Race issues in America are not Black and White (Race in America Part 2)

Yesterday on this blog, as well as Red State.com, I posted a video with a young female college student blaming the institutions that taught her to fear black men as the reason for the killing of Trayvon Martin.  The point of her post was to say that white middle class activist could never know what it is like to be Trayvon Martin or Troy Davis.  I took notice of this video because of the word “institution” which she never identifies in her video.

Now she does say that because of her privileged up bringing that she cannot understand what it is like to be black and poor. There is truth is this statement.  However, she likely does not know what it is like to be white and poor, Chinese and poor, and Mexican and poor.  What she blamed, I felt was the wrong problem.

I came across the above video today when attempting to do some follow up work on this issue.   In the above video is a man who goes by the name Willie “PDUB” Moore JR and he is what is called a Christian Rap Artist, or what some would call Gospel Rap artist. He is obviously a very talented artist.  You can learn more about him and his music here.

The music is great, and it has a positive message, which much of it aims at teaching people how to live right.

In the above video, Mr. Moore is explaining why the there are many people who fear the “black man.”  

Unlike the video yesterday, this video helps to point to what causes this fear.  Moore does come very close to what I think causes this.  He says that the only image that is ever portrayed about a black male in the media, radio, social media, or the newspaper, is a pictures of black men painted as “thugs, gangsters, killers,” and “dogs”;  and this is what is constantly fed to people, causing them to fear black men.   Mr. Moore likens this to a pit bull.  The media has portrayed these dogs as mean; so many people see one and instantly think it is a mean dog.  In fact, Pitt Bulls are often not mean dogs.  (It may be safer to ask the owner if the dog is mean, because pit bulls can really harm you), but the point is well made. People can see something in somebody just by the way they look.

What Moore does not say is some of the other influences that permeate this view.  Movies all the time have gangsters in them that wear a certain type of cloths.  There is a lot of rap music these days that portrays black males as vicious killers.  This was the point I was making yesterday.  I would argue, this is where the so called institution picks these habits up.
 Moore says that the media needs to change this perception that black men are all thugs.  I think this is correct.  The media should do that.  However, does this mean record labels should stop signing artist that portray themselves as thugs?  Should the record executives only sign reticent artist that are less brazen about the culture they come from.  Of Course, no one is saying this, because that is not what people want to hear in their artist.  Millions of people buy records made by artist who have been shot nine times and is known to have sold drugs.  Millions more down load these artist on the internet.  White, Black and Mexican people buy this music.  Nevertheless, when you watch the videos, look at the record covers, and listen to the artist one overwhelming statistic comes to play, and that is the image of a black male.

To change people’s impression of the race, we need to teach people the difference between real life and music.  It would be nice to see this image change, but these institutions can only do so much.  Newspapers report the news, if a crime is committed, reporting it to the public should be the main priority.  This is not the only problem area.  However, the others, yes there can be work done here.  The only people who can change these images are we the people.   

We can buy artist that give a positive message.  I know of one that is in a video at the top of this post.   Ask yourself this, would you feel more comfortable in the inner city waiting for a cab, or uptown were the neighborhood is predominantly white? The truthful answer to this question probably depends on the color of your skin.

The bottom line is people cannot correctly judge other people by how they look or what skin color they have.  Proof of this is people like Moore, me, and the millions of other people who happen to dress as we do, but have nothing to do with gangs, and have no intention to harm another people.


 Even people who have joined gangs can be good people. Some people do it for survival, some do it because of protection, and then there are some who do it because they see some warped sense of glory in that way of life. Think about how the old west once was. Our country has glorified the outlaw culture since the days of Billy the Kid, and in the early 1900's, the Mafia was glamorized on the movie screen. The image of the Italian family still last today.

 It is also up to people to take control of the image they want people to have of them.  People do it for job interviews, and they do it for girlfriends/boyfriends, or many different things.  People control their own image.  Maybe that is the key to changing people’s perception of what it is to be a black male: maybe it is as easy as showing people less images of violence.


Moore suggested showing more images of successful young black men.  That makes sense, and it would help other young people to have goals of education, families, and attainable success.  This in the end will help change the perceptions some people have of members of other races.


There is a lot to talk about, but using the death of a young man to further a political agenda only serves to get in the way of real dialog. This is what I found so disturbing about the way some have handled this tragedy. A person can seek the truth of the situation, and still have empathy for the families involved.


 When we have producers for NBC selectively editing the 911 call to make it look like Zimmerman is a racist, there is a agenda.  When the media fails to wait until facts are known before they start throwing words like hate crime around, they do no one any favors.  I think we should all agree that justice is wanted in this case, but we cannot have that unless we know the truth.


The other day Ed Shultz of MSNBC claimed that Conservatives were sticking up for George Zimmerman.  This is not helpful at all, when all that is being said by the likes of Hannity is that we do not have the facts yet, and for people to use this for a political agenda, is not helpful.  Now there is a difference from protecting the truth, and Protecting Zimmerman. I've not hear anyone on Fox News claim they know what happened. You can listen to the video Shultz played to make his case here.


The issue that many have is this. Racism is a serious charge. Hate crimes need to be dealt with harshly. This country has come to far to have the few take the many back 50 years.  Considering that no one at the time knew what had happened that night, and we still do not know, this is why people were asking for some of the Congresspeople to tone it down.


This is the second part to a three part series about "Race in America." The third part will be done in the next week or so.