by YAW

Created on: May 09, 2008

The Media Has Got This Wrong-Shame On You

The United States has never had an honest and serious discussion/debate on race relations. There seems to be a great misunderstanding between Black and White people. It seems there is an underlying mistrust among people of both races. Mainstream America including the mass media which are predominantly White are not honest about the country's past history. If you speak the unpopular truth about the ills of America's past, you are shouted down and called unpatriotic.

America will never heal until it has an honest discussion about the ills of it past and its inferior treatment to minorities especially Blacks. The country will never heal until it talks of and make every effort to erase its current racist tendencies towards Black people and make amends of its atrocities towards other countries. It is difficult for the nation to acknowledge past atrocities, but, in order to heal and move forward as a united country it is important to do so. Coming out of the racist Apartheid Era, South Africa recognized that in order to heal itself, it had to examine its Apartheid past. This they did with their Truth and Reconciliation Commission headed by noted Nobel Peace Prize winner, Bishop Desmond Tutu.
The reverend Jeremiah Wright was recently the focus of the news for about a month. The broadcast and cable news media over played sound bites from a church sermon he made the Sunday after the attacks on the United States in September 2001. The media wanted Democratic Presidential Candidate; Senator Barack Obama to answer why he stayed in pastor's church and associated with him for over twenty years. The media claimed that the pastor was a preacher of hatred toward America. Even after Senator Obama explained himself, the media still was not satisfied. On the other hand, Republican Presidential Candidate Designate, Senator John McCain was given a free pass, not having to answer for pronouncements made by pastors who endorsed him such as the late Jerry Falwell, Pastor Haige and Reverend Pat Robertson following the deadly floods in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the brutal attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. Was this selective memory on the part of the media or was it racism? It may be argued that Pastors Falwell, Haige and Robertson were speaking from biblical perspectives when they spoke of the floods of New Orleans and the attacked on the United States in September 2001. But for Pastor Haige to refer to the Roman Catholic

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