Yep, it’s The Arts of June! I’m very happy. Hey, did you know that there’s a grab bag raffle going on right now and it ends on Tuesday? This post will tell you everything you need to know! And thank you everyone who has voted for me in the Black Weblog Awards, I hope I win! Didn’t vote yet? Voting ends at midnight, June 17th. I’m in the faith category.
Flipsyde
I forget how I came across the music of Flipsyde but I think it was through Pandora but their music stuck with me. I really like their song “Champion”
But the songs I like most? Political works. If you can make me think, chances are much better that I’ll listen to you. So long it’s poignant.
Their song “Happy Birthday” is a voice that isn’t often heard in the debate of a woman’s right to choose. Told from the male perspective but still keeping the woman well within the picture but also the child as well. It’s a great listen.
The song I like most from them? “U.S. History” a pretty accurate run through of American Imperialism and the history of the United States.
Postive Black Stories
Often in the news the stories often told about Blacks are very disparaging. Even today in modern society we’re stuck with the different faces of Black culture that are each very disheartening: mammy, thug, musician/entertainer, goon, magic negro. I personally don’t believe for one second that we live in a post-racial society because we don’t and never did, there’s too much left to do. With the constant media representation, it’s easy to see why Blacks are seen as fearsome beings that lack moral compass and closer to primitiveness than civilized beings or as odd speaking subhumans, always talkin’ that jive and swiveling their head when angry other nonsense such as that. While sites like Black Witch and Afro-Punk try to show the other face of Black culture, it is a hard swim upstream and a big reason why as stated in Yale article “Mass Media and Racism”, written by Stephen Balkaran in 1999 and still relevant over ten years later is this:
“Media have divided the working class and stereotyped young African-American males as gangsters or drug dealers. As a result of such treatment, the media have crushed youths’ prospects for future employment and advancement. The media have focused on the negative aspects of the black community (e.g. engaging in drug use, criminal activity, welfare abuse) while maintaining the cycle of poverty that the elite wants.
There are no universally accepted and recorded codes or rules, which apply to journalists in news selection and production. The media have devoted too much time and space to “enumerating the wounded” and too little time to describing the background problems of African-Americans. What is not a crisis is not usually reported and what is not or cannot be made visual is often not televised. The news media respond quickly and with keen interest to the conflicts and controversies of racial stories. For the most part, they disregard the problems that seep beneath the surface until they erupt in the hot steam that is the “live” news story.” The U.S. Media and Racism, Mass Media and Racism
“Clearly, the economic structure of the American news media and the local media make them subject to pressures from powerful interest groups. In 1967, the Kerner Report attacked the mass media for their inadequate handling of day-to-day coverage of racial events. The Report charged the media with failing to properly communicate about race to the majority of their audience. That is, white America needed to hear more about the actual conditions and feelings of African-Americans in the U.S. Only when events are associated with concern of the “white public” do they become newsworthy. Given the situation in America where the major news media have predominantly white reporters and serve a mainly white audience, it follows that the “public” which dictates newsworthy events is a white public. The day to day tensions of black existence and exploitation, which are crucial concerns of the black community, are not primary concerns of the white public. Only the symptoms of these conditions, such as freedom rides and social disturbances, impinge upon whites. Hence, it is only such “events” which become newsworthy in a white press.
One of the main reasons for the inadequate coverage of the underlying causes of racial stereotypes in the U.S. is that the condition of blacks itself is not a matter of high interest to the white majority. Their interest in black America is focused upon situations in which their imagined fear becomes a real problem. Events like boycotts, pickets, civil rights demonstrations, and particularly racial violence mark the point at which black activity impinges on white concerns. It is not surprising that the white-oriented media seek to satisfy the needs of their white audience and reflect this pattern of attention to these selected events.
Research has disclosed that most serious crimes (homicide, rape, robbery, and assault) in inner cities are committed by a very small proportion of African-American youth, some 8% by estimates. Yet the tendency to characterize all African-American males as criminals continues in our society. It is now common for law officers to stop young black males and to harass them as a result of this stereotype. The negative stereotype has continued to affect the black community, as well as their prospects for employment and advancement. All this has been destroyed and, as a end result, it has contributed to high unemployment within the African-American community.” The U.S. News, Media and Race, Mass Media Racism
With trends like these, it’s nice to see YouTube Channel Positive Black Stories to exist and show that we’re not all illiterate rappers only capable of barreling down a football field, eating chicken and raping women all between committing crimes.
A favorite story I have on there is about the teen hacker to computer security businessman
And another is about the music industry and how it really is. A must watch if you want to get into the music business
I really do appreciate finding stories like these because they don’t circulate the media enough since it is so hard to change the minds of thousands upon millions when they’re used to one train of thought for almost half a millennium and how that train changes track ever so slowly. The Black race is a really amazing race that’s done so much and can accomplish so much.
Jayne Steiger
She really is a fantastic artist that has a very haunting style and is very diverse through multiple forms of media. Jayne is an aspiring illustrator/illustration student whose work is influenced by fairytales, dreams, and past eras. It is very clear the attention she pays to detail and how the works project emotion and even a story. Note, none of these works are done on computer. They’re all by hand.
Her craft work is very cute and interesting (Click to enlarge)
Dracula Hollow Book
Her work with color is phenomenal
Vice
Korpikaani
And look at her usage of black and white
Upside Down
Haunted House Sounds
To see more of her works:
Website
Deviant Art
And sorry that the column was late, I was distracted by watching vocaloid videos and this one I could help but find incredibly cute and funny titled “Carlito”:
That’s all The Arts for now! Ask Black Witch is next week, send questions (this site is full of ways to contact me). And participate in the raffle! Voting time may be done but donation time still has four more days left!
Black Witch 