Politics of Victimization

THE MEDIA & THE BLACK COMMUNITY

BY C.Stone Brown

Malcolm X once said that the mass media are able to make the victim appear to be the perpetrator and the perpetrator the victim. Malcolm X may have been one of the first black political scientist to observe this media dynamic. Although Malcolm X observed this phenomenon in the 1960s, flip flopping the perpetrator/victim axis was occurring long before the advent of the mass media. The perception of African-Americans as either victim or perpetrator, has far reaching political implications. Simply observe the media supported, economically created “angry white male.” The legitimacy of the “angry white male” rests with the perception of him being a victim or victimizer. With the passage of California initiative 209, voters gave the ‘angry white male’ legitimacy.

The media, similar to other for-profit American institutions, operates from an invisible socio/economic model of approved behavior. When words like ‘deep seated’ ‘ingrained’ or ‘systemic’ are used to discuss institutional racism, it means that those who engage in racism are subconsciously operating from an invisible socio/economic model. A case in point is the media’s socio/economic model for referring to black African nations. When you break the socio/economic model in half, the social side reveals black African nations being portrayed as chaotic and weak, from this posture they are perceived as paternalistically dependent on the West. On the economic side, African nations are portrayed as destitute, lacking even in basic life sustaining natural resources. This is the model from which the media reports on the activities of African nations. This model, like so many others, functions as a propaganda tool, constructed with the political interest of the propagandist in mind.

A model has also been employed in how the media reports on the victimization of African-American people. The rule is to displace blame away from racism, and blame the victim for their condition. According to the book “The End Of Racism” by Dinesh D’ Souza, racism no longer exists. In fact, it never really did exist as the book asserts: “American slavery..bore no necessary link to racism,” and that segregation was created by southern whites “to protect blacks.” He also noted that “a natural hierarchy of racial abilities would predict and fully account for” the lower economic status of African-Americans. With the Atlanta Constitution and Newsweek giving this book favorable reviews, African-Americans cannot afford to dismiss the idiotic conclusions of this book. The “The End Of Racism” is the media’s recipe book for turning African-Americans into the victimizer, rather than the victim of official institutional racism. If this books’ assertions are correct, then every African-American who claims to be a victim of racism is simply making illegitimate claims, in effect as Malcolm observed, the victim becomes the perpetrator.

MODEL VICTIM

To know and understand a particular culture, is to observe the culture’s language, myths and traditions. America has many age-old adages that give us insight into its past. The adage “passing the buck” gives us some insight into America’s past and present history. This adage means to displace blame away from the source, and place it on something or someone else. What does this adage tell us about America’s past and present history? According to Websters New Collegiate Dictionary the definition of a “buck” is a horse. But during colonial times, it was also a word used to describe enslaved black men. The origins of the connection between horses and slaves can be traced to the infamous slave owner William Lynch. Lynch wrote a book on “slave breaking and breeding process.” Lynch stated, “The breaking and breeding process is the same for both the horse and the nigger. Only slightly in varying degrees.” Indeed, so when we decode the adage “passing the buck” in the context of American history, we are talking about “passing” blame on “buck” ie…black men or black people.

Moreover, the word guilt, is a synonym for the word blame, because often those who have inner-guilt, can find relief in ‘blaming’ others. This is why people who are consumed with inner guilt are told by psychologist to “talk out their feelings” since unloading the guilt can provide temporary relief. Take for example Susan Smith who murdered her children, but unsuccessfully tried to “pass the buck” on a fictitious black man. Although Susan Smith was an individual, guilt can also be found in a collective society, and where guilt is prevalent, the collective must find an outlet of relief. In America, guilt relief is spelled AFRICAN-AMERICAN.

The propensity to blame the victim(African-Americans) has become a sociological defense mechanism that some whites have employed as therapy from the guilt of racism. The role of the mainstream media is to function as the pharmacist, dispensing relief in the form of racist propaganda models. The victim model that the media operates from, only mirrors the culture’s past and present history. History is not a static study, it is dynamic; so the present can never be fully separated from the past. In order to understand the politics of victimization, one must look for the origins of blaming the victim.

What has to be one of the first recorded models of African-Americans being obvious victim of racism, yet being treated as the perpetrator was during the 1880s at the West Point military academy. James Webster Smith, the first black cadet in the history of West Point was severely beaten, gagged, bound and ears slit by white class mates. Since the attack occurred in a dark room, Smith was not able to identify his assailants, and the white cadets denied any involvement. In fact, the white cadets claimed Smith gagged, assaulted and slit his own ears. This wasn’t the only incident at West Point in the 1800s. Another involved West Point cadet, Johnson Chestnut Whitaker. Whitaker was asleep in his room when three masked men stormed in and severely beat him. An investigation was conducted which turned up no suspects. Since none of the white cadets confessed to the crime, school officials concluded that Whitaker faked the attack, and his punishment was expulsion from the academy.

DISPENSING GUILT RELIEF

When West Point cadets Smith and Whitaker were blamed for assaulting themselves, this was simply a strategy for the true perpetrators to elude justice. However, as time passed, blaming the victim has become more than simply a method of avoiding justice. These documented cases of blaming blacks for assaulting themselves, have now become a model of operation for the mass media. Although these West Point incidents happened during the 1800s, they are very relevant today. In the same manner that incidents in our early childhood affect our adulthood, this can also be said for the collective history of a nation. Ironically, it is during the stages of early childhood that Americans are indoctrinated to the concept of blaming the victim.

The American educational system has standardized the teaching of American slavery to appease the present day descendants of former slave traders. This teaching of slavery has been tailored, to meet the psychological needs of the majority population. Justification for American slavery has been ideologically protected by orthodoxy scholars who point out that slavery already existed in Africa. And since African chiefs sold other blacks into slavery, Africans themselves are as guilty-if not more, for the trade. Although very short sighted, this is a very common teaching on the role that Europeans played in the slave trade, and the complicity of Africans.

The reason African-Americans have Black history month is to resurrect the history that Europeans suppressed from African people. This suppression of history is still taking place and it has applied itself in the teachings of the American slave trade. European slave traders employed multiple strategies to obtain labor from the continent of Africa. The number one method was crude kidnapping, simply raiding unsuspecting African villages with guns and knives.

Another method that seems to get the most advancement is African chiefs who sold their own brothers and sisters into slavery. It is true that African chiefs did sell their own brothers and sisters. However, the people who advance this truth, leave out a very important point-that slavery wasn’t a monolithic institution, how it functions in every society is determined by how that society dignifies human life.

This is true when you study the slave cultures of Africa and Europe. Slavery in Africa wasn’t a dehumanizing form of slavery, slaves were servants, often POW’s from tribal conflicts. When Europeans solicited the purchase of slaves from the African chiefs, it was out ignorance that the chiefs didn’t know what ‘slavery’ meant in the context of the newly created Euro-American empire.

In addition, European slave traders befriended African chiefs with the ulterior motive to induce alcohol(rum) addiction. Once the chiefs were addicted, rum became bartered for slaves. Indeed, many Africans came to America under the guise of ‘T.U.I’, traded-under-the-influence. Just as West Point Cadet, James Webster Smith was blamed for cutting his own ears, Africans are blamed for the slave trade. This standardized teaching of American slavery is a ‘textbook’ example of “blaming the victim,” by attempting to make Africans accomplice in their own enslavement.

INTELLECTUAL SEGREGATION

Racism similar to segregation can exist in many forms. We all know from the Texaco and Avis revelations that racists no longer live as vampires, they walk among us during the day. They are our ‘hoodless’ managers, newspaper editors, teachers and board members. No more racist speeches in dark grassy fields, illuminated by burning crosses. These neo-racist can operate from a cherry oak desk, wearing designer suits. Indeed, methods of segregation have become as polished as the‘hoodless’ corporate manger.

In many cities across this nation, the separation between the Black community and the white community was often divided by railroad tracks. These are the remnants that remain from the period of official American segregation. In today’s world, segregation is executed in a very sophisticated manner, often it is subconsciously planted in our thoughts. The print media is very clever in how it uses words to divide, fragment and alter our perception of reality. For instance, the print media uses language to segregate communities, baiting unsuspecting readers with words and phrases such as ‘third world,’ ‘hood,’ ‘crime’,‘black-on-black crime’ and ‘inner city.’ Of course these words seem unbiased and appropriate when used, however, they have an intended purpose to alienate, by segregating the social problems these words are associated with. The perception becomes, if it’s in the ‘hood‘ or its black-on-black’ crime’ it’s their problem.

Considering that two West Point cadets supposedly assaulted themselves, they qualify as two of the first ‘black-on-black’ criminals, since they were accused of assaulting-self. For this reason, the phrase ‘black-on-black’ crime should get special attention.

The media’s use of the phrase “black-on-black” crime is the 90’s antithesis to the infamous 60’s ‘whites only’ water fountain. It immediately segregates the condition as one that “blacks only” should be concerned with. This places the blame of “black-on-black” criminality, not where it should go-with the custodians of America’s ghetto politics, but back on the victims of ghetto policies.

With the media’s inordinate attention to the crimes of blacks, they are tacitly declaring to America that blacks are pathologically prone to genocidal behavior.

Contrary to public perception, history shows that “black-on-black” crime is a relatively new phenomenon-in fact, is predated by the unacknowledged ‘white-on-white’ criminality. The majority of homicides that occur today are related to poverty, and this was also true of the homicide rate between 1931 and 1934 when the rates were comparable to the rates in the 1990s. The homicide rate peaked in 1933 at 9.7 per 100,000 residents, which was higher than in 1993 when the rate was 9.5 per 100,000 residents. The 1930’s homicide rate can be explained by the economic conditions of that period, which were very bleak after the stock market crash in 1929. This only proves that poverty often breeds homicides, regardless of race. No stranger to poverty, African-Americans were already living impoverished before and after the stock market crash. So the homicide rate in 1933 can be attributed to the competition over resources in the white community.

These are just a few examples of how the media flip-flops the victim/perpetrator axis as Malcolm X observed 30 years ago, but also how it originated before the advent of the mass media. This reading should make us cognizant that victimization is political, and there are consequences to be being perceived as a victim or victimizer as the assault on affirmative action revealed. If our minds are to be instruments of the media agenda, then we need to carefully dissect what tune is being played to us. This means holding the print and electronic media accountable for how it portrays and reports on the victimization of African-American people.

Author: C.Stone Brown email: mrb92@aol.com copyright (c) 1996