There's a problem when people are getting most of their news from ESPN. I'm sitting here with my friend's brother. His older brother is channel surfing and he lands on ESPN. As they are talking about basketball trades and hockey scores I realize that to too many people, ESPN contains what they deem "news" in this country. But more importantly, are they wrong? In a time where the legal matters of basketball stars and Paris Hilton getting out of jail are not just covered on tabloid TV or the sports/entertainment section the news. But are breaking news, not just around the country but, international news! What does it say about a country when both O.J.'s trail AND a presidential address are both considered, national, show stopping, staying home from work to see, extra long lunch break, hurry up and be quite events??!!
I recently have adopted a new mantra "Distraction is everywhere, FOCUS!!!" I interpret that to mean that the world is a distraction. It is a puzzle in the form of distraction and if you can work out this puzzle you have the power. For example, lets use rims, and jewelry and clothes and we can't leave out cars... Gotta keep 'em spinnin', right?!?!... sike*. Black folks spend all their time focusing on the distractions. Almost sounds ridiculous doesn't it, that somebody would choose to focus on a distraction, something that by nature is designed to take your attention OFF what's important... We spend all our spare time trying to attain these things like tons of new clothes, cars, and cell phones that do a lot of stuff but you can't actually make a call cause the shit gets bad service. You can go to the moon on a cell phone now, but try to make a call on it... Static like a MOTHERFUCKER. Mean while, as we focus on all this distractions we neglect the stuff we are actually SUPPOSED to be doing like raising our kids, our women, families, education, and how the hell we are going to maintain all these superfluities of life that we indulge in before we have the means to take care of them. All that is distraction, things DELIBERATELY set in place to keep our minds working on things that have nothing to do with the rules that govern our lives, politics, and polices that keep us struggling as a people. We ignore all these things in pursuit of these distractions that are DELIBERATELY PLACED TO KEEP OUR MINDS WONDERING OFF what's important.
Now, white folks on the other hand. Well the ones that got the memo, all look like bums, don't drive huge SUV's, no rims, and they'd be dead before they buy a grill or bling... But they have an 8 figure savings account, own property and network with the law makers and politicians because they have learned to block out the distractions. They are raised to know that all those things are for niggers/spics or just insert any poor, underrepresented populations there. They are raised to know what investing is, why it's good to save now and research before you buy things. Little white kids learn this stuff before they can hold their heads up; save your money, plan for the future, WORK SMART NOT HARD!"
Back to my original point about distractions however... Black people are, right now, in a constant state of being distracted by cars, by money, by "bling", by WHITE PEOPLE, but more hurtfully, by ONE ANOTHER. In an attempt at sounding extremely cliché to point my point; we are the proverbial "Crabs in a barrel". Constantly pulling each other down in order to rise as individuals. Distracted by something from the fact that the individuals should not be put above the whole. We are a village in a very strange place and should be helping one another. By being distracted and pulling each other down so much when we see somebody getting a little “too much” is not helping, we are operatively keeping the whole down.
So when I see people getting their world news off of ESPN I'm a little concerned about American Priorities and more so that we are picking them up, Black People. What's worse is that CNN prints more retractions then ESPN! I'll let that one Marinate for a little while in your brains. I'ma stop here. I lost myself in my thought tangents on this one... but we need to focus Black people. We need to cut out these distractions and come up! In the words of my man Kanye, "George Bush does NOT like Black people..."
~Head's up, Eyes open, Fist Clenched..."
Reading your blog made me think back to the day I was watching CNN covering the Paris Hilton story. CNN was live with a helicopter over what I assume is the Hilton residence when there was a breaking news story about a change of US military leadership in Iraq. They mentioned it for a few seconds then went back to the Hilton story.
ReplyDeleteAnother part of this is the mere fact that, really, celebrity news focuses around white people - and the only non-whites that get attention are celebrities or sports stars. Why was the OJ trial such a disgusting display of melodramatic news? Because of his prior fame, of course. Why was the Lacey Peterson thing drawn out for over a year? Because she was a middle-class white lady, with a nice middle-class white husband who turned "bad".
ReplyDeleteNever mind the pregnant woman in Lebanon last summer who was sitting in a car when a bomb fired from the Israel Defense Forces hit the vehicle - they found her unborn child blown out of her stomach, literally splattered like a bug on the windshield.
But I mean... that was a brown-skinnned lady. She couldn't possibly be as interesting... or distracting.
I’m at work right now, and I’m trying to type this in between calls so if there are a lot of typo’s then I’m sorry I hope you can still understand what I’m saying Ironically I was just speaking about the whole Paris Hilton scandal to one of my friends. I told her how I thought it was a waste of time and how there are more important things that need to be covered in the news, like what’s going on with Darfur, and Iraq. But no. All I can see when I turn on CNN if interviews with Paris and her experience in Prison… all 3 days of her stay. Conjugal visits last longer than she did! But that’s besides the point. The whole crabs in a barrel analogy might be cliché but it’s accurate. My mother works with pregnant teenagers. Their main concern was not how they were going to support their child to be but whether or not they would be able to go to the latest house party, or how they were going to buy the latest baby phat pair of jeans. What worse are the parents who are contributing to this disfigured value system. They too are concerned about how “fly” they look rather than what they should invest in to get to a higher income bracket if not for them then for their own children. It would be great if education, and the idea of working smart and not hard and LEGALLY were pushed as much as these Jordan’s were there might be hope for the future. At the same time however we as a people also have a responsibility to listed and learn. Since black people have been so conditioned to want all these distractions as stated in the blog we are not always cooperative when someone is trying to educate us on the issues. It’s only when we are forced to ask ourselves questions like what’s more important Gucci purse, and Tim’s or getting a life insurance policy so my children won’t be left out in the cold if I drop dead tomorrow? It’s time to reevaluate people!
ReplyDelete~UB Feminist~
I feel you... sometimes it is hard to realize what the distractions are because they have become so common place that it takes a focus movement (lol) to enlighten the distracted with the reality. I think if people could see how things are set in their path to pull them down then they would become aware and be on a path to success and... (in your words, would have gotten the memo).
ReplyDeleteBecause the majority has a longer history of education and ancestors that were in powerful positions, they have figured this all out and that is why we as a people need to become educated and as you say stick together. What ever happened to United We Stand?
anyways like I said I feel you.