Post by SAMURAI36 on Jan 15, 2005 18:33:48 GMT -5
PEACE TO OBA for sending this to me:
In case you are not already aware of it one of the very last of large black owned media outlets--Essence Magazine--has sold its remaining 51% share to Time, Inc.
I'm going to tell you...a part of me was unbelievably depressed when I heard about the sell out--I felt that I was sold out as a black woman. When I read the article it was like hearing someone you knew and loved had died a horrible, tragic death. So quick and unexpected all one can do is gasp.
Of course you all should know that once Time, Inc owned a 49% share in Essence Magazine that that was the point when the articles and focus of the magazine changed from that of a cultural and socially aware magazine from the black womans point of view, to that of a materialistic, vain and socially stagnated one which focuses on nothing more meaningful than "Men on the Down Low" and plastic surgery 'refreshening' for the black woman on the up and up. Thus I shouldn't have been surprised at all because Essence Magazine sold out some time ago.
I think everyone should reflect on what this means, the actual significance of the sale. BET was the beginning. When they toppled, all the worthwhile shows such as 'The Tavis Smiley Show' made the hard fall to the bottom with them. Now when one watches BET the can see a proliferation of sitcoms, sexually explicit music videos, and ridiculous mind-stupefying movies.
The sale of large black-owned media outlets to their larger more affluent white owned counterparts means that there will be a drastic filtering of important information. To control information means you are controlling someones mind. This is what scares me. There is already a lack of worthwhile black films, magazines, and televison shows out there as it is. If any of you read American Legacy, a magazine dedicated to ferreting out little known facts in African-American history, look on the inside cover, it is a Forbes imprint.
The point I am making here is that instead of progressing I see African-Americans as a whole regressing. Personal progress is all good an well but what is happening with African-Americans socioeconomically and culturally is not positive. I do not see us making huge leaps and bounds into the future. I see some of us making it, but many more of us falling to the wayside. This fall is evidenced in the types of programs we watch and make popular, the books we choose to immerse ourselves in and the lack of knowledge I see in the eyes of many teenagers, children and adults.
In case you are not already aware of it one of the very last of large black owned media outlets--Essence Magazine--has sold its remaining 51% share to Time, Inc.
I'm going to tell you...a part of me was unbelievably depressed when I heard about the sell out--I felt that I was sold out as a black woman. When I read the article it was like hearing someone you knew and loved had died a horrible, tragic death. So quick and unexpected all one can do is gasp.
Of course you all should know that once Time, Inc owned a 49% share in Essence Magazine that that was the point when the articles and focus of the magazine changed from that of a cultural and socially aware magazine from the black womans point of view, to that of a materialistic, vain and socially stagnated one which focuses on nothing more meaningful than "Men on the Down Low" and plastic surgery 'refreshening' for the black woman on the up and up. Thus I shouldn't have been surprised at all because Essence Magazine sold out some time ago.
I think everyone should reflect on what this means, the actual significance of the sale. BET was the beginning. When they toppled, all the worthwhile shows such as 'The Tavis Smiley Show' made the hard fall to the bottom with them. Now when one watches BET the can see a proliferation of sitcoms, sexually explicit music videos, and ridiculous mind-stupefying movies.
The sale of large black-owned media outlets to their larger more affluent white owned counterparts means that there will be a drastic filtering of important information. To control information means you are controlling someones mind. This is what scares me. There is already a lack of worthwhile black films, magazines, and televison shows out there as it is. If any of you read American Legacy, a magazine dedicated to ferreting out little known facts in African-American history, look on the inside cover, it is a Forbes imprint.
The point I am making here is that instead of progressing I see African-Americans as a whole regressing. Personal progress is all good an well but what is happening with African-Americans socioeconomically and culturally is not positive. I do not see us making huge leaps and bounds into the future. I see some of us making it, but many more of us falling to the wayside. This fall is evidenced in the types of programs we watch and make popular, the books we choose to immerse ourselves in and the lack of knowledge I see in the eyes of many teenagers, children and adults.
