After watching the Roland Martin interview on The Breakfast Club, many of my hunches were confirmed on the power of so-called mainstream media over the dedicated black press. It’s a shame that while many watched this information-jammed interview, many of us let the information go in one ear and right out of the other without comprehending what Roland Martin said.
Now I must admit that there were aspects of the media that I didn’t understand completely. I also feel that most Blacks across the globe do not know how the media works and how powerful it is in their mind. I hope it’s not true, but most Blacks separate what they see in the media as factual and the truth simply because we see particular views projected on mass over these mainstream media platforms.
We don’t seem to question what we see, we don’t ask who is the source of this information, or we don’t seem to question who decides what is news for us and what is not.
I think that it’s about time that we sit down and have this conversation to learn the power of the media and why we need to have our own media platforms that tell our stories with news, entertainment, documentaries, podcasts, and opinion pieces from a vast people who are not monolithic. At the bottom of this article, I will post the link to that Roland Martin breakfast club interview and tell you that this is mandatory listening for all black people, young and old.
One aspect of the mainstream media that brings me to righteous anger is that they will use our black faces to promote their products while paying far less to the dedicated black media platforms as though they are expected to keep the crumbs. Now what we need to do is go on a witch hunt and figure out which one of these nonblack companies is getting paid or paying out a lot of money to advertise to us while ignoring the dedicated black platforms causing us to be misled into thinking that it is a black company that is responsible for the advertisement of products whose companies wouldn’t dare spend a dime with us.
We need to demand that these significant companies respect black people in the media companies that serve us by paying the same amount for advertising they do for the nonblack platforms. Black people spend so much money in mainstream America, yet those products we buy refuse to pay competitive prices to advertise as they do with nonblack media.
But this is wrong, and what’s even more of a tragedy is that we appear to be so ignorant of these facts as we spend money with people who could care less about us as we choke off our own Black media companies. I realized long ago that those who do not respect us would continue to rip us off in all business transactions as long as we remain ignorant of our power.
So don’t think that someone else’s media will champion your cause, but they will note where your attention goes as long as you spend money on your own. But that is up to us. So far, we have been doing an abysmal job of supporting true black media and not these fraudulent platforms that put the black face on Front Street while collecting countless billions of dollars from us simply because they fool us every time.
I want to start a list of not only our 100% black own media but also our black banks, car dealers, restaurants, schools, hospitals, food markets, as well as any other business large or small, local, national, or international that we can support is much as we can to send the message that they need competitive offers when it’s time to spend with those companies to advertise. So many of these black-owned companies are so timid at the negotiation table when it’s time for these website links, if possible. I want you all to send your information to my email address at [email protected].
Thank you so much for spending your precious time here with me,
Sincerely,
LanceScurv
407.590.0755
