SOBER THOUGHTS

All Black News Ain’t Good News…
As we continue our journalistic journey with The People’s Voice, I feel it essential to address the issue of  the content of The People’s Voice.
When we first launched this publication, a lot of concerns were voiced about all of the positives of the African American community that are seldom mentioned or even acknowledged in the mainstream media.  In an effort to show sensitivity to the feelings and opinions of the African-American consumers who would ultimately make up our reader base, who stated that they got sick and tired of reading about all the embarrassing, police reports, who robbed who; who got locked up; who got busted for drugs; because the negative news about black subjects is always reported ten times worse than it really is, we really tried to concentrate all of our zeal on the positives.   However, we continued to be bombarded with the many negative realities of African-American life in the Southeastern United States.   The realities of police brutality, racial profiling, abuse of power, and unfairness in the workplace and every other form of racial corruption imaginable.   These were the real-life, often shocking, day-to-day horrors of African-American life that continue to plague black people despite our supposedly having “overcome.”
Lately, I have been confronted by many readers who’ve said the following:  “What are we running for our “top story” this week?   Is it going to be something positive?  We’ve had sad news for the last two weeks.   First, I’m happy to know that people are watching so closely, what we choose to print.
It must be understood by all, that we don’t live in paradise.  And if you are looking at black life through rose-colored glasses, you may as well remove them; because not all black news is going to be either good or positive.   There are numerous aspects of African-American life that can and must be reflected in this publication if our story is to be told….it must be told truthfully and accurately.
Just as our mission was to reflect the positive contributions that African-Americans make in their communities every day….it is also our mission to utilize this Voice as an instrument of expression.  Thus we deceive ourselves, by our reluctance to see that we still share serious negative issues within the African-American communities, that are not being dealt with on ANY level, within any of our own African-American institutions.

If our communities are to continue to grow and progress, we must sit up and take notice of these issues, and take collective action to correct them.  Therefore, we also need to use this instrument to take an honest look at the things that are going on in our very own communities, right under our very own noses, that hinder black progress across the board.  They are too numerous to name.  We need to be looking at these matters so we can make the effort to correct them.
No point in trying to create false impressions; delusions; let’s call a spade a spade.  let’s get real.  Otherwise, how will we ever transform our current condition?

Again, I refer to the infamous address made by Dr. Bill Cosby last May, during the 50^th Anniversary Observance of Brown vs Board Of Education to which many African-American’s took insult.
The man was right:

Let me just name a few

parenting is not going on

1. misplaced values
2. Illiteracy (due to a high drop-out rate)  Lack of respect for education
3. Poverty
4. Hopelessness
5. Helplessness
6. High rate of incarceration among black men
7. Total absence of  Pride:  No longer is a person embarrassed because they’re pregnant without a husband
8. We are not paying attention…
9. drug addiction
10. lawlessness

drooping pants

Copyright 2006 by Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson
This article was composed and written by Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson, and appeared in the March 22, 2006 edition of The People’s Voice African American Weekly News (www.peoplesvoiceonline.com).   This article may be reprinted with permission from the author:
Charlotte A. Clark-Frieson
email:  caclarkfrieson@msn.com
322 Wilkie Clark Drive
Roanoke, Alabama 36274
334-863-4885
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