How White America Sees Blacks

For the past decade, I’ve held a gripe against ABC newsman Ted Koppel.As a boy who consumed the news regularly, I often stayed up past my bedtime to watch “Nightline.” It was the best news show on television.My discomfort with Mr. Koppel began in 1995.That year, I appeared on his show after the Million Man March. I was there to discuss the impact of the march that had brought a sea of black men to the nation’s capital to atone and commit themselves to a new beginning.On that “Nightline” show, Mr. Koppel had interviewed other guests as well, including Colin Powell and Rush Limbaugh. The segment was balanced, with supporters and dissenters openly expressing their views on the march and on the Nation of Islam’s leader, Louis Farrakhan.In the last few seconds of the show, Mr. Koppel returned to make a pronouncement that irks me to this day.“What struck me most about yesterday’s extraordinary gathering was what did not happen,” he told the millions who tuned in to watch him on October 17, 1995. “There was no trouble, no violence, not black-on-black, or white-on-black, or black-on-white. Hundreds of thousands of black men gathered in Washington, D.C., and there was no trouble at all. The country’s looking for positive examples? That was a positive example.”Over the years, I’ve thought quite a bit about Mr. Koppel’s analysis of the march, and I have not been able to reconcile my anger with him for those words and the reality that he was merely voicing what so many other white Americans feel and think about black men. In short, white America sees black men as troublemakers, as national bogeymen.Throughout history, black men have been demonized and disregarded, blamed for crimes ranging from the kidnap and murder of Susan Smith’s two children in South Carolina to the murder of a pregnant white woman in Boston in 1989. It was later disclosed that black men had nothing to do with these crimes.Being black in America means that one constantly has to challenge these prevailing assumptions, a burden that at times seems daunting and hopeless. It doesn’t help that the mainstream press perpetuates the savage like stereotypes of black men, creating hysteria and fright among whites.In the months leading up to the Millions More Movement – the three-day gathering held last weekend in Washington – the mainstream press focused on the messenger instead of the march. Countless newspapers ran stories about the Anti-Defamation League’s call for black leaders to boycott the gathering because it was being organized by Mr. Farrakhan.Hundreds of thousands of blacks congregated on the Washington Mall, but no one seemed to be talking about the Anti-Defamation League or about allegations of Mr. Farrakhan’s past anti-Semitism. They were, however, talking about personal responsibility and returning to their communities to rebuild social networks and institutions that have fallen into decay over the past few decades.It was an admirable event, one that made me feel proud to be an African-American. Unfortunately, the mainstream press’s coverage of the gathering was sparse, with most reports pointing out that a million people didn’t show up at the event. Who cares?The black leaders at the event, a diverse group ranging from the Reverend Jesse L. Jackson to the Reverend Al Sharpton, rightly criticized the federal government for its slow response to Hurricane Katrina. Others called for reparations for black Americans and a need for blacks to develop a new political party.Mr. Farrakhan has also called for renewed cooperation among African-Americans, despite the class disparities that now exist.“We have been taught how to serve others, but we have never been trained how to serve one another,” Mr. Farrakhan said. “I’m hoping that this Millions More Movement will make the learned of us a servant of the unlearned.”After the first march, there was anecdotal evidence that crime declined in black communities across the nation and that blacks began adopting African-American children in record numbers. It is abundantly clear that in the 1996 presidential election, African-American men voted in unprecedented numbers, the likes of which we have not seen again. These new voters likely helped President Clinton secure a second term against Senator Dole.Emerging from this year’s march, one can only hope for a new movement that is committed to change and that has some staying power.Mr. Watson is the executive editor of the New York Amsterdam News. He can be reached at jamalwats@aol.com.

How White America Sees Blacks

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