Black Buzz News Service
College Park, Maryland
October 7, 2010
Written by Solomon Comissiong
Daily Journal (Opinion), Media, Politics
Oct 3, 2010
One of my mentors once told me, “When it comes to 21st century black leadership in America, most of the people who are truly of value to our community, the masses may unfortunately never know about”. He then went on to explain that many (not all) who are truly doing progressive and potentially sustainable work on behalf of oppressed people, will never be given an opportunity to freely articulate their ideas and thoughts on the mainstream corporate media’s airwaves. When it comes to African/black “leadership”, the corporate dominated mainstream airwaves are reserved for black/African people who are deemed “safe” enough. In essence, these dis-action figures for hire, and their ideologies, are of no significant threat to an elitist white supremacist power structure that continues to bludgeon poor communities of color with oppressive policies and practices. The corporate media goons know all too well that when they ask many of their black guests to “participate” on various programs (emphasize the word programs) that they will only go so far in their non-critical analysis of America and its continued policy towards people of color, the world over. Having a “safe” person of color on their stations gives their mass programmed audience the illusion that they (the corporate media) accurately report on, and discuss, critical issues affecting so-called minorities. However, in all reality it is almost as staged as a Hollywood flick.
Many of the self-aggrandizing faces of color who routinely make their way on to the corporate media circuit have a proven track record of putting their own career oriented self interest ahead of those who need their issues discussed in an honest manner. If these activists for hire had proclivities for putting America’s continued racist, imperialist, and reprehensible records on display; they would seldom, if ever, be invited to “perform” on these shows. Their routine appearances are nothing less than made for TV staged performances. The corporate media, especially when it comes to television, understand all too well the age old adage, “out of sight, out of mind”. And they want to make sure that some extremely critical and complex social issues are kept, at the very least, on a simplistic level. This is why the corporate media will never feature progressive black and brown community activists discussing the vile roots and impact of police brutality within communities of color. They are adept at evading any substantive dialogue on institutional racism within 21st Century America. The corporate media plays as big a role as anyone (or anything) in perpetuating the lie that when an unarmed black person is murdered by the police it was in some way, directly or indirectly, linked to violence in their community. They will create a story that directs sympathy to the murderous police officer before it does the person of color who no longer has a life. Disproportionate poverty, lack of health-care, gentrification, unemployment, police brutality, and under-funded school systems are all major issues that are endemic within most black communities in America. These issues are unequivocally linked to generations of governmentally unchecked institutional racism. Any serious dialogue on these issues on: CNN, MSNBC, ABC, Fox News? Absolutely not! Those issues are very real for tens of millions of blacks/Africans in America. However, when you see black face on a program that is more than willing NOT to substantively address these issues, they have become a significant part of the overall problem.
Sound progressive ideas often play a significant role in galvanizing individuals and communities, alike, to adopt radically different approaches towards sustainable empowerment. When these ideas and perspectives remain stagnant or are limited to a few communities, it prevents those approaches from spreading like a wildfire of liberation, justice, and equality.
The Black Community cannot afford to allow these corporate manufactured so-called black “leaders” to dictate our collective agenda and pursuit of justice and equality. They are, in part, doing the bidding of white supremacy and corporate America’s overall interest. There are a great many committed and consistent black/African leaders doing amazing work in the fight towards completely liberating African/black people throughout the US, however just like a multitude of “underground rappers” they get no airplay. And because they get no airplay, unfortunately, they are outside of the hearts and minds of scores of black people outside their respective communities. This is the case with liberating underground rap music as is the case with progressive black/African leaders whose voices, ideas and visions are important in the overall struggle for justice and equality.
Rich white men knew exactly what they were doing when they invested hundreds of millions of dollars in to a cultural medium (hip hop) in which they did not give a damn about. They were primarily concerned with two things: money and stifling the progressive energy coming from Hip Hop music during the Golden Era of the genre (1986-1995/6). Hip Hop became another cash cow by which they could make billions from—-all the while ensuring that only the most racist and deleterious images made there way to their mainstream airwaves. The last thing these white men wanted was to continue to let the radical, and much needed, political perspectives of black and brown rappers to be made popular. The bucking of the “system” and the shifting away from a Euro-centric paradigm is exactly what the music from artists like, KRS-ONE, Poor Righteous Teachers, and Public Enemy (among a multitude of others), represented. These artists’ (and so many others) music spoke to black and brown youth of the 1980s and early 1990s like nothing before.
Embracing your African and Latino roots became increasingly popular and was the antithesis of what much of white America wanted us to do. They wanted us to shed as much of our cultural identity as possible in exchange for the same European-American value system that was responsible for much of our oppression. Hip Hop music gave youth like me added energy, ideas, and confidence to combat this systematic oppression (psychological, economic, and physical) head on. Hip Hop was educating black and brown youth in a way that the flawed and Euro-centric modeled American school system was clearly not willing to do. Hip Hop music of the liberating ilk was, and still is, a natural enemy of white supremacy, capitalism, and injustice. This is why today’s most popular rappers and images of “hip hop” featured are eerily reminiscent of the minstrel shows of yesteryear. Having black men and women parade around mainstream airwaves as modern day sambos, mammies, jezebels, and social deviants, is what makes media corporations, like Viacom and Clear Channel, comfortable. These are the safe images of people of color that they wish to make most popular and therefore socially engineer how people think of black people and even how black youth think of themselves.
The corporate backed mainstream rapper is ideologically similar to the corporate media manufactured black “leader”. The have both made decisions to advance their careers and deepen their bank accounts by shucking and jiving for white America, even at the cost of hurting their community. However, many young rappers made their decisions sub-consciously predicated on what was already popular within the mainstream’s airwaves. In essence, they had no point of reference by which to compare and contrast prospective routes to take as a fledgling rapper. In contrast, many of these made-for-TV black “leaders/activists” for hire consciously made their decisions to dilute information and messages in order to not upset their corporate media sugar daddies. If the money (or opportunity) is right, they have no qualms being as socially “safe” as the corporate media wants them to be—-after all they want to make sure they are invited back. There are far too many to mention, although it’s not hard to notice them if you keep your critical eye open. They are routine guests on CNN, Fox “News”, and MSNBC (to name a few). They will often take the mainstream route when asked to discuss race issues within America—always staying away from any response that might edify or heighten the critical consciousness of the masses that may be viewing. Perhaps this is most reprehensible about their actions—-they know all too well why the majority of African-Americans are suffering. They know that it is rooted in pure unadulterated institutional racism, capitalism and white supremacy. To call it anything else should be a crime, especially when people are literally dying because of its affects.
These black men (and sometimes women) have the audacity to ask us to blindly support a Democratic party that has nothing within its national platform addressing structural racism, police brutality, or gentrification. The Democratic Party continues to pimp the black community for their votes every two, four and six years. They are as useless to the black/African struggle for justice and equality in America as are the Republicans. Neither party stands as a viable option that could lead to tangible changes within our lifetimes. The Green Party is and has been a much better alternative, compared to the two corporate parties, for people of color’s quest for equality, justice, and an end to institutional racism.
The US Green Party ran two progressive women of color (Cynthia McKinney & Rosa Clemente) as their presidential and vice presidential candidates in 2008. This is still a virtually unknown fact to most African-Americans thanks to the corporate media’s control on public consent. Black “leaders” who were paraded on the co-opted airwaves were of no help either as they used every opportunity to praise the Democratic Party and corporate America’s Manchurian candidate, Barack Obama. President Barack Obama never has been the candidate of “change” millions of people of color thought he represented. This is why he continually refuses to address or create any targeted plan to alleviate much of the systematic and disproportionate suffering within many black communities. Many of us allowed the media (and his campaign advisors) to build him in to something he was not.
If people of color are going to support this electoral system they might as well throw their collective weight behind a party that has many of their interests at heart, or create their own progressive working people’s party. Both the Democratic and Republican Parties are beholden to their corporate interest, not the masses of people who are suffering under a brutal plutocratic political system.
In the same vein of creating and supporting models that support our interests (people of color, progressives, poor, and working class) we must no longer allow our movements and issues to become co-opted and suppressed by the corporate media and whatever regressive faces of color their try to parade on TV or radio. The corporate media’s job is to cater to their corporate clients, maintain the status quo, and keep the masses obfuscated and politically dumbed down. We must also see these so-called black “leaders” for what they are—-political and career opportunists. If they truly represented the radical social change we need in order to end systematic institutional racism they would never be invited to even appear on these shows. They know all too well the moment they start a dialogue about that on national television it will be their last time appearing on that program. It should be clear to us that their careers are more important to them than being the inconvenient hero they would like us to believe they are. They are not.
As long as we remain solely dependent on the corporate media for our information and to dictate what our agenda should be, we will continue to suffer the consequences. Therefore it is imperative that we work aggressively to expand our range of “non-conventional” means of communication when it comes to disseminating critical news and information. We need to embrace and support the radically progressive activists in our communities, create coalitions, and build our own independent media collectives that are solely in the interest of the people. Pooling our resources to purchase inexpensive hand-held video cameras and voice recorders will go a long way towards creating scores of community journalists and documentarians. This information can easily be uploaded on to a range of websites that we already utilize for entertainment purposes. Now is the time, more than ever, that we reclaim the public discourse of critical issues within our communities, and beyond.
Solomon Comissiong is an educator, community activist, author, public speaker and the host of the Your World News media collective (www.blogtalkradio.com/Your-World-News) and www.yourworldnews.blip.tv.
2 Responses for “Corporate Hip Hop, Corporate Media & Mainstream Black “Leadership””
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kiksuya says:
October 3, 2010 at 7:54 pm
Excellent comparison Solomon!
I am quite tired of hearing Latino “leaders” parade around mainstream media professing their love for a country that has done nothing but dismantle democratically elected presidents and government officials in their homelands only to implement Right-wing Dictators trained at the Schools of Americans located in Fort Benning, Georgia as a means to see it through that U.S. corporate interest are the main priority. When the hell are you so-called Latino “leaders” going to wake the hell up and resist White cultural hegemony and revolt against genocidal consensus and policies in our homelands! When are you going to stop brown-nosing your “master”. We are not requesting amnesty or “assistance” because we need the White man to save us, this is a damn DEMAND that we are making to this government to respect our rights as human beings and to be treated as the first class citizens that we are! As the music group “Debajo del Agua” says people don’t cross borders they cross us!
I say all that to say that it is enough! Enough of this bullshit praising of White culture and its impositions on 1.5 or 2 generation immigrants and this desire of so many immigrants to assimilate and be “accepted” by white people. If you are a true progressive leader in the Black or Brown community you need to WAKE UP and start calling things what they are.
When Obama militarizes the border and allows these corporations to expand the wall on the U.S./Mexico border (which by the way is the same corporation who made the wall on the West Bank) or when he tells Black people protesting the inhumane execution of Sean Bell to “calm down and respect the laws decision” of impunity we should realize that he is nothing more than a black faced tool of White Supremacist America!
Just because someone is Black or Latino does not mean that they can not have the ideologies of White Supremacy and as Solomon stated in this article they are just as dangerous to our communities as those whom are white and have these Capitalist and Individualistic mentalities!
rabshakeh says:
October 5, 2010 at 12:15 pm
kudos to the author for this imperative revelation. the comparison between the black leaders & intellectuals that whore for the “news & info” branch of corporate media and the “gangsta” rappers that whore for the entertainment branch is right on target. it reveals the natures of both the corporate media and the african americans who’ve sold out the community to whore for the apparatus. this revelation further debunks the myth of the “liberal media.” if there really were any genuine liberal element in the corporate media, then we might hear some progressive voices on the news & info “programs,” and we also might hear some of the positive hip-hop artists who articulate struggle and solidarity. but that isn’t acceptable “programming,” in every sense of the term. so we can see both segments of the media working the one agenda of propagandizing the flow of information and ideas.
no doubt some people, even some white people, are able to recognize the negative messages and destructive impact of gangsta rap. but few are aware of the positive, critical messages espoused by “undeground rappers,” because they are “underground,” i.e. forced out of the mainstream by corporate media. but the other group you mention, the “safe negroes” who are trotted out to represent black people on the news, is another story. most people, especially white people, will believe these black leaders and intellectuals do, in fact, articulate the reality and the concerns of the black community. but as you make plain, this is far from the truth. who would compare the dignified minister or the esteemed professor with the thugged-out gangsta rapper? yeah, they don’t look at all alike, but they do in fact serve the same purpose for the domination system. thanks for helping us see through this subtle yet slimey deception from the corporate media.
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