Written by Tyra Mills, Social Media Editor
On Oct. 16, 1995, Louis Farrakhan organized the Million Man March. This was a calling of all African American men to meet in Washington, DC around the National Mall. The march was held to place black issues back on the political agenda.
This past October, the 20th anniversary of the million man march was held again in Washington, DC around the National Mall. This time being led by activist group, Justice or Else! This was a huge event, with thousands of people showing up to participate. Though the crowd was less dense and younger than that of the original march, it was still a memorable event and at the very least, it was news worthy of coverage.
Unfortunately, the reunion of one of the biggest congregations to ever take place in Washington, DC is not important enough for mainstream media to cover.
Instead, they offered two to four sentences of brief notes about the event and moved on to other far more “important” topics.
According to newsbusters.org, Sunday Morning host Charles Osgood gave a one-sentence news brief that didn’t even mention Farrakhan’s name. Then, Fifty minutes earlier, news anchor Ron Claiborne set aside four sentences to the rally on Good Morning America. Yes, a lot of media wrote articles and web exclusives after the fact, but television coverage would have been way more efficient in my opinion.
I think the biggest disappointment of all was the fact that BET didn’t even think to cover this event. BET is a channel dedicated to blacks, a channel that is supposed to be the voice of blacks. If that isn’t sad, I don’t know what is. BET instead showed another rerun of the “Martin” sitcom, and TV One, the other major black-oriented network, ran yet another episode of “Good Times.” News channels CNN and MSNBC likewise turned their attention elsewhere.
I just find it disgusting how mainstream media goes about choosing what it deems to be important. When the killing of Mike Brown happened, blacks gathered to peacefully protest and remember him. After being pelted with wooden bullets by heavily armed officers, riots began to break out in the city. Media swarmed
Ferguson as soon as it looked like black people were doing something negative. Where was all the coverage of the peaceful protest? Why is it that the media only likes to show minorities through a slanted lens when it seems they are doing something negative. Here you have thousands of blacks meeting peacefully to celebrate a historic event and there’s little to no coverage of it. This is very frustrating because I believe that the media’s job is to be fair and to represent everyone equally. Representation is so important and I really feel like those who chose not to cover the march or put very little effort into briefing it, really dropped the ball.
Yes if they’re any thing positive in the million man march they really don’t want to here it.that truly is appalling.
Well written, until we (Black America) stand up and wretch away the ability of any and everyone to project or determine how the world views us, biased representations will continue to be the norm.