Meet The New Negros: The Democratic Party
I have spent most of my life as a worker and proponent of Civil Rights in America. During that time a philosophy for success has emerged founded upon four goals, namely Organization, Publicity, Money, and Politics (listed in the order of importance). Failure of the majority of organizations dedicated to African-American interests can be attributed to any one or all four of these goals, but most certainly to the goal of maintaining good publicity which reflects favorably upon the organization and its programs. The status and strength of an organization’s power always can be seen as how it is portrayed in the public media.
Whereas each of the goals listed above are critically important to the health and stability of an organization, the public conception of the organization is the most important, and often in Civil Rights organizations, it is the most neglected. Publicity in many African-American Civil Rights organizations has been confined to advertising in the print or television media. However, this is always “what you say about your organization”, not what others may be “saying about your organization”! Effective publicity is actually composed of three interrelated activities; advertising, monitoring, and economic pressure sanctions. Most organizations dedicated to or associated with the democratic vision of America do an extremely poor job of monitoring what the media is saying about them.
Effective monitoring of the publications of the national and local media is a huge job which requires continuous participation by each and every member of the organization. Members must also have facilities to report back to the organizational headquarters the exact details of the negative presentation or commentary, the date and time that this information was published, and the company or business who advertised in the space where the negative information was published. This feedback data should be placed in a data bank, which can be used later to implement economic pressure sanctions (read buying boycotts) against the specific company that paid for the advertising. Unfortunately, any lack of response to any negative portrayal published by the media is regarded by the media as a form of permissive acceptance of the presentation by the subject, and it is sure to be repeatedly used by other media outlets. Many groups excuse their media monitoring laxity by saying that “we’ll take the high road” and not lower ourselves to respond to “garbage published about us” in the media. This is simply an excuse for organizational deficiency!
Conservative interests have spent the last two decades establishing a negative opinion as a media standard for the so called “Liberal” label. Their tireless campaign has been successful due to the fact that there wasn’t any organization that existed specifically to defend the respectability and honor of the “Liberal” label. Their success in creating a widespread public distaste for any “Liberal ideas” has emboldened these interests to launch a similar media campaign against the Democratic Party. This new campaign has been designed to couple the word “Liberal” with the word “Democrat” in order to fully utilize the negative public reaction to the oft used phrase “Liberal ideas” by pinning this label onto Democratic politicians. The media is now joining in the fray by adding in its own negative vocabulary when referring to Democratic politicians, such as “flip-floppers”, “weak”, and “whiners”. The ongoing success of this new smear campaign is due to the Democratic Party’s lack of an effective media monitoring function (such as I have described) within its organization.
The smear campaign used in the media is nothing new. It has been used by racist organizations against African-American people in this country from the days of the founding of the Republic. The “Negro” was stereotyped in the most despicable terms from the Town Crier to the Pulpit in colonial times. In the post civil war era, Negro newspapers came into being expressly for the purpose of publishing news about Negro honor, worth, and achievement. Stereotyping of African-Americans and African-American organizations continues unabated today as there is virtually no monitoring/economic pressure to discourage this practice in the media.
The Democratic Party, on the other hand, does have the means to implement an effective monitoring/economic pressure function within its organization; and if it wants to remain a major participant in the political landscape of America it better get busy and develop the required monitoring capability. Remember pressure and power is the name of the game, and nice guys do actually finish last!
Whereas each of the goals listed above are critically important to the health and stability of an organization, the public conception of the organization is the most important, and often in Civil Rights organizations, it is the most neglected. Publicity in many African-American Civil Rights organizations has been confined to advertising in the print or television media. However, this is always “what you say about your organization”, not what others may be “saying about your organization”! Effective publicity is actually composed of three interrelated activities; advertising, monitoring, and economic pressure sanctions. Most organizations dedicated to or associated with the democratic vision of America do an extremely poor job of monitoring what the media is saying about them.
Effective monitoring of the publications of the national and local media is a huge job which requires continuous participation by each and every member of the organization. Members must also have facilities to report back to the organizational headquarters the exact details of the negative presentation or commentary, the date and time that this information was published, and the company or business who advertised in the space where the negative information was published. This feedback data should be placed in a data bank, which can be used later to implement economic pressure sanctions (read buying boycotts) against the specific company that paid for the advertising. Unfortunately, any lack of response to any negative portrayal published by the media is regarded by the media as a form of permissive acceptance of the presentation by the subject, and it is sure to be repeatedly used by other media outlets. Many groups excuse their media monitoring laxity by saying that “we’ll take the high road” and not lower ourselves to respond to “garbage published about us” in the media. This is simply an excuse for organizational deficiency!
Conservative interests have spent the last two decades establishing a negative opinion as a media standard for the so called “Liberal” label. Their tireless campaign has been successful due to the fact that there wasn’t any organization that existed specifically to defend the respectability and honor of the “Liberal” label. Their success in creating a widespread public distaste for any “Liberal ideas” has emboldened these interests to launch a similar media campaign against the Democratic Party. This new campaign has been designed to couple the word “Liberal” with the word “Democrat” in order to fully utilize the negative public reaction to the oft used phrase “Liberal ideas” by pinning this label onto Democratic politicians. The media is now joining in the fray by adding in its own negative vocabulary when referring to Democratic politicians, such as “flip-floppers”, “weak”, and “whiners”. The ongoing success of this new smear campaign is due to the Democratic Party’s lack of an effective media monitoring function (such as I have described) within its organization.
The smear campaign used in the media is nothing new. It has been used by racist organizations against African-American people in this country from the days of the founding of the Republic. The “Negro” was stereotyped in the most despicable terms from the Town Crier to the Pulpit in colonial times. In the post civil war era, Negro newspapers came into being expressly for the purpose of publishing news about Negro honor, worth, and achievement. Stereotyping of African-Americans and African-American organizations continues unabated today as there is virtually no monitoring/economic pressure to discourage this practice in the media.
The Democratic Party, on the other hand, does have the means to implement an effective monitoring/economic pressure function within its organization; and if it wants to remain a major participant in the political landscape of America it better get busy and develop the required monitoring capability. Remember pressure and power is the name of the game, and nice guys do actually finish last!
posted by beckdow at 4:08 PM
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