Following yet another decision that ruled against Jamar Clark and yet another terrorist attack overseas, there is a harsh reality that keeps getting swept under the rug. To help explain such an idea is a question that sounds like the beginning of a bad joke; what does an evil cop, an evil white supremacist, an evil Middle Eastern terrorist and an evil black man all have in common?
They are all evil.
What is portrayed to us as a host of black and white issues that are simplified into stereotypes and groupings are not as they seem to be. What mainstream, dumbed-down media wants you to believe is this: all cops hate black people, black people are either highly motivated for justice or all criminals, if you’re white you should live in fear of the black race, the Middle East would love for nothing more to pave over our entire country and that nowhere is safe from the onslaught of violence that has faced the world, and this country, over the last few years.
This is not a black or white problem.
We live in a world of grays: somewhere between a documentary mini-series and a reality tv show. We are being force-fed propaganda in order to perpetuate a lifestyle of fear. Now, why on earth would the media ever do this to us? Why would they make us afraid to walk out our doors?
There are plenty of good reasons. During the 1930s, a growing form of entertainment was yellow journalism: a hyper-real, vague journalism which sensationalized news in order to sell papers. This became more and more prevalent throughout the last century as the popular phrase “if it bleeds, it leads” became the operating mantra of almost every big news agency. This was further propelled with the monopolization of almost every major entertainment and newsgroup into six companies that now control around 90 percent of all the media we consume on a daily basis. Furthermore, the development of the 24-hour news cycle has helped in the creation of a streamlined system wherein every story must fit into a 60-second blurb that can be reiterated and re-twisted with the turn of the hour.
We’ve now gotten to a point where big, flashy headlines and sweeping crimes that showcase the pain and misery of the nation are commonplace in almost every household. Now, how did we get to a point in society where this has become a staple in almost every home in America? We have collectively agreed that we will watch it, by watching it. The mainstream media shows news that they know will get them ratings. Don’t be fooled; the news we get is business, the crimes they show is business, the terror they reflect is business. The click bait articles about Sanders or Trump or “The 23 craziest things your ex has done” are purely just reflections of what we want to see.
Let me be extremely frank: do you think that CNN gives airtime to every black teen shot because they care about police brutality? Do you think that Fox gives the time of day to Brussels because terrorism needs to be showcased? Following the argument from point A to B and B to C, we see bad cops, religious terrorists, KKK members and black felons because the media knows that we want to watch it. They streamline and stereotype because it makes it easier for us to watch. They are perpetuating a fear because it gives them more views and more money.
The harsh truth of the matter is this; not all Muslims are terrorist, not all cops kill black teens, not all white people are in the Klan, not all refugees are secret spies, not all immigrants are illegal. The deep desire to lump all who fit the profile into set groups is a hope that we will all continue to be complacent and complicit in this scheme to keep us in fear of what might be out there.
The issues we face as a society are further propelled by this vicious cycle of streamline, repeat, streamline, repeat. The greatest weapon of mass confusion and chaos is making us confused and chaotic. What they don’t want you to really see is the Assad soldiers playing soccer in jubilation, or the great art that is coming out of the Middle East or the black college students banding together to help out those from low-income places, or Quapaw Canoe Company that works to help at-risk kids and to keep them out of gangs. Yes, feel-good stories get a little splash of good ratings, but nothing compared to another black man was arrested or beaten, Trump says something outlandish, some KKK member is marching somewhere or some crazy murder happened within a half an hour of where you live in what gets labeled as a “sketchy neighborhood”.
So, how can we change this? How can we move forward and away from this horrid system?
Turn off your TV.
Stop getting your political news from memes on Facebook and Twitter.
Do some real research on these issues.
Don’t listen to your friend who heard from some person about what’s happening around the world.
Form your own opinion.
These are just a few of the options to begin changing how the world gets viewed. The tragedy of the commons is that there are issues too big for just one person to solve. Yet, if you want to affect some kind of change, you must start out small. There are a million cliches that capture that belief, but you just need to do it. Reading this is a step in the right direction. After you close your browser, do some reading on an independent news website to learn about what’s going on. And convince your friends to do the same.
At the end of the day, we are the ones who are empowering them; we hand over the keys to the kingdom, reigns of the horse, we give them their money and therefore their power. We have the ability to stop that. All it takes is one press of the button, and the rest can be changed.
