Media Slap: Post Racial, My Ass

To let mainstream media tell it, America plunged into post racial mode when a rainbow coalition elected its first biracial president. Fast forward to 2010, with Tea Partiers stranded at the intersection of race and politics and Arizona gone illegal immigrant wild, color is back on the consciousness block. Granted, the signage pictured may be circa 1960’s but the race restrictive notice made its way into a Massachusetts publication just last month: http://www.bvblackspin.com/2010/06/08/real-estate-firm-puts-up-a-sign-for-whites-only/.

Another swing of the racial pendulum and the Pew Research Center pipeline spewed the 411 that interracial marriages are at an all-time high. The least of the statistical shockers was the fact that 1 out of 5 African-American men married nonblack women in 2008. The surge in ethic intermingling, easily attributed to integration, assimilation and immigration, however, discredits headlines written in stark contrast to the post racial society news dispatchers attempted to sell.

If race no longer mattered, wouldn’t headlines render signs of minimizing racial differentiation by now?

White-hot about the post racial society hype, I couldn’t resist slinging some snarky comments regarding the headlines below:

1. What's killing African Americans?
Source: www.beliefnet.com on 6/4
BG: In headlines, do we ever see “What’s or who’s killing Whites?
Re: Who’s killing whites? African-Americans aren’t because sadly enough,we’re still embroiled in killing one another.

2. The Magnificent Migrants
Extraordinary photos of ordinary Mexicans.
Source: Foreign Policy Web site on 5/28
BG: Mexican is so PI (politically incorrect). Ordinary Hispanics, por favor.

3. Why do Latinas avoid the doctor? Study investigates
Source: CNN on 6/4
BG: Latinas don’t have a lock on medical care avoidance. Poor people of all colors and men in various income brackets have long been prone to this behavior.

4. The New Poor: Blacks in Memphis Lose Decades of Economic Gains
Source: NYT 5/31
BG: Of course, slow progress hasn’t hampered whites the way it has blacks but foreclosures and unemployment have also sliced and diced white wealth. Just ask anyone who was financially raped repeatedly by Bernie Madoff until their life blood trickled.

Blacks are never the new poor. Being behind the economic 8-ball is our historical reality and we were moneyless long before “We Shall Overcome” was anointed our anthem. It’s not unusual for blacks who lacked silver spoons at births to abandon the hood once they taste their first nip of success but for other escapees, poverty’s familiarity lurks in the form of one missed paycheck and back to the hood they go.

5. Black Flight Hits Detroit
Source: WSJ 6/4
BG: “White flight” was first coined to capture the movement of whites to the suburbs when an influx of blacks moved into their urban neighborhoods back in the late 50s and early 60s. Instead of blacks fleeing Detroit because of whites, today’s relocation is spurred by the deterioration of inner city neighborhoods, an infestation of crime and decreased economic opportunity.