Black Talk Show Hosts Are Comedians

By Lucius Gantt

Is it just me or does it seem to you also that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are being pushed to the curb a little bit?

Once upon a time, so-called civil rights leaders and community activists were often called on to talk about issues that impacted or affected urban American residents and communities.

Nowadays, when I watch CNN, MSNBC, Fox News or other major news networks and news programs, Black radio and TV talk show hosts are invited more to discuss important events.

Personally, I don’t want a clown to explain how I feel about the trials and tribulations of being Black in America! Nor do I want modern-day Chicken Georges, Jezebels, Sambos and Toms analyzing what roads my people should take in their quests for equal rights, justice, freedom and political respect!

This is just my opinion but most Black talk show hosts are comedians! They are entertainers! They love to laugh at Black people and Black suffering.

I love a good joke as much as anybody but Black progress is not a joke. Economic independence is not a joke. Self-protection and preservation is not a joke. And, the devilish subliminal effort to use African Americans is miss-educate each other is nothing to laugh at or play with! Injustice is no laughing matter!

What prompted me to write this column was the fact that I was tired of hearing talk show hosts constantly make fun of the misfortunes and mistreatments of their own brothers and sisters.

When a brother or sister goes to jail, talk shows hosts are afraid to say something about America’s Kangaroo Court systems. Instead, they crack jokes about the Black man or woman that was railroaded by judicial robbers with robes on.

It’s easy to talk about Black people in court but it’s hard for talk show hosts to make fun of corporate klansmen when McDonalds is sued or Wal-Mart is taken to court for discrimination or exploitation. It’s difficult to talk about insurance companies that profited from the slave trade or collected thousands and thousands of dollars in premiums from poor Black people and when those same Black people died, the insurance company said their policies were worth little or nothing.

I wish all Black media outlets and media professionals success career wise and money wise but no media outlet covers the Black community like the Black owned media outlets.

The Final Call” will never be sponsored by Wells Fargo. “The Gantt Report” will never be brought to you by Verizon and the many informative and news worthy independent web sites produced by Black people will never get much advertising love from corporate America.

If Amos and Andy or Stephen Fetchit were on CNN talking about what’s best for you, you’d be outraged. But, a clownish talk show host on Fox News is all right.

To me, the funniest thing on Black talk shows are their whacked up, watered down, boot licking editorials by handkerchief-headed commentators desperate to keep a job! (Gantt’s new book “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing” is coming soon. Contact Lucius at www.allworldconsultants.net)