November 27, 2007

Education & the Black Woman

Villagers, did you have a chance to watch the first part of the series, African American Women: Where They Stand on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams last night?

I have two daughters and two sisters. As such, it is encouraging to learn that almost two-thirds of Black college undergraduates are women. I thought that the example of the single mother who was a Stanford graduate being shown with her daughter who is currently attending Stanford was excellent.

I just wonder why NBC decided that they needed to denigrate Black men in order to make their point. It seemed like the story was a much about the struggles of Black men in the education system as much as the success of Black women. Perhaps I was too sensitive. What did you think about the news report on NBC re: Black women and education?

6 comments:

Shelia said...

I think that it's interesting that they opted to make this a story about Black people period. My daughter, who is a sophomore at Humboldt State, and I were just talking about this statistic over the Thanksgiving holiday but from a gender perspective, not a racial one. I noticed how they glossed over the line that this disparity is true "across the board" but basically, we're going to shine the light on Black people. What's happening with the white and hispanic males that are not succeeding? I'd like to know the answer to that too.

Unknown said...

Shelia - The more that I see how the MSM deals with news ... it becomes more apparent that we need to do our own research and discuss issues that impact on our community via our own blogs, newspapers, television shows and such. As long as we depend on others to control the media ... we will always be at their mercy. We likely need to continue to flip the script with The AfroSpear and other outlets.

Mes Deux Cents said...

Hi Villager,

After seeing NBC's week of reports I wish that they and the rest of the so-called mainstream media would just forget that we exist.

It's all just propaganda. The message was even if you Black women think you are doing well you aren't and we will show you why.

I just wrote a post about Black blogs being the new Black media for the new century. We can write about ourselves much better than anyone else can.

And also it still amazes me that Raheema Ellis is the only Black woman reporter at NBC. They should do a story about that.

Thanks

Unknown said...

Mes Deux Cents - I agree with you about the need for us to take control of our own message whether through our Black Blogs or through Black newspapers. I think that we need to re-enforce the notion that every black household should be subscribed to the weekly or monthly Black newspaper in our community. In my city, it is the Cincinnati Herald.

If we control our own news outlets we are less dependent on MSM.

Mes Deux Cents said...

Villager,

I really would like to see several of the Black owned newspapers in the U.S. get together and form a nationally distributed paper.

Unknown said...

Mes Deux Cents - I hadn't thought of it until your message ... but, would Final Call qualify as a nationwide Black newspaper?