Media Portraits.

Continued from A1...

How the media portrays:

White people in fly over states - Beverly Hillbillies, Andy Griffith, Deliverance, Kenneth from 30 Rock, Cletus the slack jawed yokel, slow inbred cousin fucking hillbillies.

Black folks - (Prior to recent times) Glory, Color Purple, 12 Years a Slave, Bubba Gump, 60’s freedom fighters, Mud Bound, or those black/white buddy films where the black person is always trying to earn the respect from the white person. The white personality never had to earn respect of the black person.

Asian folks - Kung Fu Masters, Data in Goonies, Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles,

Latin folks - Blood In Blood Out, American Me, that same dude who some how is a line cook or cholo in every movie. Always named "Hector"

Arab Americans - Genie, maybe walking with a camel or sitting in a tent in the middle of a desert.

Itself: The Oscars, The Emmys, The Red Carpets, The Met Gala, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood; we didn’t stand around in a circle jerk thinking we were the most important people on this planet while absolutely shitting on every segment of America but ourselves.

     You see how they break us down into binary stereotypes and not let us define ourselves. How they depict us for their profits and gains, pitting us against each other and never allowing us to be multi-dimensional people with real life problems that aren’t solved within an hour and one half.

     If a basketball game is played and no one is in the stands to watch it, then that’s just a pickup game. If a celebrity doesn’t get paid in attention then they are just another person working a job. Speaking the words others wrote, portraying the emotions others wrote. Wearing the clothes others picked out. Standing where other people tell them to. Looking in the direction other people tell them to. Like a vase with out flowers, empty and serves no purpose. It’s time to downgrade the empty ones in our society and upgrade the ones who truly matter. For the last year or so, the most important people in this country have been the grocery workers, the service workers, the truck drivers, the delivery people, the teachers and the health care workers. Stop giving celebrities, athletes and talking heads of media your attention. Stop granting them the authority and power to issue statements on the issues we as a society and species face. Stop granting them the power over knowledge within our society to shape the social structures and interactions among the general population. Let them stare into a mirror in their 50,000 square foot “prisons” and tell Mr. DeMille they are ready for their close up. Because when the credits roll and the clock hits zero they no longer are needed or serve a purpose.