Democracy Now! regularly shows off American otherness. However, I have never observed one of these “other” professional (natural-born citizen) journalists sitting side by side with Amy Goodman as an equal (co-anchor) of her “Democracy Now” program. Amy Goodman’s co-hosts are Pakistani Nermeen Shaikh, and Puerto Rican Juan González.
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oodman race baits Americans against one another; and masks her not-good
intent with a do-gooder’s façade — helping those “coloreds” aka “people of
color,” the latter an equally ridiculous expression, as if all people were not sharing
some color.
Race-baiting is not always an obvious phenomenon, but its purpose is always to divide, disparage, and misrepresent. Amy Goodman is a master at race-baiting:
The act of intentionally encouraging racism” (or racialism, focusing on race as a distraction)
“or anger about issues relating to (or cast in terms of) race, often to get an advantage,” political, personal, professional, or otherwise for appearances sake.
Race-baiters “resort to scaremongering— “spreading stories” (untruths, half truths, narrow perspectives, embellishments, misrepresentations) “that make people feel worried or frightened”
Race-baiting is the incitement of racial hatred (not confined to one race), often for political (biased, vested interested, or narrow-minded) purposes. (Source: Cambridge dictionary https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/race-baiting)
Lexico gives the term two eras of origin.
As a noun, found in The New York Times newspaper in the 1920s: from race + baiting, naming usage: race-baiter: (USA) “The incitement or exploitation (a person as inciter, exploiter) of racial hatred, prejudice, or tension, usually (especially in later eras’ usage) for political gain.
As an adjective,
found in The Chicago Defender newspaper in the 1930s: from race + baiting,
descriptive usage: race-baiter, race-baiting (USA): “of, engaging in, or
characterized by race-baiting” (Source: Lexico https://www.lexico.com/definition/race-baiting)
Merriam-Webster’s definition of race-baiting — “the making of verbal
attacks against members of a racial group,” its origin set in the early 1960s —
is too general (a blatant colloquialism lacking substantive meaning) to accurately
define the term. (Source: “Race-baiting Definition of Race-baiting by
Merriam-Webster (merriam-webster.com)
Another commentary on race-baiting uses a key term, “divide”:
“It is important to understand the divisive nature of the various, different senses of race-baiting before using the term.”
The key word here is “divisive” in that the race-baiter is always divisive (a divider by intent), regardless of his or her stripe, creed, color, sex, sexuality, orientation, ideology, partisan path or expedient allegiance; regardless of the label by which he or she identifies, or is identified. Whether pandering or promoting, the intent is to divide, “us” from “them.”
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oodman is always the (unspoken) “us” separate from and greater than the overt “them”— the latter the “victims,” the poor creatures, the pitiful and pitiable colors she parades before the public. Never to share her anchor’s perch.
Goodman is a master subliminalist, a clever, below-the-radar race-baiter. Her guests (“them”) on Democracy Now! seem to fall for her masking every time. They acquiesce or succumb, for a few minutes of “fame” or self-humiliation, to becoming her partners, co-conspirators in mass indoctrination of division.
If a person is just “colored,” just “black”, just “Latinx”, just this
or that sex or sexuality— the person doing the naming (the person whose name is
so limited) is being disparaged. These variations are not self-made, not
accomplishments like being a sculptor or composer or dancer or carpenter or
plumber. They were there at birth; or they are convenient characterizations,
boxes, divides, ghettoes, compartments.
Never have I heard on Democracy Now! a panel of (multicolored) Americans together (not Americans separate and unequal) in in-depth discussion of America’s (and Americans’) problems.
- People relations
- Public and media relations
- Public and government relations
- The breakdown and
severing of America’s vital institutions, including broad governmental and
constitutional institutions, local, state and federal health, education, and
welfare institutions
Democracy Now!’s modus operandi [“white” people for “white stories,” “black” people for “black stories,” “brown” people for “brown stories” (has anyone ever really seen a black, brown, white person)] is designed to DIVIDE and weaken individual Americans, and the whole body politic!
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N’s race-baiting headlines: a sampling
2006
“‘Poor People, Disabled People, People of Color Are Not Welcomed Back to New Orleans’–Activists Paint Grim Picture of Struggling City” April 10, 2006 https://www.democracynow.org/2006/4/10/poor_people_disabled_people_people_of
2017
“‘Billion-Dollar Mistake’: Democrats Neglect People of Color While Failing to Woo White Trump Voters” July 31, 2017 https://www.democracynow.org/2017/7/31/billion_dollar_mistake_democrats_neglect_people
2018
“Modern-Day Redlining: Banks Face Probes for Refusing Home Loans for People of Color” February 27, 2018 https://www.democracynow.org/2018/2/27/modern_day_redlining_banks_face_probes
2020 (June)
“Fear Grows of Modern-Day Lynchings as Five People of Color Are Found Hanged” Headline June 18, 2020 https://www.democracynow.org/2020/6/18/headlines/fear_grows_of_modern_day_lynchings_as_six_people_of_color_are_found_hanged
November 2020
“Bree Newsome & Prof. Eddie Glaude: The Black Lives Matter Movement Helped the Democrats Defeat Trump” November 9, 2020 https://www.democracynow.org/2020/11/9/2020_election_democratic_party_future
“San Francisco DA Charges Police Officer over Killing of Unarmed Black Man in 2017” Headline November 24, 2020 https://www.democracynow.org/2020/11/24/headlines/san_francisco_da_charges_police_officer_over_killing_of_unarmed_black_man_in_2017
(2) “Omaha Protesters Demand Justice for Kenneth Jones, African American Man Killed by Police” Headline November 24, 2020 https://www.democracynow.org/2020/11/24/headlines/omaha_protesters_demand_justice_for_kenneth_jones_african_american_man_killed_by_police
(3) “Florida Police Face Investigation into Officers’ Killing of Two Black Teens” Headline November 24, 2020 https://www.democracynow.org/2020/11/24/headlines/florida_police_face_investigation_into_officers_killing_of_two_black_teens
(4) “As 2020 Sets Grim Record for Trans Killings, Advocates Call for Holistic & Uplifting Media Coverage” November 24, 2020 https://www.democracynow.org/2020/11/24/tori_cooper_anti_trans_violence_2020
(5) “Juan González Remembers NYC’s Only Black Mayor David Dinkins & Vieques Activist Carlos ‘Taso’ Zenón November 24, 2020 https://www.democracynow.org/2020/11/24/david_dinkins_carlos_taso_zenon
“Bree Newsome & Prof. Eddie Glaude: The Black Lives Matter Movement Helped the Democrats Defeat Trump” November 26, 2020 https://www.democracynow.org/2020/11/26/bree_newsome_prof_eddie_glaude_the
(2) “Juan González: Mainstream Media Has Missed the Real Story About Latinx Voter Turnout” November 26, 2020 https://www.democracynow.org/2020/11/26/juan_gonzalez_the_media_has_it
December 2020
“‘Part of the Solution’: Meet the Black Doctor Who Joined a Vaccine Trial After Her Dad Died of COVID” December 1, 2020 https://www.democracynow.org/2020/12/1/racial_disparities_healthcare_dr_chris_pernell
“Black Mother Attacked by Philadelphia Police Speaks Out: ‘My Son Is Petrified’” Headline December 4, 2020 https://www.democracynow.org/2020/12/4/headlines/black_mother_attacked_by_philadelphia_police_speaks_out_my_son_is_petrified
“Family Demands Justice for Casey Goodson Jr., 23-Year-Old Black Man Killed by Ohio Police” Headline December 7, 2020 https://www.democracynow.org/2020/12/7/headlines/family_demands_justice_for_casey_goodson_jr_23_year_old_black_man_killed_by_ohio_police
(2)
“Black Voters Matter: Group Sues Georgia for Purging 200,000 Voters Ahead of 2020 Election” December 7, 2020 https://www.democracynow.org/2020/12/7/georgia_voter_registration_voter_suppression
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.S. Public officials for forty years, in the peace era, in the post Cold War era, have been sending young men and women to kill and be killed and maimed in countries, against people who threaten no one—least of all the most heavily nuclear armed nation in the world, the United States or its people.
As U.S. politicians and their allies and revolving-door think tankers enrich themselves selling armaments, advising on war making, arming nations, and provoking violence and hostility among nations—they are simultaneously, with all of their influence, driving Americans and America into the garbage bin.
Not only are they neglecting the environment generally; but they polluting it by continuously encouraging extreme consumerism whose throwaways fill and overfill landfills whose stuff and fumes are then transported to poor U.S. communities, and to foreign nations whose laborers provide cheap imports (nations against whom American leaders conduct endless hostilities, demonize, condescend to, and ridicule).
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ubstantive and compelling issues face our country. A crying need to change and change course is being neglected. Not even being considered. America’s people and the bonds that bind them (us) are being destroyed.
Politicians bicker among themselves. Gorge themselves on the public treasury. Preen and posture in their pinnacle of influence. Blame other nations and peoples for their utter and deliberate failures.
Americans keep sending them back to Washington. Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now! keeps baiting races. America and Americans keep falling farther and farther apart.
It’s past time to wise up, overcome ourselves, and come together for Americans and America.
Insight Beyond Today’s News, CLB - © All Rights Reserved
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