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Turning Racial Language Upside Down

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CNN’s Jim Acosta reports that the issue of race, fueled by conservative commentators, has entered the debate over Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor (Video)

Why Do Media Let Newsmakers Get Away With It?

“The last time Rush Limbaugh talked to an Hispanic woman, it was his maid getting him his drugs.

“And yet Rush and his ilk have come up with a name for the first Hispanic on the Supreme Court, a Supreme Court that has been 99 percent white men for 200 years; and that name is ‘reverse racist.’ She is a racist and someone has to stop her because for too long white men have been kept down by powerful Puerto Rican women.”

Comedian Bill Maher delivered those lines last week on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” in discussing the Supreme Court nomination of federal appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor, and they were excerpted Sunday in a recap of the week’s political jokes on ABC-TV’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos.

Maher’s riff was a refreshing cut-to-the-chase about the tactic of using the word “racist” outside of its actual meaning, a calling-out that most of the journalists on the Sunday shows were unwilling or unable to do.

The journalists’ response seemed to be simply to play soundbites of the accusations and have others comment.

On CNN’s “State of the Union,” for example, John King aired¬†this passage from conservative talk-show host Limbaugh:

“So, here you have a racist. You might want to soften that and you might want to say a reverse racist. And the libs, of course, say that minorities cannot be racists because they don’t have the power to implement their racism. Well, those days are gone, because reverse racists certainly do have the power to implement their power. Obama is the greatest living example of a reverse racist, and now he’s appointed one.”

The Sunday television talk shows – lacking any Latino guests or panelists, incidentally – gave viewers their fill of controversial quotes from Sotomayor, the first Latino nominee for the Supreme Court. Some, such as PBS’ Gwen Ifill, appearing on “This Week,” did point out that Sotomayor was being defined by her ethnicity in a way that white nominees never were.

But by and large, Republican guests were asked whether they agreed with Limbaugh and former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich that Sotomayor was a racist, or with Pat Buchanan that she was an “affirmative action hire.”

Democrats defended the federal judge as simply trying to explain that a Latina would bring a different life experience to the Supreme Court. Republicans countered that life experiences should have no bearing on a justice’s opinions.

It wasn’t until Monday on Washington’s local “Kojo Nnamdi Show,” it seemed, that someone seriously addressed the choice of language, rather than ask only whether one agreed with it.

Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguist at the University of California at Berkeley, told WAMU-FM substitute host Rebecca Roberts that in the 1960s and ’70s, “the right took over the language of the civil rights movement and treated them as if they were neutral words and had no context.”

Thus, the attempt to give the words “color-blind,” “racism,” “empathy,” “affirmative action” and even “civil rights” different meanings.

“Racism” used to be, as Webster’s New World dictionary says in its second definition, “any program or practice of racial discrimination, segregation, etc., specif., such a program or practice that upholds the political or economic domination of one race over another or others.” The word since has been applied to any act of prejudice or bigotry, real or imagined.¬† Moreover, “reverse discrimination” was coined to assert an equivalence between efforts to address injustice with the injustice itself.

Nunberg wrote about this tactic in his colorfully titled 2006 book, “Talking Right: How Conservatives Turned Liberalism into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak Show.”

“The art of political language is to alter and expand the meanings of symbols without letting on that the symbols retain their ability to stir feelings,” he wrote. “Once a word acquires a purely symbolic power, it can be used to create an impression of similarity between two things that are actually very different in their natures, simply because they share a name. This is the process marketers exploit when they acquire once-lustrous brands like Lancia, Godiva, Fisher Stereo, or Ambercrombie and Fitch and attach them to downscale product lines in the hope that their connotations will persist . . .

“In recent years, the right’s boldest use of this strategy has been in appropriating the language of the civil rights era. When that language first entered the received moral vocabulary, it signaled the triumph of liberal ideals of social justice in the face of conservative resistance and foot-dragging. Now the right has repurposed it to stoke resentments about race and religion, while liberals are left to thrash around for a new script,” he continued.

“. . . That’s how conservatives have generally modified the rhetoric of the civil rights era, deploying it to defend the privileges of their strongest constituency, white male Americans.”

That some of these appropriated phrases and changed meanings have seeped into the language is testament to the failure of journalists to keep the record straight. That shortcoming was on display again during the Sunday shows.

Arnold Garcia Jr., editorial page editor of the Austin American-Statesman, got it instantly. When Journal-isms asked him about the responsibility of the news media amid these covert language assaults, he wrote:

“My immediate reaction is that we in the media often let the sources hijack the dialogue. The criticism about bias – much overblown – has got the industry on the defensive and quite sensitive to any accusation of ‘censorship.’

“Those of who live in dark skins and have felt racism’s bite are amused – not impressed – when rich, privileged elites like Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich squeal about ‘reverse racism.’ What’s their point of reference? Watching a movie about it? What have they ever been denied on account of their race? Reporters don’t think to ask that and they should ask when someone starts pounding the podium about ‘reverse racists.’ Does the speaker really know what he’s talking about? Or is he just talking?”

Images of Black Men Called Factor in Police Shooting

In New York, “A plainclothes policeman who drew his gun while chasing someone he had found rummaging through his car was shot and killed by a fellow officer who was driving by and saw the pursuit, the police commissioner said,” as Jennifer Peltz wrote¬†for the Associated Press. The plainclothes officer was black, the shooter white.

Meanwhile, Bonnie Sweeten of suburban Philadelphia faked a kidnapping of herself and her 9-year-old daughter, police said, then fled to Disney World in the midst of serious financial troubles. She said the kidnappers were black men.

Amid the justifiable outrage, some see further evidence of the negative image of black men at work.

One is Eric Adams, a 22-year veteran of the New York Police Department and the co-founder of 100 Blacks In Law Enforcement Who Care. He appeared on National Public Radio’s “Tell Me More” on Monday.

“Here’s the point here that I think we’re missing,” he said in the discussion of the New York “friendly fire” shooting.

“The incidents like this, clock time are seconds. Clock time ‚Äî when you look at the clock on the wall it happens in seconds. But mind time is a lifetime. The mind processes information not in seconds but nanoseconds or even probably smaller denominations. So when I approach someone, I’m bringing with me everything in my life, everything that I’ve been taught, all of my personal experiences. We’re not training to that, we’re training to the clock seconds and not the mind time, which is a vast number of time. And so it’s more than just the shootings that is impacting race, it is also ‚Äî you sit in your radio car every day, 125th Street, which is a predominantly black area ‚Äî

“All day long you’re hearing those who committed crimes, male black, male black, male Hispanic, male black, male black. By the time you get out of that car to take action on that three-second incident you have already spent the entire year, the entire day, the entire lifetime of what your opinion is of a criminal, male black. Now you see him with a gun. That gun pushes you into all that lifetime experience that you’ve taken action, not on that three seconds but your lifetime experience, and we’re not training to that.

“. . . police did not create the racial stereotypes that exist in society, but we have to police in it.”

Adams called for bringing in scholars, criminologists, sociologists and psychologists to say, “here’s the parameters that we have to police in, here’s what our police officers are taking in their thoughts.” How do we train police in that environment? And he didn’t say it, but of course we should ask what role the media play in creating that lifetime of black-male images.

In the New York Daily News, columnist Errol Louis added this:

“An onslaught of gangsta rap and other cultural garbage bolsters the bias. We pay a heavy price by letting racist imagery, words and accusations slosh around society unchecked and unchallenged. In the tense, split-second needed to separate a cop from a crook on a dark street, those myths may have cost a good man his life.”

Captive Journalists’ Families Believe They Apologized

The two American journalists being held in North Korea on spy charges almost certainly have apologized if they crossed the border from South Korea, their families said Monday on NBC’s “Today” Show.

Journalist Lisa Ling, the imprisoned Laura Ling‘s sister, appeared along with their parents, Mary and Douglas; Laura Ling’s husband, Iain Clayton, the imprisoned Euna Lee‘s husband, Michael Saldate, and their four-year-old daughter, Hannah.

Lisa Ling told the Committee to Protect Journalists that relatives have sent a letter to North Korean authorities, saying the women made a mistake if they had crossed into North Korea.

“Today” host Matt Lauer asked, “Do we know if while they’ve been in the custody of the North Koreans they have attempted a similar apology saying if we made an error, we’re sorry? Or has that had any impact?”

Lisa Ling said, “Absolutely.”

Mary Ling said, “Absolutely. I think ‚Äî I think they have. The letter that Laura sent to us she had said that. I’m sure she had apologized, too.”

Lisa Ling: “And we’re certain they have.”

Michael Saldate: “And Euna as well. I mean, she . . . “

Mary Ling: “Yeah.”

Lauer: “So they’re not standing on ceremony here. They’re not holding some sort of ‚Äî their ground out of pride reasons here. If they made a mistake, they’re willing to admit that mistake.”

Lisa Ling: “Absolutely.”

Saldate: “Yes.”

Lisa Ling: “And we apologize on their behalf as well. And we are very concerned. I mean, you know, Euna has a beautiful four-year-old daughter who has been without a mother now for almost three months and our sister has ‚Äî my sister has an ulcer that requires medical condition and it’s been long enough. It’s been almost three months.”

North Korea plans to try the journalists on Thursday. Lisa Ling was to appear on CNN’s “Larry King Show” Monday and on Anderson Cooper’s CNN program on Wednesday.

“Bitterly Ironic” Award to Huffington Questioned

“And the award for the Most Bitterly Ironic Media Award goes to . . . the Fred Dressler Lifetime Achievement Award, to be bestowed upon Arianna Huffington by Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at the upcoming Mirror Awards luncheon in Manhattan,” Simon Dumenco wrote Monday for Ad Age.

“Congratulations, Arianna!

“Now please excuse me as I crawl under my desk and curl into the fetal position.”

“Really, the school ‚Äî which exists to train journalists ‚Äî should know better than to honor a woman who thinks journalists should work for free!

“Funny how the fact that The Huffington Post fails to pay most of its bloggers didn’t come up when Newhouse Dean Lorraine Branham gushed about the blog mistress in a prepared statement: ‘Arianna Huffington was ahead of the curve with HuffPo. She embraced the use of new media but never forgot that no matter where or how you tell the story, content is still king. This is what we teach our students.'”

Branham messaged Journal-isms that she learned of Dumenco’s piece just as she was departing for a cross-country flight and was discussing a response with the school’s public relations person.

CNN’s U.S. News Chief Acknowledges Ratings Decline

Jonathan Klein, president of CNN’s U.S. operations, has acknowledged that its prime-time lineup, which includes Anderson Cooper and, recently, Roland Martin as maternity-leave substitute for Campbell Brown, is taking a ratings hit.

“While averaging 1.26 million viewers in January, according to Nielsen, Brown‚Äôs show brought in just an average of just 786,000 in April. And that number is expected to drop again in May, given that the audience on several nights this month fell below 500,000,” Michael Calderone reported Monday in Politico.

“Klein acknowledged the recent decline, but said it indicated that the audience missed Brown while away. Whether viewers return should be apparent soon enough: Brown‚Äôs back at the anchor desk on Monday night, and the show tapped a new executive producer, Janelle Rodriguez.

“Current and former CNN staffers, though, say there‚Äôs definite concern inside about how Cooper and Brown are faring against the competition.

“Brown‚Äôs show has been billed as the antidote to Fox‚Äôs ‘The O‚ÄôReilly Factor’ ‚Äî which continues to gain viewers post-Inauguration” ‚Äî and MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann. “But her show’s lack of traction begs the question of whether there’s a way to bring in ratings without the ideologically slanted hosts that have pulled in partisan viewers on the left and right.”

 

 

President Obama bends over so the son of a White House staff member can pat his head during a family visit to the Oval Office early last month. The youngster wanted to see if the president’s haircut felt like his own, the White House said. On May 17, Obama spoke at Notre Dame. (Credit: White House/Pete Souza)

Obama Turned Down Morehouse for Notre Dame

Morehouse College has confirmed that it extended an invitation for President Obama to address the college on May 17, but the White House still refuses to say whether Morehouse or other historically black colleges asked the president to speak.

“Our Commencement was the same day as Notre Dame. We were apparently on the ‘short list,’ but ultimately they chose Notre Dame,” Morehouse spokeswoman Elise Durham told Journal-isms. It was at Notre Dame that Obama delivered an address that attempted to bridge a gap between those who consider themselves pro-life and those who are pro-choice.

As reported¬†on Friday, April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks asked White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs at a May 18 press briefing, “Did the president receive any invitations from any HBCUs to be the commencement speaker?”speaking of historically black colleges and universities.

Gibbs replied, “I’d have to ask the scheduling office. I don’t ‚Äî I don’t know what we ‚Äî what we were invited to and what we didn’t accept. I simply know what ‚Äî what we have accepted and how I spent my Sunday.”

DeWayne Wickham of Gannett News Service and USA Today wrote that he asked the question of both press aide Corey Ealons and Gibbs. Wickham wrote, “Imagine that. The list of black schools that asked Obama to give a commencement address is a state secret.”

Ealons told Journal-isms on Monday, “the White House does not generally comment on declined invitations.”

Prosecutors Rule Out Death Penalty in Bailey Killing

“Prosecutors won’t seek the death penalty against former Your Black Muslim Bakery leader Yusuf Bey IV and another man in the 2007 killing of journalist Chauncey Bailey and two other men, a lawyer said Friday,” Thomas Peele reported.

“The decision was disclosed in the chambers of Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson during a meeting of lawyers involved in the case, said attorney Duffy Carolan, who was present.

“Carolan represents The Chauncey Bailey Project, which is seeking to have grand jury transcripts in the case unsealed and a provisional gag order lifted.”

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