During February 2016, I kept to a Black media diet: Black books, Black blogs, Black television, Black websites, etc, where “Black” means Africa and the Diaspora. It was both good and bad:
The good:
- I discovered new films, websites and books that I likely would not have known about anytime soon. In addition to recommendations from commenters (thank you!), I discovered “Belle”, for example, Blackpast.org, the #JusticeForFlint concert (Janelle Monae was great) and that I had my sister’s copy of “The Norton Anthology of African American Literature” (2004).
- I did more reading – partly because I watched less junk on YouTube and television (particularly cable news), partly because it made it easier to settle on what books to read. It was kind of like living on a desert island.
- I discovered that Web translation is much further along than I thought, not only in quality but in the number of languages covered (any African language with at least 30 million speakers).
- I discovered that I did not have to drown in White content, that I could use Tumblr, YouTube, Twitter and Blogger to prevent it.
The bad:
- It limited my research for posts, even though I had allowed for fact checking. This came out most clearly when I did a post on Peter Liang, a Chinese American New York police officer found guilty of manslaughter. Since I was limited to Black media, I mainly just got one side of the story.
- It limited the sort of posts I could do. For example, I put off doing posts on Irish slaves, Ted Cruz, Romanization, Westernization, Cleon, Nostratic, Munsee, and the fall of Baghdad to the Mongols and the Americans. (Of course, some readers might see that as a good thing!)
- It made it harder to find good images for posts. Images from the Black Web tend to be smaller than the ones I use – and offer less of a choice.
- I did less social viewing (watching film and television with friends and family). Even so, this was where I wound up breaking my diet, by watching “American Idol” and “Better Call Saul”.
- The White US press is terrible, something that became even clearer to me once I had some distance from it. If Donald Trump becomes president, it will be partly to blame.
- Black US media is dependent on White US media. It fills in some of the holes left by White media, but does not stand on its own. It is meant mainly as a dietary supplement to a White media diet. And, with the Whitening of MSNBC, there is less of it.
- The African and Afro-Caribbean Web in English is shockingly thin. The Black part of the Web in English seems to be mainly from the US.
What I most missed: Democracy Now! and The Economist.
Going forward:
For March 2016 I will continue to stick to my Black media diet, but with these changes:
- No limits on research for posts.
- Allow social viewing.
- Add Democracy Now! as a dietary supplement.
– Abagond, 2016.
See also:
- media diet
- My Black Media Month
- Belle
- Peter Liang
- MSNBC
- Africans in the Greek and Roman world
- YouTube: Democracy Now!
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“Black US media is dependent on White US media. It fills in some of the holes left by White media, but does not stand on its own. It is meant mainly as a dietary supplement to a White media diet.”
Just as everything else is in the US, Abagond. The older I get, the more I see how we, Blacks here in America, do not stand on our own. It seems we strive to be more and more like “white Mike” than learn about who we are, who we’ve always been. On the one hand, I get it — they are all we know. Their definition of family, of success, of what makes a “good person” has always been our barometer (more often than not, to survive in “their world”). But, on the other hand, I just don’t understand why, when we finally DO get it — we don’t do something different, something less dependent?? Even the monied among us mimic the White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy, only giving a nod to their Blackness when it means “dolla, dolla, bills” for them. I don’t know, Man. I just don’t know…
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Ben…clicked on your “like” to thank you, but I ended up liking myself (old folk and technology, what can I say??)!! So thank you…
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You wrote [I discovered that Web translation is much further along than I thought, not only in quality but in the number of languages covered (any African language with at least 30 million speakers).]
As far I have seen, Google translate offers Afrikaans, Amharic, Arabic(partially African), Chichewa, Hausa, Igbo, Malagasy, Sesotho, Shona, Somali, Swahili, Xhosa, Yoruba, Zulu.
Among important African languages, Akan, Bamanakan, Mandinka, Dyula, Mooré, Wolof, Lingala, Krio, Chibemba, Tigrinya, Gikuyu, Fulfulde, Setswana, Luganda, Kituba/Munukutuba and Sango are still missing in Google translate
What else languages have you found and where? Could you be so kind to post the links?
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[The African and Afro-Caribbean Web in English is shockingly thin. The Black part of the Web in English seems to be mainly from the US.]
Sounds a little bit surprising. Does it means that there is little English content from such countries like Nigeria, Ghana or South Africa? The films of Nollywood as far as I know are in Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo or Edo, but probably they are subtitled in English.
There are many soap operas in Lingala (DR of Congo)
I think there should be certainly lots of African content in French or Portuguese probably more than in English
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“It limited my research for posts, even though I had allowed for fact checking. This came out most clearly when I did a post on Peter Liang, a Chinese American New York police officer found guilty of manslaughter. Since I was limited to Black media, I mainly just got one side of the story.
It limited the sort of posts I could do. For example, I put off doing posts on Irish slaves, Ted Cruz, Romanization, Westernization, Cleon, Nostratic, Munsee, and the fall of Baghdad to the Mongols and the Americans. (Of course, some readers might see that as a good thing!)
It made it harder to find good images for posts. Images from the Black Web tend to be smaller than the ones I use – and offer less of a choice.”
“Black US media is dependent on White US media. It fills in some of the holes left by White media, but does not stand on its own. It is meant mainly as a dietary supplement to a White media diet. And, with the Whitening of MSNBC, there is less of it.
The African and Afro-Caribbean Web in English is shockingly thin. The Black part of the Web in English seems to be mainly from the US.”
I must be getting prescient in my old age, because you confirm what I thought of the experiment:
” on Wed 3 Feb 2016 at 01:32:22
gro jo
The whole thing sounds kind of silly. “
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I’m doing something and so is abagond,his work is more visible and influential then mine but when it comes to phenotypic groups – its a very long term process ,we may never see the day when we have and are in the place in the world we desire and should have.
Albert Einstein is dead a hunderd years and he never saw the part of his theory referencing gravity validated, but it has.
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@Mbeti
Mbeti, you are right, we may not see that day. I hope our descendants seven generations in the future will see that day. That is why our current struggles are worth the effort—for the ones not yet born.
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