This is going to be a very hard one to write, but someone has to do it.
Black news and information reporting, Black journalism, and even Black blogging and vlogging has been seriously lacking something vitally needed in the Black community, and that is accurate and steadfast news reporting that strikes at the hearts and minds of those who are bold enough to read it.
That said, Urban Intellectuals (UI) has been at the forefront of “chance-taking,” and we have printed vetted articles as well as “test” articles to see who is paying attention to what, why, and what, exactly, our readers are looking for.
The unfortunate news is that so-called “celebrity” news gets the most attention, whether it is true or not; political news gets the least attention, and “religious” or spiritually-oriented news gets just a bit more attention than political news, even though not by much.
The good news is that UI is at the cutting edge of risk-taking in information reporting in the Black community and is one of only a hand full of Black media out here in the digital world that doesn’t think the most important thing it can report is some social elite affair with photo opps standing next to celebrities.
Because we believe in tilting the balance in order to “unslant” mainstream media, which is all white-privileged and anti-Black all the time, our responsibility is to make certain that the side of the story that you will never hear in white-owned media is told and told with any regard to political ‘correctness’. News that is slanted and biased against the Black community must be slanted back the other way by those who know us and know our issues and the challenges that we face; not by those who do not have a clue, but swear that they do.
We –Black America, that is– has not been reported on in any politically diverse manner in the mainstream media, so it is not our responsibility to walk on eggshells and run scared from every news reporting challenge that demands that we do more than worry about which white people or high-faluting Negro we’re going to offend if we tell the story the way it should have been told in the first place.
We’re highly unorthodox and unapologetic about it. If white America can reserve the right to be racist, we can reserve the right to oppose it and expose it for what it is.
That makes our position as Black journalists, writers, bloggers, and information reporters precarious … some of us have seen everything from insults to intimidation to threats … and all it tells us is that we MUST BE DOING A HELLUVA JOB, or no one would be paying that much attention.
As Black Journalists, we’ve always believed that if we have to get down in the dirt and say things that challenge Black people to think and at the same time, let white people know that we are UNAPOLOGETICALLY Black all the time, all day every day, and will not be made to fear by the likes of a mainstream race-mongering media entity that can’t tell a decent story about Black Americans without getting it all or mostly wrong on all counts, then so. be. it.
We often have no choice but to take the responsibility of pulling ourselves out of the throes of the madding crowd and telling a naked king that he simply is not wearing clothes. We often have no choice but to jump in and swim the other way. We often have no choice but to tell our truths, and our facts, our way, or we will never have our voices heard or even be thought of as important enough to listen to.
As writers, we take full responsibility for getting the right information to the last generation of Black Americans who are going to preserve our legacy as a people, or sit back and allow it to die out. This is even the last generation left that can file that necessary class action lawsuit and demand for reparations, prove it, and make it stick.
The choice is ours to make, and ours alone; but the Black media’s responsibility is to vehemently protect that legacy -Black History, then, now, and later on- at all costs, in alignment with the fact that the truth will not only set us free, but will make us all bleed to death until that freedom is complete, has run the gamut, and has gone entirely full circle.
If the Black Press around the nation is afraid to do it because of who they owe money to, it is still a job that has to be done, regardless. There is no more time left for debate.
REFERENCES
Net Neutrality and the Black Bloggers Sector of American Society
Well , on my mind right now , without looking at any news sight regardless of color is the Fratricide in Chicago and when do we unite to end it , after we see the death tolls and numbers of Black family shot each weekend! Another thing on my mind is what Black organizations, leaders or millionaires , will be going to South Carolina to assist the Gullah community, there , after the devestation of Florence, and what do we do collectively to get , the Black community in Flint, some in house fllters so they can cook food and at least bathe, while they wait for the foot dragging of getting new pipes !
Those are three issues I have not seen addressed on any Social Media or Black News website!
So Fall Equinox 2018….I have no idea of what so called “Black Journalism” is anymore!