Were we the only ones watching?
If you look at the front page of the Metro section of today's Dallas Morning News, you would think that black folks were the only ones watching "The Chase." We see one sister with binoculars, two on a cell phone, while another stands mouth agape. The brothers on the photo look like they could be watching the Oak Cliff Super Bowl. The paper lists their location as the Spur 408/I-20 overpass. Everyone I spoke with on my rounds at work yesterday said they watched the 3 county pursuit of Samuel Scott Jones on yesterday – not one of them black. These are instances not of racism, but the media outlets have to be mindful of their unintended inferences. That picture just doesn’t sit well with me, and it does a disservice to Ms. Floyd’s article. In regards to the situation itself, we are seeing a number of instances of young black men making poor choices of late. The desperate state of the Black Man in America will see the problem get worse before it gets better. In Peter Edelman et. al’s book Reconnecting Disadvantaged Young Men; the authors assert “Young black men, are the least popular group in America with politicians.” The dire state of brothers in this country has been increasingly discussed, but no one seems to be willing to take action. I was watching Malcolm X on TV on Sunday, and Elijah Muhammad said,"the most dangerous man is the one who has nothing to lose." Black men have slipped from grabbing a sliver of the American Pie, to now only a few crumbs. With few alternatives and prospects, America watches both literally and figuratively, as black men display ever more desparate behavior.
