Leave it to the Fox News Channel to have on as a guest one of their conservative negroes whining about mass African American outrage over the senseless killings in Ferguson, MO and Staten Island, NY. This time it was some jheri curl wearing jokester preacher from Los Angeles named Jonathan Gentry. He posted a bizarre video on You Tube screeching to no one in particular about how he is so tired of African Americans standing up for the humanity and constitutional rights of other African Americans when a gross racial injustice occurs. I listened to both his video and interview on Fox and Friends and of course, hes ridiculous. He had nothing to say about endemic police brutality, systemic and institutional racism or offered any critical analysis of the dislocation of the poor from the economy and society. But now hes a Fox News and other right-wing media sensation (Laura Ingraham was singing his praises this morning) for his obligatory attacks on the Rev. Al Sharpton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and pretty much all other civil rights leaders, as well as President Obama and any other African American who raised appropriate questions about police brutality and the increased militarization of local police. He then launched into the other predictable right-wing trope about violence (and dont forget illegitimacy rates) in black communities, using the daily carnage taking place Chicago as his example. Of course he lied repeatedly, claiming African American leaders have said and done nothing or very little about this tragedy. Even the most cursory review of the myriad of news articles about this problem will show deep, ongoing and intense activity to stem the violence and demands for help from nearly every major African American civil rights, grassroots, Pan-African, religious, law enforcement and political groups in and outside of Chicago.It was only a few years ago when there were mass demonstrations demanding President Obama visit Chicago to address the violence. In fact, the White House My Brothers Keeper Initiative rolled out in February was motivated in large measure as a response to these demands. Not only that, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel may very well lose his re-election bid in part because of the out of control violence. And while Im not in the business of writing briefs for Rev. Sharpton or Jackson, they played important roles in keeping the pressure and spotlight on this ongoing tragedy - just as they are not letting the killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner be justified by the official story. Whats that so-called preacher and all those other conservative black leaders created by Fox News producers, doing to help address these problems? Answer: nothing, other than go on intellectually dishonest Fox News programs to titillate its audience by engaging in racially provocative monologues bereft of fact, substance and any sense of humanity. https://youtube/watch?v=eKlhPqQ-u20
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 20:39:47 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015