(Image: Racism typeface via Shutterstock)Also see: Racism and Criminalization in the Media
Back in the mid 1990s, Dinesh D’Souza wrote a book with the provocative title, The End of Racism. His assertion was that if racism has a beginning, it can also end. Ending racism is an ideal that certainly crosses political lines, but the process of getting to that end…well, that’s where the differences between progressives and conservatives start to show.
The power of the White Citizens’ Council, the Klan, the Dixiecrats and, most importantly, laws that legalized racism in the United States has been diminished since the mid-’60s. Does this signal the “end” of racism? Hardly. To understand modern day racism and the way in which it reinforces social hierarchies based on skin color, language, religion and culture, I spoke to Truthout writer, Bethania Palma Markus. Markus wrote a piece entitled, “Racism and Criminalization in the Media” where she takes on the subtle and not-so-subtle depictions of race in the media. Paula Deen’s idealization of southern plantation life, the coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing and the people profiling in news stories serve to reinforce social hierarchies through a softer (but no less effective) kind of racial coding of African-Americans, Latinos, Arab-Americans and Asian-Americans and their “place” in society.
Race is an artificial construct. Yet, the power of racism lies in a time-tested media tactic that’s used to sell us everything from soap to war to the belief that whites currently suffer the same kind of racial discrimination as African-Americans. What is that tactic? Simply put, a message needs time and frequency to penetrate the consciousness of a target audience. Or to put it another way: people will start to believe a message repeated over a long period of time.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
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