Black Leaders Want Local Media to Stop Reporting Crimes (Pittsburgh: safe neighborhood, to live in)

[BrianTH]

The thing is, in most places, including most of the Pittsburgh area, violent crime is not a frequent event on an individual level, and it is even less frequent if you look specifically at violent crimes not involving criminal co-conspirators or other people you know (friends, lovers, or relatives).

I wouldn't go so far as to say the news media shouldn't report on violent crime at all, but I do think the way our media wallows in violent crime gives people a distorted sense of what is going on in their environment, and indeed a distorted sense of the greatest risks most individual people face.

[TechieTransplant]

Originally Posted by zip95

Your own, my own... us and them. Wonderful to have you here Scott. Some feelings run deep in you, don't they?

You and Pitts10yrs are great examples; small town upbringings in NW Pennsyltucky always seem to equate to strong feelings about certain types of people.

I call things just like I see them. It gets old hearing a race who basically has the world in their hands continuing to complain about lack of opportunities and bad press. Life's tough.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by scottrpriester

I call things just like I see them. It gets old hearing a race who basically has the world in their hands continuing to complain about lack of opportunities and bad press. Life's tough.

You told thread posters to preach to their own. You're lumping law abiding citizens in with criminals. Posters here aren't criminals.

The very fact you feel this way is THE REASON black leaders are calling for more balanced representation in the media.

The criminals aren't "their own" any more than you are "my own."

I'd be offended if anyone lumped me into a group with you.

If the media only portrayed whites as racist, I'd want more balanced representation.

My point is probably going right over your head.

[captaincatfish]

Originally Posted by scottrpriester

I call things just like I see them. It gets old hearing a race who basically has the world in their hands continuing to complain about lack of opportunities and bad press. Life's tough.

And as a member of said race with the world basically in its' hands, I just want to ask...what Cracker Jack box did you pull that jive out of?

You know what gets old? People sitting jut-jawed and red-faced in front of their computers, hollering like a stuck pig about 'life's tough!' and spitting out worn-out cliches and stereotypes, and then going forward to paint an ENTIRE race of people with the same brush...

Let me educate you further...there are enormous numbers of educated, intelligent, upwardly mobile, non-stereotypical black folk out here, not just in Pittsburgh, but in my neck of the woods too (Southwest Ohio)...we haven't asked for ONE D**N THING a day in our lives, ain't robbed banks, dealt dope, had babies out of wedlock, etc etc etc...so why is it such a big deal that we might want to hear something besides what 'Ray-Ray, Pookie, and them' did?

I for one get sick as hell of all the constant negativity in the media, and I don't see a dadgum thing wrong with trying to give someone black who may be wavering toward the 'dark side' an incentive to better themselves, and their neighborhoods/communities, by seeing that (gasp!) there ARE blacks out here who have made it and are making a difference, even as we speak...

But no, all we get are people who act like they're gonna spontaneously combust at their PC's from all the pent-up attitude, bellowing about 'life's tough', and basing their opinions of the black community on a steady, unrelenting diet of 'Ray-Ray Pookie and Them' in the papers, and on the Nightly News...

If those black leaders can make a difference by persuading the media to put forth a little positivity, and in turn inspire those who might think there's no way out to get up off THEIR hind-ends and make a difference, then I say go for it...but sitting around yapping about 'life's tough' because things don't go according to how YOU want them, ain't gonna get you any extra mayo on your steak sandwich...not today, not tomorrow, not next week

[TechieTransplant]

Originally Posted by Hopes

You told thread posters to preach to their own. You're lumping law abiding citizens in with criminals.

I'm telling law abiding blacks who have made good of their life to preach to the rest of their race who have not. Not me, or the press.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by soniqV

Call me cold, but I don't watch the news for fluffy feel-good human interest stories. More often than not they feel less than relevant to my life. I WANT to know the bad stuff that's going down, whoever's doing it. If that's a problem for any given community (be it a race, sexual orientation, neighborhood, union, whatever), the impetus should be on them to be proactive in fighting it from within, not the media to change the fluff that surrounds it.

I like the mountain/molehill comparison made by some, I'm just going to reframe it a bit.
Molehill: fundraisers and cleanups
Mountains: robberies and murders

But here is a question I have to pose: What do us African-Americans who aren't criminals, who are hardworking and decent people, get out of it? How does the media help OUR image when all that is presented on TV is negative stuff? My issue is that many people fail to realize the effect this has on African-Americans who are doing good things, who strive for education, who aren't criminals. How does it help people like ME, captaincatfish, and persons like us?

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by scottrpriester

I'm telling law abiding blacks who have made good of their life to preach to the rest of their race who have not. Not me, or the press.

But the burden is also on you. It is on you to take all people as individuals and NOT to stereotype people.

I look at this from a historical perspective. African-Americans have been historically represented as less than human or in a degrading way. For this reason, what you just said is no different that what has been said over the past 300 years.

And if I should preach to "my people", I should also preach to you and the media, as you are also part of the issue, as well as the media. If improvement is to be expected from African-Americans, it ought to be expected from White people and the media as well.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Originally Posted by green_mariner

If improvement is to be expected from African-Americans, it ought to be expected from White people and the media as well.

Wait, what?

[captaincatfish]

Originally Posted by scottrpriester

I'm telling law abiding blacks who have made good of their life to preach to the rest of their race who have not. Not me, or the press.

Last time I looked, freedom of speech was still relevant in this country...you have the right to speak, true, but so do those 'law-abiding blacks' or any-dang-body else whose opinion doesn't mirror yours...

Again...if the black leaders in Pittsburgh want to work with the media to help form a more positive image in and for the black community there, then I like the concept...

But here's the kicker...you don't control the press, the black community in Pittsburgh, the white community in Pittsburgh, or much of anything else for that matter...if the press wants to report on this or any other situation, then they will do so without the need of your permission or blessing...don't want to hear it? Invest in noise-cancelling headphones...cancel your subscriptions to newspapers...turn off your tv and radio, and cancel your internet service...

Your sitting somewhere behind a PC, and jumping up and down like a kangaroo with itching powder in its' pouch, because people have the temerity to actually do something you can't control or censor, means little or nothing in the real world...

This isn't the old Temptations song, where you 'put your finger in the ground and make the whole world turn around'...people are going to 'preach' about stuff whether you like it or not, so you either need to learn to deal, or leave the room

[TechieTransplant]

Originally Posted by captaincatfish

Last time I looked, freedom of speech was still relevant in this country...you have the right to speak, true, but so do those 'law-abiding blacks' or any-dang-body else whose opinion doesn't mirror yours...

Yep, but when you aren't preaching to who you should be, what good are you doing? I grew up very middle, middle class. My father worked in a factory all of his life. Through my own desire, I wanted better, and got it. Pass that lesson on.