News

HERE HERE!

SEE AL ONLY FIGHTS BATTLES THAT HE CAN WIN, QUICK RESULTS NOT WORLD CHANGING ISSUES. HE ALSO SERVES AS A PACIFIER HE CALMS US DOWN AND REDIRECTS OUR ANGER AWAY FROM VIOLENT PROTEST AND THOUGHT PROVOKING SOCIAL DIALOGUE WITH HIS "LET ME HANDLE THIS APPROACH" HE IS AN AGENT FOR THE GOVERNMENT, HE AND OTHERS LIKE HIM DISTRACT US WITH SILLY NAME CALLING ISSUES WHILE THE MASSES OF US ARE FALLING BY THE WAY-SIDE STILL BLINDED BY HIS MISDIRECTION AND PREACHER'S RHETORIC.

because black people are complacent and comfortable with complaining. black folks are scared of revolution. not willing to take a stand or even die for a real cause. we have "let someone else deal with it syndrome". we complain about the disarray of our communities but uphold the "no snitch policy". we throw a welcome home party for "pookie" when he gets released from the prison after serving 10 years for "putting in work" and for his contribution for making the community in the disarray that it is, but we frown up at dexter and act cynical because he obtained his master's from a university. call him a "sellout" or a "house nigga" because he moved away from the very same place that would have made him pay dearly for being successful. yeah gotta love it right?

@RonRoyce

It is not just AL SHARPTON. he is not the problem. he is only a face in the media, a voice formenting a cause and a scion of the civil rights movement -- he is not the problem. I have no issues with rev. Al -- what I do see as a problem is how we seem to galvanize over "sound bites" and quick hits.

What really would a boycott or protest over a damn cartoon in the NY Post solve? Really, what would it solve?

Would it make ONE more job for a black man?

Would it stop one more BLACK BOY from being shot in the face this weekend in Detroit or Chicago?

Would it prevent one more BLACK GIRL from feeling cold, steel forceps snatch a fetus from her womb at an abortion clinic?

Our ignorance

Our attitudes

Our savagery

restructuring the black community has a whole will not be an easy feat. you have generations that are "instituionalized" into the system. when they relocate former tenants of low income housing projects to other communities, some have a hard time adapting. same with some black's views of society. some simply are so complacent or institutionalized into the victimhood mentality, that they dont know whether they would really want change or know how to deal with it. my question is how would we transition into change? do we try to rehabilitate the older generation or do we start over with the youth?

ON THE CONTRARY AL SHARPTON IS THE PROBLEM, HE AND RAINBOW COALITION JACKSON THEY ARE SENT IN TO PACIFY THE NATIVES WHEN THEY BECOME RESTLESS THEY KEEP US IN THE PAST SO WE CAN'T CHANGE OUR FUTURE. CHANGES ARE MADE AT BIG TABLES NOT STREET CORNERS. ITS THE DEALS THAT ARE STRUCK IN PRIVATE THAT CHANGES THE POLICIES AND LAWS THAT GOVERN US. THEY GET PLENTY OF MEDIA COVERAGE AT TO US IT LOOKS AS THOUGH OUR ISSUES ARE TAKEN SERIOUSLY BUT IN THE END WE HAVE SIMPLY PUT OUR FATES IN THE HANDS OF THOSE THAT ARE PRO-ESTABLISHMENT AND PAYED TO KEEP US UNDER THE INFLUENCES OF THE PAST.

What black women are exposing themselves on these various websites is a SELF-ESTEEM issue. I can't make them keep their clothes on, but we all know how the media helps to create and maintain self esteem issues in our youth. So attack a media outlet so blatantly disrespectful of people of various ethnicities is a step in attacking this problem which is considered "real enough".

Black on black crime has a cause and industrial prison complex has a vested interest in making sure it continues. There are other factors involved besides black men being violent towards each other. No one on BP is going to deny how systematic racism in this country has affected our communities even though things are improving for us in general most are not under the illusion that we are treated equally. The media has been very instrumental in maintaining sterotypes and ideas about black people that place an extra burden in trying to escape the cycle of inner city violence. How often do they show young people arrested and put into the police cars to reinforce the idea that black people are generally criminals? How long has COPS been a top rated show? How is discrediting the validity of the Post and Fox News not helpful in negating the influence of the media in our lives? Besides I doubt Rupert Murdoch needs protection from Al Sharpton.

Can you honestly say that a lack of respect in the media is not a problem for Black people? There is something wrong with our society in America. How many times have you seen with your own eyes or heard stories of immigrants coming from Asia, Europe, Africa, The Carribean, Mexico... Central and South America all coming here and making a life for themselves and looking down on Blacks born in America for not being able to do the same? Is it just because there is something wrong with us as Black people? No, it is not just us. Do we have our share of problems? Of course we do, but if you take those same immigrant families and look at their children and so on to the 3rd and 4th generations... the more Americanized they become the more likely they are to fall into the same pitfalls we do. The more they begin to exhibit the same characteristics their fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers looked down on us for possessing.

Our priorities are often screwed up. Our values are often screwed up. We can't afford to have the same values living in America that the media and entertainment industries tell us to have.Why? Because the rules of the game in this society are not set up in our favor so we can't party, act foolish, mess up, get caught, fail to plan,get multiple chances and expect no consequences like other people in America. Not just because we are Black, but because we are black... the society was built by us but not for us. We have had a couple of generations of political freedom, but everyone got the same rights when we did. We had over 400 years of special rules against us, but they complain about the few rules that were put in place for our benefit (affirmative action is the main one they get pissy about). They had 500+ years to call us Ni**as and monkeys and kill us if we got too upset about it. So now a few people feel like saying don't call us monkeys, chimps, etc. etc. etc. directly or indirectly, out of cruelty or humor and now... Now.... NOW we throw shots at ourselves for making a stand no matter how trivial? Get out of here with that crap. 60 years ago people would have been hosed, sprayed, beaten and bitten for protesting this nonsense cartoon or anything else. Then some would have been followed home and lynched. Let Al and Spike and whoever else who wants to protest do so... in peace. There is enough bigots, racists, and sour %#&@$! people missing the good old days when "coloreds" knew their place b1tching about this big fuss over what they consider nothing.

@razman1
@Forum

I my humble opinion -- don't just go after Rupert Murdoch and the NY Post! Personally, I feel some of the popular garbage in viral rotation on Black radio and sold to pollute BLACK youth through hip-hop and rap is more damaging than any damn cartoon in a tabloid could ever be!

TALLDARK CALLS PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA A CHIMPANZEE! SCANDAL ON BP NEWS FORUM! TALLDARK CALLS PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA A CHIMPANZEE!

Now can we move on.

let's be outraged -- and do something about the attrition rate of Blacks on the college campuses of America.

Let's be outraged -- and do something about YOUNG BLACK BOYS SHOOTING AND KILLING THREE OTHER BLACK BOYS in the face with military-grade automatic assault weapons on the streets of Chicago -- not about a damn cartoon in a tabloid.

BARACK OBAMA IS A CHIMPANZEE! So? There I said it! George Bush is a monkey. Hilary Clinton is an old hag.

Happy now?

Let's move on and be outraged -- and do something about the fact that in every city in this nation, BLACK MEN ARE ASSAULTING AND RAPING YOUNG BLACK GIRLS!

IN VIRTUALLY EVERY CITY IN THIS NATION THIS WEEKEND< THERE WILL BE BLACK MEN SHOOTING EACH OTHER IN THE HEAD AND FACE AND KILLING OTHER BLACK MEN -- IN BROAD DAYLIGHT -- over money, a "diss", a slight, drug corner -- not a cartoon in a tabloid!

America's corporate prison system continues to plant seeds and harvest BLACK MALE BODIES -- not tabloid cartoons.

BLACK GIRLS are getting abortion in back alleys and abortion clinics this weekend in almost every city in this lie called America, having their WOMBS RAVAGED BY THE COLD STEEL OF UNSANITARY FORCEPS because they are having UNPROTECTED SEX WITH BLACK BOYS AND OLDER BLACK MEN -- not because they are at home studying their school lessons and looking at cartoons in the NY Post.

Where is the outrage over that. I don't think Rupert Murdoch and the cartoons in the NY Post are getting those BLACK GIRLS AND BLACK TEENS PREGNANT.

American society itself uses sex to sell everything... even toothpaste. My beloved Transformers stooped to using Megan Fox's body to get the older men into the movie theatre even though many of us would have went just for the cool robots, special effects and childhood memories. To ignore the media's role in the conditioning of the minds of the masses is a fatal error in any war against any of the things you have mentioned.

In my line of thinking an instance of misplaced rage is when energy is directed toward something that is not part of the problem or is not leading toward a solution. Rupert Murdoch and his use of the power of his media empire IS part of the problem and blatantly so. Besides I have enough "rage" to aim at Fox and whatever issue you want to address. just the fact that we are always talking about black teen girls getting pregnant when white teen girls get pregnant too is proof that the media is exerting an undue influence because even after Sarah Palin's daughter turned up pregnant during her run for VP it was nowhere near the big deal the right wing media usually makes of such things. Fox was all over the "IS Barack a Muslim question" but where were they with the "does Sarah Palin fit our family values and morals question?" Relatively silent. As much as they say black teens should not be getting pregnant, there is no outcry for white teens being pregnant. Why isn't the issue American teens getting pregnant? We complain when the girls get pregnant, we complain when they have the kid. We complain when they don't have the kid. Yet who complains about the constant overstimulation and sexualization of young women in our society? Music videos, beauty pageants, skinny models, entertainment.... we can make that list go on and on. Eva Longoria, Kate Winslet Jessica Simpson, Oprah Winfrey... big or small women when they put on a bit of weight or a lot of weight or Nicole Richie and Kate Moss when the shrivel up and nearly disappear it is a big deal. So if all of these white teen girls have all these weight issues and body image hang ups and the society is built for them what do you think black girls are going to suffer through when they are second class citizens in this society. IF you really want to go to war for this issue instead of shouting at the Post, you still at some point in your battle are going to have to face what the propoganda machines of the mainstream media are doing to our children of all races. Because if they don't see how it affects THEM as well as us then we won't have enough support to change it on our own the way we disagree about everything.

If this is how you want to play it to make your point then go all the way with it...

Let's boycott doctors who perform abortions.
Let's boycott neighborhoods where black people kill black people.
Let's boycott countries who let black kids die of malnutrition and disease.
Let's boycott items manufactured by inmates so the prison industrial complex shuts down.

Since those issues are more important.
-----------
If teens boycotted sex then there would be less chances of getting pregnant. Let's boycott condoms since they give teens who already feel invincible the thought that they can have sex without conception. Let's boycott kissing and hand holding too.

Let's boycott genitals... then no one is having kids or sex.
----------

I agree in principle that there are more important issues in the world than a cartoon that can easily be construed or misconstrued as racist... but what I don't agree with is your insistance on painting the influence of media as trivial. The enemy you never recognize is the one most likely to hurt you because your guard is down.

If images on tv, print, or the internet were trivial and of no consequence to how our society functions then there would be no multi-million dollar industries built around them. If you want to say the effect of media on the problems you deem important enought to be enraged about is minimal, then I want to see how you go about fixing those problems without addressing the media's current contribution to those problems OR without using some form of media to inform the people you hope to have aid you in helping those who suffer from the problems you want to fix. Lay out the plan....