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Think back on and beyond the Rodney King trial, which led to the infamous riots of 1992, and more recently the Simpson trials and my point is proven. Los Angeles lost sight of the big picture, a picture that should broadcast in full color, yet like an old television it is only viewed in black and white. The government and media should both be held accountable for the roles they have and continue to play in creating a society where Caucasians and African-Americans are the only races that seem significant in the City of Angels. I would like to know how a megalopolis such as Los Angeles, where the dominant ethnic group is Latinos, falls siege to the views and actions of only blacks and whites. The Native-Americans, Asians, Latinos, and other less mentioned cultures make up a Gray Race which is of little concern to a city that only sees in black and white. Los Angeles needs to realize the importance of all multi-ethnic relations and not concern itself with only black and white issues. The phrase United We Stand or Divided We Fall never rang so true. We must learn to live together in unity, or we will keep forging this path of self-annihilation.
Government interventions on black and white policies have always created commissions and committees to help alleviate racial tensions between the two, yet the problem in Los Angeles is much more than just black and white. Government commissions continue conducting studies and taking polls, all the while failing to recognize the remainder of the population, the Gray Race. In an article from the Los Angeles Times writer Richard Rodriguez states,
All my life I have heard the notion there are only two races and they (like night and day) represent opposite poles... In the late 1960's, I remember the Kerner Commission warning the nation was dividing, becoming two nations, one black, the other white. (M1&M6)
Thirty years have passed since the Kerner Commission presented its report, obviously having been influenced by the Watts Riots, but to this day other commissions still report only black and white views. Peace officers and citizens of Los Angeles were scrutinized by commissions during the King trial of 1992 and then, again, during the Simpson trials. Once all had been said and done, most of the commissions presented information so biased it proved useless and harmful. The commission reports were offensive, not only to whites and blacks, by exploiting both their views and making them out to be enemies, but also to the Gray Race who went unmentioned for the most part, as if non-existent. The government and media need to watch out for the concerns of all Americans and not exploit or completely disregard them.
Improperly presented media is, without a doubt, a major source of biased views. The antipathy between blacks and whites plus the alienation of the gray race can, for the most part, be blamed on broadcast news. News stations give little thought to the fact that they have and continue to broadcast biased news, and moreso during times of racial tensions. The news bombards the public with only black or white interviews and the most recent black-white surveys, day-after-day, never stopping to consider the consequences. Do they not realize that by placing whites and blacks at odds with each other they only acomplish to push their relations farther apart. News also does a great disservice to Latinos, Asians, and others of the Gray Race by not showing any regard to their concerns. This negligent attitude has caused the Gray Race to seem useless, as if non-contributory to society. Minority views and issues are so underexposed in the media it has caused the market for ethnic stations to skyrocket in the last decade. The fact that there is a market for ethnic broadcasting stations is good for the economy because it spells out jobs, yet it keeps multi-cultural issues and concerns tucked away and imposes language barriers, which unfortunately, will divide Americans.
In the same article from the Los Angeles Times R. Rodriguez also remarks,
We live in complicated times, more complicated than any black-white description of our nation might suggest. (M1&M6)
In light of all the criticism media and government officials have received for focusing atention on only black and white issues in the past years, shouldn't they have learned from their mistakes? Let us hope so. Time has come for them to realize that black and white issues alone will not solve any ethnic or racial tensions; on the contrary, these issues only tend to worsen relations for all. Media and government officials need to broaden thier horizons and take a closer look at the needs of all Americans, including the Gray Race. Then and only then will this country live up to its name. The UNITED states of America.
©2000 Unpublished/Webpublished work by: E.E.Martinez
all rights reserved
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