I am sick of watching faux news on television. And no…I’m not just talking about Fox News. In this curious era of distracting spectacle, misleading rhetoric, censorship and smoke and mirror campaigns Fox News is not the only institution propagating innuendos and half-truths. For years the potent cocktail of raw and comprehensive news broadcasts has been slowly watered down by the media’s intentional use of superficial language designed to keep the public ignorant of the deeper significance of events in this increasingly precarious, globalized, and turbo-charged capitalistic world.
These simplifications belie the complexity and interconnected relationship between cause and effect and mask the root causes of human behavior played out upon the intricate backdrop of racism, poverty, increasing inequality and the systematic dismantling of social safety nets. As a result of politically sanctioned jargon, words are manipulated to downplay or exaggerate significance at the whim of policy makers. “Protestors” and “activists” become “reactionaries” or “fanatics”. Rich people are no longer referred to as “wealthy” but rather as “job creators”( an erroneous misnomer because it is actually small business owners that create the most jobs. The grotesquely rich are more apt to invest/hoard their money than use it to create jobs for the working or middle class.) Immigrants are often labeled “illegal” regardless of their actual status. Citizens who want to limit military intervention or who support gay marriage are labeled “bleeding heart liberals.” The concept of impartiality is completely alien to the moguls of mainstream, contemporary media. Everything has a spin: a spin that favors the law makers, the wealthiest citizens and the corporations; but simultaneously devalues or demonizes the interests of the working class.
The precipitous for this rant was a feature on NBC’s Nightly news about the riots in London. In particular I objected to the word “thugs” used in the description of the rioters/protesters which designated all those involved as engaging in “criminal activity.” Subsequent research illuminates the fact that that the night began with a peaceful demonstration of people protesting the violent and excessive force of police used against an unarmed man who was shot dead. In fact, the citizens of Tottenham ,for many years, organized peaceful protests, sit ins and other events to draw attention to their plight. Despite their efforts the media largely ignored them—that is—until they turned violent.
Tottenham has an impoverished history-- unknown to most of NBC’s viewers. Since the 1980’s—it has been a destination for immigrants from across the globe including African-Caribbean, Ghanaians, Colombians, Kurds, Turkish and Albanians to name a few. As most people know—or should know—immigrants are often segregated from native people in dilapidated urban areas. These centers become an inescapable geography of invisibility, vulnerability and hopelessness. People confined to these precarious geographies are marginalized in various ways because of their skin color and presupposition to poverty and simultaneously subjected to stringent scrutiny and police harassment.
According to Wikipedia “Tottenham has the highest unemployment rate in London and the 8th highest in the United Kingdom, and it has some of the highest poverty rates within the country”. Writer James Illingsworth states: “IT'S NO coincidence, of course, that these events are taking place in the poorest neighborhoods of London and other major cities. Youth in these areas have grown up in a climate of poverty and racism, facing regular police harassment, along with unemployment rates for youth that were already sky-high before the current economic crisis hit.” Of course, you won’t hear sentiments like this on American mainstream news. According to the press these people are “thugs” and “criminals”. According to Illingsworth the British media-- along with the ruling class-- has a similar message. He goes on to say: “The ruling class reaction to the unrest has been typically hypocritical and reactionary. Politicians, police commanders and media pundits alike have denounced the rebellion as "mindless criminality" .
Calling these individuals “thugs” without illuminating the back-story of the social, cultural and political catalysts that have caused the poor and working class to resort to violence is grievous at best, and journalistic negligence at its worst. People do not normally resort to violence and rioting unless nothing else has worked to alleviate their suffering. The world deserves to know what has caused this tragedy. Labeling these people as “thugs” and “criminals” does nothing to solve the problem—it only serves to cement their position as undesirables and therefore disposable.
I am reminded of a musician popular in the 1980’s: Sinead O’Connor, She wrote a song called Black Boys on Mopeds…which—interestingly enough deals with this very subject. She eloquently and distinctly characterizes this situation; one that has been going on for at least thirty years with the following phrase:
“England's not the mythical land of Madame George and roses
It's the home of police who kill black boys on mopeds
And I love my boy and that's why I'm leaving
I don't want him to be aware that there's
Any such thing as grieving.” ~Sinead O’Connor
I want to end this post by invoking James Illinsworth one last time”
“And when the tensions in people's lives--racism, increasing poverty, alienation and immiseration--reach a boiling point, those in power lecture about how "violence is wrong," without ever once acknowledging the daily violence in the lives of the poor and working-class people.”
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