The road to mental freedom-Black Power

Knowledge is power. Dessemination of it EQUALS the spread of power. Unfortunately what we see on television and the entire media is mind-numbing and has everything to do with maintaining power in the hands of a few, rather than all. For a sleeping mind does not have to think, and when not thinking, someone else is. And when you are not thinking, you cannot understand, or even diagnose your problems, consequently, learning to live with its symtoms. You see, everything in life has to do with power. Even when we argue, fight, love etc, there is a degree of power struggle. There are two kinds of power-physical and mental. Physical is what we have to use on things, not humans, and mental is what is needed for human relations. But the big propanda machinery of the white oppressive regime has done a very good job at accentuating physical power in our communities, with very little effort in mental empowerment. Our public schools, media, books, movies, even some churches have been incorporated into the propanganda machinery. What we know is what we are told! But what if it is a lie or at best, half- truths? Deception by omittance equals a great lie. Whomever tells the story, exercises great control over its content.

In pre-1950s, the function of the radio was primarily entertainment, and even now. Soap operas and movies played on the radio. Newspapers carried the so-called news, and most blacks could not read. Then the television arrived and sparked off a revolution. Television news breathed life into the civil rights movement because, for the first time, people could now hear of the happenings around the country, and to a very little degree-the world. They woke up, saw that they were emotionally naked, cold and hungry, and began to seek CHANGE.

You see, the African American civil rights began long before the sixties. Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, Du Bois and Marcus Garvey were all civil rights activists. I must also add they there were several white Americans in the struggle, even then. William Lloyd Garrison and Elijah Lovejoy are just two of the many whites that sacrificed their lives for African American freedom. The first slaves that arrived here wanted the civil rights (my blood boils inside when people say the civil rights began in the sixties).

Ownership and control over programming of a network television station is the key to mental freedom of Africans.We have to set the agenda. Our own agenda. An agenda that addresses our needs and not wants. It should be Nothing like BET which has women shaking their behinds in a glorified manner. Never!

Every social change that occurred had been fueled by exposure to some information, consequently knowledge - from the French revolution to Ghandi's fight for India's independence. The civil rights movement's peak in the sixties is no exception. Television's impact on social change was huge, as it delivered BLACK POWER into every living room in America, including whites. In America, the paramount purpose of broadcast television is to serve the public good as ruled by the US Supreme Court. The airwaves, though owned by the public, has been hijacked by a few rich, white men, and converted into their personal cash-registers. And the only reson why they are able to get away with it is because we let them. Every newspaper, TV station, radio station, magazine, movie comapanies are owned collectively by just a hand-full of individuals. And their interests are not akin to ours. We have two choices: we can either wait a lifetime for them to have a change-of-heart or we must demand our share, NOW. Infact, they may get worse-they may get more greedy.

Ownership of the our own network TV is imperative in our journey to mental freedom.
Some people may wonder how that's going to be different from white media and whether it should it be. This station should not be entertainment-oriented. We have had enough of that. It should be a TV network dedicated towards the struggle. Yet again, I've had others tell me that people would not be interested in an intense dialoque and wonder whether a station like that could command ads for funding. I have an answer to both questions. The apathy our people, especially the youth, exercise toward the struggle is not because of a lack of concern on their part, but rather a lack of a platform on which the message could be effectively relayed to them of its urgency and importance.

Most people can call up the names of OJ Simpson, Scott Peterson or Lacy Peterson without much effort. That's not accidental. Producers and editors of the media giants decide the issues they broadcast or print. There are several things happening and these gatekeepers have to filter them out in order to squeeze them into limited airtime or newspaper pages. But by them picking to spend a year covering the Simpson or Peterson trial, they have then decided the issues we should be concerned with. After a while, whether you like it or not, given that you could avoid the issue due to its ubiquitous nature, you start thinking about it. In the same manner, if blacks speak about their issues on a TV on television everyday, it will make it to the top-of-the-mind recall, and we would be discussing them everyday. If we leave it up to the white media, as it is now, our issues becomes but a fleeting illusion, never to be grappled with. Secondly, this television can be funded nammer as Al Jazeera or PBS - donations. The upper and middle class blacks in the country are rich enough to fund such a station. The working class can also help. It boils down to how well we organize this duty, and, more importantly, manage it.

As long as we sit and wait for a hand-out from white America, we can kiss our meal ticket bye-bye. It will never happen. They are more concerned with maintaining possession of their privileges than sharing it. We have to organize in order to change the course of our destiny. Destiny is what we make out our lives, it is not pre-determined. But in so doing, let us remember the words of Martin Luther King, jr. when he said that we cannot "employ immorial means to arrive at a moral end." Rather let us utilize our most potent weapon-our minds and emotional strength- and with solidarity, and take charge of our destiny. Let's share the knowledge! Let's give power to the people!! United we stand, divided we fall!!! We are already on the ground zero, and it's time to wake up and live.