So unless you’ve been living under a rock (or don’t read black news sources) you are familiar with the plight of the Jena Six. With the Revs. Jackson and Sharpton entering the fray it now appears as if this travesty of justice will get more media coverage, and hopefully the increased transparency will result in the Six being exonerated.
But I’ve been trying to wrap my head around this a bit,
And what stands out to me is the Shaquanda Cotton case. It seems to me that this was a clear example in which the media was brought to bear, and justice was served, before Sharpton and Jackson appeared on the scene. In fact, Sharpton HAD committed but by the time he had, the decision about Shaquanda was already made.
I was trying to come up with an analogy for the role I think Sharpton and Jackson are playing here.
Ambulance chasers doesn’t work.
Rainmakers does.
I do not believe that Sharpton and Jackson participate in any event that is unlikely to garner media coverage, unlikely to generate victories, and unlikely to give them credit for the victory. I wish there were a way to test this empirically.
I think it is a shame that they are just now getting on board. I can see the drama playing out on CNBC & Fox in my head now.
Racial tensions in the news will be high. Looking forward to a positive ending!
I wonder what Obama thinks???
Bygbaby
I moved from KC to New Orleans about three months ago so the Jena case has a local interest for me. Thanks for posting this.
Folks already can see, quite empirically and conceptually, the bankruptcy of Jackson/Sharpton politics, I think. Most if not all the young black folks I have talked with about this subject agree. It seems that its the older generations of blacks who have some lingering feeling of respect because of their historical tie to Civil Rights.
I am sure there is a way to test the Sharpton/Jackson “rainmaking” tendancies empirically, though it would probably need triangulation of methodologies. At the very least a Lexus-Nexus search of any news mention, along with past copies of scheduled apperances, then have someone do a content analasys for times mentioned in an article, or amount of actual air time durring a news segment.
Find out how much coverage any apperance got, by how many news outlets, for how many days, etc. and assign a value for each ‘event’ – so, hypothetically, Sharpton on The Daily Show around the 2004 Democratic convention would probably be worth less than the coverage of the Tawana Brawley case.
Of course, this is just off the top of my head. Sounds like a project you’d need a few Grad Students to help with as the data pool is so vast.
as i think about it there is a way to get at this that would be rough. look at local vs. national coverage…the argument being that the presence of one of the rainmakers would make national coverage more likely.
there are still problems here though. the shaquanda cotton case for example got one instance of national coverage and probably received NO local coverage until after she was freed. I’m thinking the same thing for the jena six case.
and further both jackson and sharpton “cherry pick”. how to account for the fact that both of them are in effect choosing cases on the likelihood of rain?
Yah know, the more I think about it, I’m not sure you can prove that they pick items for their rain potential, unless you got some insider interviews. There is the possibility of finding corolation between stories that have a slant towards “Look, Racism is happening here!”, how much press they get vs their participation of Sharpton and Jackson.
Case in point, the Amadou Diallo shooting made news in New York. Did it get to be _National_ news before or after Sharpton and Jackson made comments on it? It seems, at least over the past 5-10 years that an event will hit the news before they jump on it, no longer being leaders, but cheer leaders. (Perhaps as a result of past jumping to conclusions scandals?) But this is my perception as someone deeply entrenched in white middle class suberbia. The reality might be they come in before I ever see it on the news.
this is the reality as i understand it. and this is why the phrase works right? they have a sense of what issues are going to blow up without blowing up in their faces. they then come to the scene with the cameras following them. they do cherry pick.
I am finally seeing the media for what it is. Marching in Jena awakened me. The media follows Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton and thrust them in the spot light when it is convinientent.The media undermines them mis quote’s them and then offers them up as our only leaders. Believe it or not they did not organize the march in Jena it was Michael Baisden a radio host. All of the credit and spotlight was put on Jessie and Al. We are waking up, we are not falling for these tactics anymore.
hat it is.
Kemi,
I’m glad you’re coming to such conclusions and I hope your sentiments reflect the dominant or, at least, a growing tendency within the hip-hop generation towards official society in general including, but definitely not limited to, the media.
I would stress equally, that Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have a vested interest in the status quo. They are a mouthpiece of the new multiracial ruling class, regardless of how progressive they are in words.
Furthermore, progressivism is not antagonistic to capitalism, for it is quite easy to absorb that which does not challenge the existing system’s legitmacy. The most it can do is simply ask for a change in laws and in the present office holders which, again, in no way calls into question the structure of capitalism as a whole.
As for the media, there is a quote from a favorite book of mine called Detroit: I Do Mind Dying (Lester, you may have read it) that reads, “The forces around DRUM (the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement, an independent organization of black auto workers in the Dodge Main plant in Detroit) were never sympathetic to the notion of manipulating the established media because they believed that the media could publicize any number of revolutionary acts without threatening the established power structure. By giving some exposure to radical ideas, especially those which were moral and cultural rather than economic, the media solidified the liberal mystique of open debate and discussion of challenging ideas.”
I think what should be added is that the media is simply an informational/ideological superstructure for the prevailing order, not the independent “fourth estate” it proclaims itself to be.
One of the first questions I and others I know asked after the Thursday demonstration was why aren’t people traveling en masse to New Orleans to show their solidarity with them? If that is not the most recent and glaringly example of systematic racism and barbarism, I don’t know what is.
Additionally, what was the point of the demonstration if all people can do is just pack up and go home at the end of the day? Of course, people have lives, jobs, and schools to return to so I’m certainly not pointing the finger at any one person. This is more of a movement-related question.
Kemi, I’d like to know some of the ideas that were floating around at the demonstration. What were people’s politics and what did they hope to accomplish?
That’s all I got. Peace.
The protest in Jena was an awakening of the Black community. It showed that even though we have been sleep walking for the past 20 years. We slept through Katrina, we slept through our men being imprisoned at alarming rates, We slept through the education system failing our children, but we are now awake and ready for action and we are in it for the long haul.
Most of us knew that this would be a long fight. The protest was a show of solidarity in the black community. Our black men really made me proud, there were more black men there than women. The youth showed they were on board. This march proved to us as black people that we can do it we do not have to wait until the media decides this is something important before we act. We do not have to wait on Oprah or any of the other prominent black figures to act. The protest showed us that we are all in and no one accord now it is time to plan. Trust me no one thought one march would solve all of our problems, or even free Michael Bell. It was just the begging of what is to come.
Krisna I understand you questioning why we did not march after the Katrina debacle. I also understand those who question where are Oprah and others.
I have loved and been inspired by Oprah for as long as I can remember. Yes, I am hurt and sad that Oprah and other prominent black leader have not spoken out on this and many many other issues that effect the black community. But I have come to a new awakening after marching in Jena yesterday. The march transcended the Jena six, it is about all injustices. During the journey to Jena and during the protest we exchanged stories and experiences, so many personal stories that were similar to this case and much worse. An awakening is beginning. We must seize the moment!
This movement in the Black commuity is not over by a long shot, I know the riders on the nine buses that left my town and also the local HBCU, and also the many people who showed up to see us off and let us know that they were with us even though they could not go, we are creating a network to dicuss the issues and make a plan of things we can do both nationaly and locally. Everyone is dedicated to this.
I have come to realize that we can no longer wait for someone else to act or do something. We can’t ignore it anymore. We must all join together black and white to fight injustice. We can not wait on Oprah, instead of wasting energy on tearing her down, or convincing her to act we must support those that are ready and willing like Michael Baisden who organized the protest in Jena.
We do not have time to question why we did not act earlier, we also do not have time to convince those who do not understand the movement or are afraid to join. We must roll on with the movement and don’t worry others will either have to catch up or move out of the way.
Remember Dr. King was just a man, just like each of us. He dedicated his life to mobilizing and doing everything he could to fight injustice the same way each of us has the opportunity to take up the mantel and do everything we personally can to join and advance the movement.