Nightline pits Native Against Native
IGHTLINE SICS MICHELLE MCQUEEN ON CYNTHIA MCKINNEY!:
IT'S MEDIA HUNTING SEASON ON BLACK PEOPLE AGAIN!!
From: Joseph Anderson
Sent: Saturday, April 8, 2006 2:29 AM
To: Cynthia McKinney
CC:
Subject: NIGHTLINE SICS MICHELLE MCQUEEN ON CONGRESSWOMAN CYNTHIA
MCKINNEY!
Hi Cynthia,
I saw you being interviewed on Nightline, tonight (Friday, April 7).
You
were *mostly* good, if I may say so.
But, two things I would mention:
(1) I once noticed how Louis Farrakahn -- wisely -- doesn't treat Black
reporters with anymore deference, politeness, or expectation of
sensitivity
from them, than he would treat white reporters (where he was his usual
articulate, polite, but direct self--but not, of course, deferential to
them). Farrakhan *never* assumes that he is going to be treated any
better
by the typical, especially, maintsream corporate news Black reporter,
than
by the typical mainstream news white reporter. I thought that was a
very
good media tactic, because I believe that most (not all, but most)
Black
reporters -- if they are going to rise, or even exist, in white
corporate
media -- have to assume the same attitudes and perspectives as white
corporate media reporters. (I'm not a Farrakhan supporter, but we all
understand the multi-dimensional sociopolitical relationship he has
with
Black America.)
Michelle McQueen (Black) is just as "white" and maintstream in
conveying the
American administration line (of whatever administration), or otherwise
establishment line and narrow latitudes of discussion, as any white
male
mainstream corporate news reporter.
(2) I (almost) *couldn't* believe it when Michelle McQueen dragged you
into
the issue and discussion of, "*Why* did you change your hair?" WHAT A
*SEXIST* QUESTION!! And then she *continued* to *PURSUE* the question
and
issue. With all respect, Cynthia, I would have told her, "Michelle, if
a man
had asked that question, we professional women would readily understand
that
that to be a very sexist question." Or, alternately, "Michelle, I
consider
that to be a very sexist question, so I won't follow that course of
discussion with you."
(3) What Nightline's Michelle McQueen was trying to do was to first
stereotype you, and then *trivialize* you.
I would have responded with how many terms you have been elected to
Congress, and how long you have served in Congress, and that (as I
understand it, if so) Congressmembers are not required to wear badges
or
pins, and out of 535 members how few Black women (14?) there are to
remember
by security screening officers at the entrance to the House/Capitol
building. I would have asked, do we *ALL* look so much alike that the
House/Capitol building screening police can't tell you -- someone of
your
prominence -- apart from any other Black women after your serving 6
terms
and over 10 years in Congress?
As for the media pile-on, I would have mentioned how much of the
mainstream
media and many white politicians always seem to have trouble with
strong
Black women in Congress, whether it's Maxime Waters, or Barbara Lee, or
any
others you could name, and now, you -- and want to take any suitble
opportunity to attack them.
Before that, Michelle McQueen -- a Black woman -- did the job of her
white
masters -- who sicced her on you -- when she accused you, in the form
of a
question, of falling into the *white* stereotype of the touchy, huffy
or
militant Black woman. You could have asked her if the cops would have
grabbed some white and white-haired senior Congressman [you could name
the
best examples] by the shoulders, or however, to stop him. And, of
course,
McQueen/Nightline had a videoclip of Cynthia Tucker (who's mentally
"whiter"
than even my white liberal, let alone progressive or leftist, friends)
adding her, literally, 2-cents worth, piling on the anti-McKinney Klan
ride.
(Now, thankfully, I don't think we have any local Black San Francisco
reporters who would act that way to you. But, when I saw the local TV
videotape report of Nancy Pelosi, the white "liberal" House Democrat
leader
who denied you your seniority, scornfully dissing you, the Black woman
co-anchor on the news just sat there and said nothing -- conspicuously
to me
-- after a white male co-anchor, of course, verybally wagged his finger
at
you. Anyway, it's best to always be immediately prepared to have whitey
turn/sic one of 'your own people' against you in these controversial
situations. Just like they set that whats-her-name against you in the
election you lost before your Congressional comeback.)
Later, in connection to your hairstyle, McQueen went into whether or
not
your hairstyle made you a *sex* symbol!! Then she dragged you into the
techniques of how you do your hair. I would have told McQueen, "I'm not
*here* to be a sex symbol! I'm here to represent the people in my
district
and, as Martin Luther King said [it's always good to reference history
or
now-unassailable historical figures], to get America to live up to the
best
of its stated/purported ideals." You would have gotten more relevant
and
sensitive questions from Barbara Walters!
Or you could have turned the tables on McQueen: "What about *your*
hair,
Michelle? Is that the Sapphire look?", "What do the guys in the news
room
say about *your* hair?", or "I don't know Michelle: I don't present
myself
as a sex symbol in Congress; do you consider yourself to be a sex
symbol in
the newsroom?"
I would have mentioned how, from slavery and Jim Crow on, many white
people
customarily have a tendency to think that they have a right to put
their
hands on Black people however they want to (I experienced that just
last
night at a public event) -- and especially, from slave labor through
Jim
Crow domestic labor, white men's hands on Black women. (We'll see how
many
prominent white feminists speak out for you -- or if all of them too
will
scornfully diss you, like Pelosi.) I would have told McQueen -- just
like
she were a white person -- that all we Blacks are sensitive to this --
and
with good historical reason. We don't let people
gratuitously/inappropriately put their hands on us. My
understanding/impression is that gratuitous/inappropriate touching is
even
more of an issue for Southern Black women. It's also considered a sign
of
subordination by the superior to the subordinate (sometimes
appropriate,
sometimes not): e.g., parent to child, teacher to student, boss to
subordinate, and, of course, white to Black.
As for the cops and, as McQueen said, your [supposedly] being superior
to
them, cops have never considered the otherwise social or educational
superiority or inferiority of Black people when the cops confront us.
(As I
put it, no cops have ever asked me--or any Black person--to see a
college
degree or an income statement -- or asked me if my father as a soldier,
and
my mother as a nurse for many white as well as Black soldiers, served
in the
military -- before the cops proceeded to harass or abuse me.) And even
Colin
Powell once said that if he were walking down the streets of Washington
in a
sports jacket, regular trousers, and a baseball cap, he stood a good
chance
of being racially profiled too in the 'wrong' place or neighborhood
(whether
a white or Black one). Cynthia, hit on the historical aspects and
historical/cultural memories of this, experienced or passed down
through
generations of Black people.
I have some older Black women friends (academics) in London who went to
some
club where, I guess for the first time, they were told to hold out
their
hands to be stamped after paying to get in -- and they *refused*. They
said
that it reminded them too much of slavery, like some master stamping
them to
mark his property.
From the time I was in the first grade (and especially in grade school,
when
I was, of course, smaller), white teachers would, seemingly anytime
they
wanted to, gratuitously (and they thought slyly) cop a feel on my head,
without ever asking me, to see what my hair felt like. I've seen white
authority figures (like teachers) -- without any justifiable reason --
brusquely grab Black students by the shoulders when scolding them. In
the
7th grade -- I still remember to this day -- a white male teacher, with
a
sneering tone of voice, was roughly poking me in the chest with his
finger,
when he falsely claimed I was running in the school hallway (I was
walking
fast). Every time I happen to recall it, I *still* resent that I didn't
grab
his hand or threaten him that he had *better* stop -- even if I had
gotten
punished for it by the principal. He was a science teacher from a class
where I (very science oriented) made an A for the course, and he later
went
on to join the FBI (his dream).
When I was in London this past summer a photographer -- a total
stranger --
put his hand on my shoulders to chide me for my taking photos of models
at
an open public photo session at the Tower Bridge next to the luxury
hotel
where I was staying for a conference, where other tourists (all white)
were
photographing the models too. (There was no way I could have even used
my
photos for publication, as I was using a cheap disposable box film
camera
from a nearby Safeway.) I told him in a threatening manner, "You
better
take your hands off me."
And, as a matter of fact, just last night (Thurs) some white guy
started
sharply poking me in the back with his fingers when he didn't like a
political debate I was having over Israel with some Zionist Jewish
white
woman when I was intellectually getting the better of her. (That white
woman
was telling a Palestinian-American that he "was too cynical"! And then
her
daughter came up to confront me. I told them that the oppressor always
wants
to tell the oppressed how the oppressed should--or shouldn't--feel.) I
finally grabbed the man's hand, held it in my closed fist, and in no
uncertain terms, short of an outright threat, told him that he better
stop
-- and not to ever put his hands on me again.
Black columnist and commentator Julianne Malveaux (with a doctorate in
economics from MIT) probably doesn't want me to publicly recall this,
but I
remember some controversy she got into when a white female flight
attention,
grabbed or put her hand on Julianne gratuitously/inappropriately in
telling
Julianne where she should place her on-board luggage. Many whites in
the
media also had (their own) problems with Julianne as an intelligent,
incisive and strong Black woman.
The fact that a local San Francisco news report made you, Cynthia, the
controversial and negative *equivalent* of *Tom DeLay*, and the fact
that
*Tom Delay*-- of all people -- is unabashedly exploiting controversy
off
*you*, shows how little Black people have to do to get the same
opprobrium/judgement/sentence -- or even *worse*(!) -- than white
people who
commit an even greater charge, crime, or offense. Same old American
story.
Spring is here and it's media hunting season on Black people again (and
*no*
white media person is too "liberal" to join the hunt. The Daily Show
host
John Stewart has joined the hunt, and said some words to drive the
point
home that, "Hey just look at her: doesn't this woman look crazed to
*you*,
folks?" I'm waiting for Al Franken to join the hunt too.
Take care,
Joseph
_________________
Joseph Anderson
Berkeley, CA
posted by ishmael reed @ 4:34 PM
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