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The Assassination Of The Black Male Image
The New York Beacon |
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Few African-Americans can be happy
with the negative portrayal of Black males in American society. Now there's
a book that tells why. "The Assassination of the Black Male Image" by Dr.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is shocking in its honesty. It is real in its
interpretation of history, of slavery, of the brutal reality facing many
Black people in a white world. This explains why many Blacks hate each other and themselves. Hutchinson demonstrates how white America has systematically marketed and belittled Black people as evil and sub-human ever since their racial path crossed. Hutchinson reveals that a white Simi Valley juror in the Rodney King beating case called king "a dangerous person, massive size and threatening action." He walks us through American History to explain why this juror, like many whites have always viewed Blacks as "dangerous" and "threatening." He highlights the vicious racism in movies, essays and novels of years past. He connects this with the present. During the Reagan-Bust years, the attacks on the character of Black males were relentless and uncompromising. Hutchinson notes, "The press routinely tossed around terms like `crime-prone,' `war zone,' `gain infested,' `crack plagued,' `drug turfs,' `drug zombies,' `violence scarred,' `ghetto outcasts,' and ghetto poverty syndrome.'" The media wasn't referring exclusively to the poor or criminals. It was referring to Black males. This explains how much of the media deals with crime. It paints it with a young Black male face. This places African-Americans, no matter what their class, income, education, or professional status, potentially at risk from police harassment and violence. Hutchinson also jumps into the current debate raging between Blacks and Jews over Minister Louis Farrakhan. "Jewish organizations don't regard Farrakhan as simply anti-Semitic. He's also a symbol of Jewish rage against Blacks. Jews are mad because they feel betrayed. They worked hard to help built SNCC and CORE during the 1960s. They gave time, money and advice to the civil rights movement." As a reward for their sacrifices, Hutchinson contends, they were "called racists and ghetto exploiters." Many Blacks accused them "of manufacturing plots and conspiracies." But he also sees the other side. Many Blacks, he says, feel that Jews only aided the civil rights movement out of self-interest. They resent Jewish organizations trying to bait and harass those Black leaders who don't denounce the Nation of Islam. He's right. They are both locked in a seeming unbreakable dance of destructive anger. But Hutchinson doesn't just blame the "White establishment" for assassinating the Black male image. He also charges that some Black rappers, filmmakers, feminist writers and comedians for fame and profit also aid and abet in the assassination of the Black male image. It's clear that Hutchinson cares deeply about the image of Black men in America. With the status of Black men finally on the nation's table as a policy issue, his book will enhance our understanding of that issue. Ethnic NewsWatch, SoftLine Information, Inc., Stamford, CT |
