I, like any other black person, used to stress out and become outraged, every time the media publicized an unarmed black person being gun down by law enforcement. And I know a lot of black people’s blood pressure went sky-high in 2020. The mainstream media went hardbody with the publicizing of unarmed black people being murdered. We all know the bigoted conservative media will say the unarmed black person deserved to die. “He sneezed and the officer got scared and shot him? Well why didn’t he take his allergy medication? That’s his fault. The officer was just doing his job.”
The liberal media, on the other hand, will defend the unarmed black person and look at black people as their collective charity case and rescue dog. They will hashtag the person and “Justice for Jamal/Keisha Doe” black people to death. They will over cover cop-on-black murders. But they won’t do it because they sincerely care for black people. They do it to pander to us, so they can get us to vote Democrat. Because they know we’ll get worked up when they show a black person being killed or accosted by the po po. They know if they describe a heinous murder of a black person being killed on the mainstream media, and then show the mother, father, sibling, wife, or child crying and grieving them, that will emotionally affect us. They know we as a collective people, are an emotional bunch. Basically, they know what the hell they are doing. Media is designed as a psyop operation.
And they know we associate the Democratic party as the anti-racism party for black people and the Republican party as the racist redneck party- and cornball, square black Sambo party. They know we don’t understand that Democrats are just kinder and more subtle racists than Republicans. So, they understand if they show an act of police brutality or any racist act, and cover it extensively and show liberal analysts condemning it and urging a Democratic vote, we will bring our emotional asses to the polls to vote Democrat again. And then when the said Democratic politician gets in office, they will ignore our concerns and take care of every other of our so-called aggrieved minority partners that they attach on to our struggle- be it women, Hispanics, Asians, or LGBT. They have slowed down the excessive reporting of police brutality now because it is not election time. So, they are doing an intermission.
Police brutality hasn’t stopped. The media simply chooses not to cover it for the moment. They are pushing other agendas now. I always tell fellow black people to wait until election time nears or arrives in 2023 or 2024. They are going to cherry pick an act of police brutality against a black person and encourage black people to be outraged. Then they will gradually ease that conversation into telling us to vote for whichever liberal politician they groomed and chose to pander to black sensitivity to racism. And we will oblige again, and they will ignore the issue and take care of other groups again.
They know if we happen to read a story on our social media timeline or on google of police brutality against a black person and the media doesn’t cover it extensively, our reaction will be slight. We will read it and in passing say, “That’s messed up. They keep killing us.” We will feel an emotion, but it won’t be as intense as if the national media covered it excessively. When they cover it a lot and work our emotions to feel outraged to a higher intensity, we will comply and feel it more intensely. We react when the media tells us to react. We react slightly to an incident if the media chooses to ignore a racist issue.
But the liberal media is doing more than just trying to secure a black vote for their party. This is also an attack on our conscious, emotions and soul. Most people in general, not just black people, have this idea that we are required to watch the news to, “see what’s going on in the world.” (I peek at the deliberate, fear-mongering news to see what they want to convince me is the biggest thing going on in the world and what agenda they are pushing, and what emotion do they want me to have) And it makes us feel informed and intelligent because we know, and followed extensively, the latest tragedy and bad news that society tells us we should be concerned about.
And many of us have an internal dialogue telling ourselves that we are a sociopath if we don’t internalize and personalize the required emotion that the sad news story calls for. And some of us are assholes at the far opposite end of the spectrum that will say “Who cares. It wasn’t me or none of my peoples.” Usually, they’ll have a loved one that will retort, “You’re an asshole. That’s mean to say. It could’ve been you.”
I usually have a happy medium. Sometimes I’ll get internally worked up a bit about a news story. For the most part, I won’t internalize the pain and cry and get supremely outraged (supremely outraged is the key word-still outraged) along with the victim or victim’s family. But I also don’t have the “Oh well. Long as it wasn’t me” mentality. I’ll feel bad and have compassion for the victim of the tragic news from afar, but with a healthy level of detachment.
I recall in the late 90s, my local news reporting multiple sad stories back-to-back. Usually our local news isn’t that bad, but they were on a roll that day. If I remember it correctly, it was something to the effect of… a shark biting a kid’s head off at the beach, and in other news. A man dying falling from a large building working a crane doing construction work, and in other news. A man getting shot to death in his car, and in other news. After awhile, I yelled “Turn from this shit. This is making me depressed.” I suggested we watch a comedy or something light-hearted.
These were general, non-race related, tragic stories. But specifically with police brutality, the media, and our telepathic code of conduct of obligating ourselves to internalize and personalize every sad or racist story, are telling us that black people, and only black people, have to internalize and personalize every story they keep showing of police brutality. That can be taxing on the soul, conscious, subconscious, and overall mental health. We still must be concerned about the non-racial, universal fear-mongering stories that the media talks about. The stories normally consist of different terrorist attacks, mass shootings, sexual assaults, or accusations of it, and the occasional killing of a public figure that they publicize as an accident or natural. The media and our de facto law, says all races have to be concerned, outraged, and saddened about that. But specifically, blacks, have to fear the universal stuff that every other race is required to fear plus fear the constant mental picture of us enduring police brutality. After all, that could’ve been me.
Watch the news here and there to stay aware of what’s actually going on in the world and what the media wants you to think is important and what agendas they are pushing. But emotionally detach while maintaining concern. And I’m speaking about broad stories. As for the race-specific stories, I’ve already stated what we as black people need to do. Organize economically for political gain and raise up and fund the politicians that will look out for our interests. Businesses and money run the politicians, and politicians are the law-makers and they sign the executive orders. Also, get life insurance. I bet when life insurance companies have to pay a lot of money to multiple black families, the unjustifiable police murders will stop or slow down, per the orders of big business. Don’t just cry, grieve, and get angry with the victims when you watch the police brutality news stories that run your blood pressure up. And don’t just complain about how messed up it is. And don’t just vote for some kinder, racist Democratic politician who campaigns and panders to you during election and then ignores you after they get in office or after they lose, and then go back to being self-absorbed with your individual life. Stay aware, but emotionally detach, and organize into positive actions in your community.
