Black Leaders Want Local Media to Stop Reporting Crimes (Pittsburgh: live, law)

[gg]

There was just that murder in Squirrel Hill and it was white on white. It is hyped up as much as any other murder. I have to say, it was pretty darn gross for some druggy to go into an old man's home and beat him to death. The old man treated the punk well over the years. Hope the punk gets the death penalty. Not enough room on the planet for types like that.

On the flip side, I don't like the black on black crime reported all the time. It isn't good for anyone and it hurts the black community. It is daily and really grinds on everyone. If the shooting happened and the person is caught, maybe they could overlook some of it sometimes. I don't know, but it isn't healthy for anyone to keep hearing about the drug murders in black areas. Bad for people's minds on both sides.

[JD984]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I agree DC has some nice middle-to-upper-class neighborhoods with a substantial, sometimes majority, percentage of black people.

But if you think DC has no racial consciousness, you don't know "Chocolate City".

There is both a considerable amount of racial mixing in DC right now, and a considerable amount of racial consciousness.

In terms of neighborhoods, the neighborhoods in the western part of NW are overwhelmingly white, the neighborhoods in most of NE and SE are overwhelmingly black, and there are quite a few neighborhoods, particularly in the eastern part of NW, the western part of NE and SW that are very mixed (more in the sense of whites and blacks living in close proximity to one another than in the sense that they necessarily have a lot of social interaction with each other). The positive interactions that occur between whites and blacks in DC primarily take place in Government and Military workplaces, which have a longer history of integration than private businesses. Having said that, for ambitious AAs seeking to make their mark in private industry, DC (though perhaps not as much as Atlanta) is considered one of the better cities.

The areas that h_curtis recently visited (Foggy Bottom, Georgetown and Dupont) are largely white residential areas, but there are lots of affluent African-Americans who work or shop there.

There are some neighborhoods in DC that are primarily upper-income African Americans, and have been so for many decades. The best example is 16th Street Heights in NW, sometimes referred to as the "Gold Coast." In addition, much of NE - its reputation notwithstanding - consists of stable, middle-income neighborhoods that are primarily African-American. And, of course, adjacent Prince George's County in Maryland is a majority African-American county, and the communities there range from very low-income to very wealthy areas. I don't know if there are similar neighborhoods in Pittsburgh or its suburbs - are parts of Penn Hills like this?

But BrianTH is correct that there's always been a fair amount of consciousness about race in DC and the region's shifting demographics. The main debate recently has been about the projections that, with the continued influx of whites back to the city, DC will cease to be a majority AA city in the not-too-distant future, and whether that should be viewed negatively, neutrally or positively. [The broader DC region is very diverse, but most of the Asians, Hispanics and recent African immigrants live in the suburbs, not DC.]

I will say that there's not much of a debate that I'm aware of currently taking place in the DC area as to whether the local media should stop reporting crimes committed by African-Americans. First, it wouldn't succeed and, second, there are enough positive articles about the many contributions of AA residents to the community that people perhaps aren't quite as worried as to whether the resulting coverage is one-sided. If anything, the issue that seems to generate more attention periodically is whether the local media pays less attention to crimes committed against AAs than to crimes committed against whites.

[captaincatfish]

Originally Posted by scottrpriester

Preach to your own about that, not us.

All that gentleman was doing, as was I in the post he quoted, was giving his opinion on the subject at hand...pray tell, how does that constitute preaching of any kind?

And the purpose of this thread, I assumed, was to shed light upon the subject of Pittsburgh's black leadership approaching the local media and requesting more positive coverage of positive events in the black community in Pittsburgh...neither he nor I were 'preaching', as you call it---we were expressing our opinions on the subject...

As I told the poster I responded to, I'm terribly sorry if your long-held beliefs or stereotypes were 'trod upon', but unfortunately, your angry one-line retort won't stop me or anyone else from expressing ourselves...

If the prospect of others posting something you don't like here upsets you, well, I suggest you get supplies and bed down for a long stay, because your being upset isn't going to stop the show, much as you'd like to believe it would

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by scottrpriester

Preach to your own about that, not us.

Excuse me?

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by captaincatfish

All that gentleman was doing, as was I in the post he quoted, was giving his opinion on the subject at hand...pray tell, how does that constitute preaching of any kind?

And the purpose of this thread, I assumed, was to shed light upon the subject of Pittsburgh's black leadership approaching the local media and requesting more positive coverage of positive events in the black community in Pittsburgh...neither he nor I were 'preaching', as you call it---we were expressing our opinions on the subject...

As I told the poster I responded to, I'm terribly sorry if your long-held beliefs or stereotypes were 'trod upon', but unfortunately, your angry one-line retort won't stop me or anyone else from expressing ourselves...

If the prospect of others posting something you don't like here upsets you, well, I suggest you get supplies and bed down for a long stay, because your being upset isn't going to stop the show, much as you'd like to believe it would

Thank you. That was part of my point. I was giving my honest feeling about the whole situation. This isn't just a Pittsburgh thing. This is all over the nation.

My thought process is this. People like us can try and condemn what criminals are doing. We can condemn all of those things such as pimps, drug dealers, Black-on-Black murders. We can condemn and, and we should. That in mind, the burden shouldn't be with African-Americans alone. It is up to the persons who hold on to stereotypes to stop holding onto them. The onus is on anyone who is a racist and holds beliefs according to stereotypes to stop doing this. People like you and I aren't the ones to be worried about. We shouldn't be the ones lumped in with criminals. When someone says "Preach to your own people about that, not us", it is merely a cop out.

[gg]

Originally Posted by JEB77

The areas that h_curtis recently visited (Foggy Bottom, Georgetown and Dupont) are largely white residential areas, but there are lots of affluent African-Americans who work or shop there.

Lots of African-American families were walking all around there. Very polite and living very well. No baggy paints down to the ankles to be found, just totally professional and pure class. So many walking around socializing with all different ethnic people that frequent that international area, it was as if black had no meaning other than a skin tone, since there were all walks of life living so well together. I don't think residents would even notice such things as skin tone, but being from Pittsburgh, it was so pleasant to see everyone walking around with pride and a positive attitude. I don't think we will see anything like that in Pittsburgh, but it is fun to dream.

[gg]

Originally Posted by captaincatfish

And the purpose of this thread, I assumed, was to shed light upon the subject of Pittsburgh's black leadership approaching the local media and requesting more positive coverage of positive events in the black community in Pittsburgh...

That is exactly what the thread is about and your opinion was easy to read and well thought out.

I agree there should be more feel-good stories about everyone including the black community, but the media is driven by shock value and there isn't much shock value in showing people doing positive work. It sure is a shame and I think it is detrimental to us all and getting worse and worse.

Well said Captain.

[west seattle gal]

Originally Posted by WestLibertyAve

Where does it say they want the local media to stop reporting crime???

"News directors for the city's three major local news networks are considering signing a joint agreement on coverage policies regarding Pittsburgh's black community as part of an effort to add positive messages to the news as an offset to crime coverage."

They simply want positive stories reported too, which isn't so unreasonable. For every black person that commits a violent crime in this city there are other black people who are working hard to make this city a better place....what's wrong with mentioning that on the news?

I agree. The media chooses which stories it wishes to focus on, and a sub-group of the population can be smeared as a whole if there is not balanced reporting.

[zip95]

Originally Posted by scottrpriester

Preach to your own about that, not us.

Your own, my own... us and them. Wonderful to have you here Scott. Some feelings run deep in you, don't they?

You and Pitts10yrs are great examples; small town upbringings in NW Pennsyltucky always seem to equate to strong feelings about certain types of people.

[soniqV]

Call me cold, but I don't watch the news for fluffy feel-good human interest stories. More often than not they feel less than relevant to my life. I WANT to know the bad stuff that's going down, whoever's doing it. If that's a problem for any given community (be it a race, sexual orientation, neighborhood, union, whatever), the impetus should be on them to be proactive in fighting it from within, not the media to change the fluff that surrounds it.

I like the mountain/molehill comparison made by some, I'm just going to reframe it a bit.
Molehill: fundraisers and cleanups
Mountains: robberies and murders