whereby information is used to help the citizen engage in the political discourse that affects his or her life.

Some of the first black newspapers provided informational access to freedom for southern slaves escaping to the north, and later in World War II the black press drew attention to the contradiction of fighting for democracy while supporting the undemocratic systems of segregation and inequality. The alternative press often serves an important function, even though from time to time it does not resonate beyond the community it represents. Yet, if even at a local level, alternative publications can spark civic engagement, then they are in part fulfilling their democratic obligation.

The problem, or the devil, as they say, may be in the details. As forms of discrimination become more complex and more bureaucratic, the object of attack becomes obscure. In last days of slavery the object was clear, as in the days of segregation, but today discrimination takes on different forms and cloaks itself in unstained fabric. The mainstream media does cover the issues that affect low-income minority communities, but at a surface-level. To illustrate this point, I will explore mainstream media coverage and attempt to penetrate the truth beneath the surface. I will also explore how the alternative press deals with these issues.

How does the alternative press hold up in a battle with an enemy it cannot see?




Wednesday, November 28, 2007

They thought the Earth was flat

Racism was obvious in the Emmett Till trial, and yet the murderers were acquitted. The brutality of the racism however, brought down a shower of media attention from Northern reporters and rebellious Southern editors. In the United States today, racism rarely manifests itself in such outrageous acts of cruelty, rather it takes on subtle forms and media attention resembles a light drizzle.

Looking back at the Civil Rights Era, we often think we see a distant past, instead of a very recent one. The belief that products of the Civil Rights Act, such as affirmative action, have settled the score ignores the reality of the act as more of a principle than a common practice for at least 20 years after. Though some progress is evident, the effects of policy change in 1964 were far from immediate and the lag suggests that sentiments of the past do not fade at the signing of piece of legislation.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Web site says that when they began accepting employment discrimination claims in 1964, they were faced with an immediate backlog of 1,000 claims. The EEOC also admits that it was consistently faced with staff and funding shortages and for many years unable to even review over half of the claims that poured into the office. Studies show that in the 1980s, affirmative action weakened “as a result of lax enforcement of affirmative action regulations in the early years of the Reagan administration." (Holzer, Harry & Neumark, David. "Assessing Affirmative Action." Journal of Economic Literature, 38. 3:2000 pp. 483-568)

The AFL-CIO's American Federationalist in 1986 wrote, "Despite the fact that the Civil Rights Act is more than 20 years old, many barriers to equal access to jobs, promotions and other employment opportunities still remain…The Reagan Administration's record on affirmative action is deplorable…The Administration seeks to use the civil rights laws to thwart the full political and economic participation of women and racial minorities in our society rather than as a means of furthering that goal.”

Similar examples exist even today, in city planning ordinances that seem to reinforce segregation in public schools, and in the disproportionate distribution of subprime loans to minority families, expected to spawn millions of foreclosures and kick people out of their homes.

The vicious beating of Northern black boy by Southern whites gained national attention and lead to gradual change because the media persistently and adamantly reported it to the public. Racism then, and now, is defined as the infliction of harm on an individual or group because their race is deemed inferior. Today the beating is soft and slow, but the disproportionate infliction of harm on groups of people, “once deemed inferior,” is also significant. Journalists would do good to remember that the murder of Emmett Till took place during a time when John Lennon thought the Beatles were bigger than Jesus, not when people thought that it was possible to steer a ship off the edge of the Earth.

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