U.S.: Okay, but will they come off the plantation?

This is an excerpt from Hearing the talking drum but not getting the picture by ALTON H. MADDOX JR. Originally posted 3/25/2004. It's publishined in the Amsterdam News

Air America Radio's takeover of WLIB-AM is the final nail in the coffin of the right of Blacks to access the airwaves. The fundamental concerns, however, are the rights to enjoy one's cultural heritage; to exercise one's natural rights; and to be free of the badges of slavery. Yet, it is more troubling when our people are unable to connect the loss of access to the airwaves to these fundamental rights.
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While Africans were ruling the airwaves for thousands of years, they remained unregulated, but this was altered in 1910 when radio was viewed, potentially, as useful in maritime operations and the military. In the 1920s, radio stations started to operate commercially, and the Radio Act of 1927 created the Federal Radio Commission which merged, under the Communications Act of 1934, into the Federal Communications Commission.

Whenever licensing becomes discretionary rather than ministerial, descendants of enslaved Africans suffer. After whites were given a head start of twenty-two years to gobble up radio licenses, Jesse Blanton Sr. was finally able to extract a license from the scrap pile to establish WERD-AM in Atlanta, Ga. WGPR-TV, in Detroit, was granted a license in 1973 to operate the first Black-owned television station.

In the meantime, Blacks were being short-changed over the airwaves. Office of Communications of the United Church of Christ v. FCC was a landmark decision which held that the public had standing to participate in the licensing process. Consequently, a radio or television station which does not serve the public interest could lose its license.

A court ruling allowed for the loss of WLBT-TV's license in Jackson, Mississippi, for failing to address the concerns of Blacks after Black activists initiated a complaint giving rise to the landmark decision. This is a far cry from the commitment of media activists in New York to combat racism in the airwaves.

Today, New York City and its environs mirror the plight of Blacks in Jackson, Mississippi, forty years ago. Even though Blacks constitute the oldest and largest ethnic group in New York City, we have no current media outlet in the hands of Blacks and which is fashioning Black programming.

On the other hand, there are radio stations in Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Mandarin and Korean to address the needs of those groups in New York City. The FCC must explain why Blacks have been singled out for disparate treatment, and Black leaders and activists must explain why they are suffering from laryngitis.

Like the ballot box, Blacks are entitled to participate in the marketplace of ideas beyond music and comedy. Instead, there is rampant racial profiling on the information highway, with only whites beating the talking drum and token Blacks serving as sideshows. Since all of the media outlets in New York City owe Blacks access to the airwaves, a conspiracy must be afoot.

Our ancestors must be turning over in their graves. It is unprecedented and unnatural for Blacks to tune in to white programming formats, imitating African talking drummers, to expect to receive outside-of-the-box information. These imitators are only engaged in comedy and racial ridicule. Arguably, it may still be a talking drum, but it certainly is not a healing drum.

This is worse than a badge of slavery. It is cultural genocide. This want of outrage to cultural genocide on the part of Blacks is rooted in a lack of knowledge of our culture and our history. Dr. Carter G. Woodson described this malady in The Miseducation of the Negro.

The rhetoric is over the top, and Maddox is a racist conspiracy theorist (and worse), who is, inappropriately, preaching entitlement politics -- I guess that means he wants black radio to be some kind of government program run by blacks. Maddox is somewhat confused about the nature of the market-place. Since radio runs on ad revenue -- unless they are NPR, of course -- then it is up to the station and its customers to create enough buzz to generate the revenue that will keep it afloat. The government should not be in the business of subsidizing the airwaves. Let 'em all sink or swim on their own merits.

Here's another report on the issue. Liberal Air America will displace Black talk at WLIB by Karen Juanita Carrillo of The Amsterdam News. This was republished in the Nation of Islam's FinalCall.com News.

New York's radio station WLIB-1190 AM has been loyally "serving New York's Black community" -- as its logo states -- for decades now. In the early '90s, WLIB was lauded as a resource for "Afrocentric" programming and became known for featuring Imhotep Gary Byrd's "Global Black Experience" show.

The station was, in many ways, a Black activist outlet.

But, by the end of March, WLIB will be taking on a different hue, as it joins the launch of Progress Media's "Air America Radio," the new, predominately White, liberal talk-radio network. Air America has reportedly partnered with Inner City Broadcasting Corporation (ICBC), which owns WLIB.

"We are excited about the diverse and important voices Air America Radio is bringing to the airwaves, both on our own WLIB signal and others," said ICBC Chairman Pierre Sutton. "This strategic partnership allows both companies to combine our resources and deliver relevant messages to a broad and diverse audience."

"That's what you call "high-class B.S.!" one former WLIB staffer said when told that Mr. Sutton said the station's changes were necessary because Blacks had just stopped listening to WLIB. The former staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, insisted that, if WLIB's talk shows were promoted the way conservative talk shows are -- and the way Air America's shows will be -- the station would have made money.

So, who should do the promoting? Is that not the business of the station's, the programs' hosts, the parent company, and whoever is being paid to bring in ads? Notice the language of this piece. No non-black journalist could write like this without being charged with racism. However, that kind of racist language is par for the course in the black community. Yet, should a non-black journalist talk about a new radio station "taking on a different hue" and stating that that hue was a black one, he'd have to brace himself for cries of racism and hate speech, and prepare to attend diversity classes. Such is the double standard on race today.

Thanks to Instapundit for the links.