The Gantt Report
Now, more than ever before, Black people need Black media!
Recently I was having a heavy discussion with two of my young friends. It started when I said I was happy that Michael Vick was getting another chance to be a starting NFL quarterback with the New York Jets.
Immediately, my friends began to tell me how Eli Manning was one of the greatest QBs playing today because he was QB in two NY Giants Super Bowl wins. Of course they dismissed the fact that Eli led the league in interceptions and turnovers in 2013 and the Giants finished last in the woeful NFC East and also that Vick beat Manning in head-to-head competition last year.
As I was trying to explain to them about great Black NFL QBs that never got appropriate recognition like Warren Moon or Joe Gilliam, I stopped the conversation as soon as I heard one guy say, “You’re talking about the past. I only care about what happens in my lifetime!”
If young African American men and women don’t care about their history, don’t care about their past and care little or nothing about their ancestors, our race is doomed to die!
Black owned media is our only hope for future progress and perhaps for the future survival of Black people in America.
Why? Because 400 years after slavery days we still need OUR media to plead OUR cause!
This current generation of Black youth is happy to be ignorant about African American history. To them, there is nothing important about Black people in America and in the world if it is not on Facebook, not on Twitter, not on Instagram, not on ESPN, not on 106 & Park or not on World Star Hip Hop!
People of African descent have always believed it was necessary to remember their past and to share our glorious past with future generations.
If there was no African American story telling how in the hell would there be a “Roots” story or television program, let alone a butler story or a 12 years a slave story?
No matter how many years go by Jews will never forget the Holocaust, Cubans will never forget Jose Marti, Indians will never forget Osceola, Geronimo or Sitting Bull but young Blacks only care about dumb ish on Facebook!
In black newspapers and on Black internet sites, Black people can find news that white media won’t publish, they can find opinions that white media won’t consider and they can see pictures that white media won’t show or reveal!
It is a shame that people of African descent all over the world know more about African American history than African American young people know.
In Holland, people know more about jazz and blues music than people that live in Liberty City know. In Africa, people know more about the Black Panther Party, than the young Blacks that live in Oakland or Chicago know and the people in the Caribbean know more about Roberto Clemente, Wilfredo Benitez and other Black islanders that rose to fame in the USA than the sports reporters you love on ESPN know.
The reason others don’t like Black history is because Blacks don’t like Black history.
To today’s educators and students, no Black man or woman is important, credible or knowledgeable unless the white man or the white press says they are.
You tell me, which HCBU is hiring Black media journalists to lecture or teach at Black colleges and universities. Is it Florida Memorial, Morehouse, FAMU, Grambling, Bethune, Spellman, Lincoln, Edward Waters or Southern? Hell, no!
Even if most of your career was at major media institutions, once you set foot inside a Black media company, you automatically become an inferior journalist!
Keep on pushing on Black media people, African Americans that are not brain drained or brain damaged appreciate your efforts to recognize and honor Black people, Black ideas and Black accomplishments in this country built on the blood, sweat and backs of Black people.
Mothers and fathers, instead of buying your children more X Boxes and Play Stations, I encourage you to buy your children more Black books or at least get them a subscription to a Black newspaper or a magazine.
Our level of backwardness makes African American youth the cultural laughing stock of the free world!
You can tell when a column hits a nerve because hit dogs will holler at me and hide behind fake internet names! If our youth can’t or don’t want to learn from Black elders, so be it. I like smart children, not smart asses! Quit getting news from social media and start reading more books. Disagree if you must but if I lie in TGR contact your Black media owner or sue a player in court.
Well said.
It is shameful our young know nothing about struggle nor the fact they are the prey of this savage world. Just watch the news.