Yes, as I wrote earlier last week, I thought it pretty incredible and courageous and soul-searching for our Kansas City Star local newspaper to own up and 'fess up to their very racist, white supremacist past. Great for them, great for us. Progress. Surprising and again, incredible. Very encouraging and hopeful.
So now, a next step, it makes me wonder aloud here if our local PBS station will ever "get it" on race, too. If KCPT will ever be truly inclusive. I've written about it before.
They used to have 2 weekly news programs and now they're down to one. Both were heavily, heavily represented by---wait for it--white people. Only. Singularly. And the one now gone was also heavily full of Right Wing and/or conservative and/or out and out Republican Party guests and viewpoints. It was dispiriting to say the least.
And even now, still, to this day, their "Week in Review" program is heavily all white. Here's the latest example.
Where it used to be a solidly, dependably, weekly all white panel, now they seem to have finally, finally committed to having a reliable, token Black person, a Black man. At least there is that improvement.
But to this day, as in this week's episode, there are 3 white people.
That's it.
Three men, one woman and one Black man, that's it.
Occasionally, occasionally they will include a Hispanic or Latinx member of the community but it is rare, at best. They apparently take money from and advertise the Dos Mundos newspaper but no steady representation of our Hispanic community. It's almost as though they don't live here. Or at least, it's as though KCPT either just doesn't or doesn't want to recognize them, Hispanics in the community.
In their defense, I know this isn't true. I know the station and the host, Nick Haines, want to be fair and representative of us all.
But it ain't happenin'.
It's 2020, very nearly 2021, of course, and still no representation, no reliable, steady, dependable representation of ALL in our community.
But hey, if you're white? Or more, if you're a white man? They got you covered. Great for you.
So come on, KCPT. Do it. Somehow, do it. Get it done. Commit to, somehow, having, say, one white maile, one white female, yes a Black person, male or female and the---wait for it---a Hispanic or Latinx person, again, male or female on your program, on this program, on "Week in REview", week after week after week. Reliably. You owe it to yourself. You owe it to good, fair representative media.
Can you not arrange, somehow, to help Nick Haines get someone from the Hispanic/Latinx community each week for his program "Week in Review"? You are frequently, repeatedly not represented on the program. Can't someone in the community help him/them get someone reliably on the show?
Please?
For your own sake, the sake of that Hispanic/Latinx community and for the sake of the entire community?
Weekly, weekly, there are 3 white people and a token Black man or woman on the show and that's it.
Give the poor man some help. Help him help you. Heck, help him help all of us. Let's hear from the ENTIRE community.
In a part of town segregated, by law, by laws, decades ago, for minorities, for African-Americans.
Could they be more time deaf or blind?
And I assume this developer wants to put it there because--hello?--land and property and buildings over on that side of town are less expensive??
Because of that same racism and legalized segregation all those years ago?
Could you be more cruel? Or exploitative?
This very much reminds me of the prisons that were opened and created in the Southern United States that were put on former plantations. Own them first the, when you don't own them any more, trump up charges and throw them in jails and prisons.
And then, if you read the article, which I personally highly recommend, for what it's worth, you'll see how the company that runs these ICE shelters for the government, has been abusive and racist, to say the least and repeatedly, over time.
What do you call a news program in a major city of America that only has white people on it, discussing what are supposed to be local issues?
Not one African-American. Not one Hispanic or Latina/Latino. Nothing.
Only white people.
What is that but racist?
On both programs' panels, not one "person of color." "Ruckus" did, this week, have the head of our local Jazz Museum, Rashida Phillips on at the beginning of the program but no minority, save a woman, on the panel.
Only white people can give answers to what our problems are and what the solutions might be?
And how, exactly, can people like Dave Helling and Steve Kraske and Mike Mahoney support and continue to support this and these programs?
Why does the local Hispanic media like Dos Mundos support this group?
It took far too long to get KCPT to get one token black person reliably, week after week, on their weekly news programs, "Ruckus" and "Week In Review" and even now, they still get left off some weeks.
That was bad enough but the station still hasn't recognized or accepted or something there is a Hispanic Community in the metropolitan area.
Sure, we still get loads and loads o' white folk what with Right Wing, Republican Mike Shanin and his also Right Wing, Republican buddy Woody Cozad (don't get me started) but the shows are heavily, heavily weighted with bleached white people.
As I've said before, their commercials are all the time putting up minorities in them, asking people to send their money like so many Christian churches but what is it going to take to get a token Hispanice on both these shows each week?
They've recognized there is the Dos Mundos newspaper, having one of their staff on not long ago. You'd think they could--and would--maybe call them up once a week and ask if someone would show up for the program.
At least they let women---one, usually, each week, another token--on the program but once again, it's usually a white woman to round out that very varied group.
This week on Ruckus, they had 3 white people---ONE WOMAN!--and Terry Riley, a former City Council person.
And forget about "Week in Review" this week. The entire show was bleached white people. Every one of them.
Minorities??
Bah!
They don't live here in Kansas City!
Right, KCPT?
I would like to now take this time and place to formally challenge KCPT---a PBS station, after all--to please, for the love of God and fairness and decency and all that is good, to start having, reliably, one Hispanic, one member of the black community, one woman and one---ONLY ONE--white guy on these two programs each week, going forward, indefinitely.
Seriously.
It just doesn't seem like too much to ask.
They say they rely on our contributions in order to survive, exist.
I've posted here, at least a few times, if not several, how our local PBS station has singularly, only white people, time after time and week after week, on the show to discuss and hopefully solve Kansas City's issues and problems. In spite of our considerable Black and HIspanic and others population, the program had just that, only white people. Alone.
So imagine how pleased I was this week when they included Jamekia Kendrix on the weekly panel to discuss and talk and be heard. She was and is eloquent and intelligent and well-spoken and more than held her own and gave different viewpoints.
Thank goodness.
Here's hoping it's the shape of things to come for them, for the program and for all of us.
Kudos and salutations, KCPT.
And thank you.
Their "Week in Review" was its same bleached whiteness but at least this "Ruckus" was inclusive.
Once again this week, KCPT-TV's weekly news program "Ruckus" was all white people, solving all the people's problems. The most open minded they could be was having two women on the panel.
They even discussed the DACA, "dreamers" controversy, possibly effecting 800,000 Hispanic people in the nation but do you think they'd include one minority, one Hispanic from the Kansas City metropolitan area?
NAH.....
They'll keep it lily-white.
Who are we kidding?
Because there aren't any minorities in this city.
No Blacks. No Hispanics. No Mexican-Americans. None of them. Not in this town.
We know that.
Right?
Well, except on their own commercials, asking for donations and contributions--money--to keep the station running.
Side note: In a -little bit--of a defense of KCPT here, they did include one Black man, Eric Wesson, on their show this week. Of course, it was a discussion, on that show, about the minority community demanding a percentage portion of the work if we do, in fact, build a new single-terminal airport. Two white men, one white woman and Mr. Wesson.
Yes sir and ma'am, yet one more lily white, bleached white, exclusive, exclusionist "Ruckus" news weekly last evening on our PBS station KCPT. Not one--not even one--person of color on the show. One woman but that, as usual, is as close to a minority as they got.
They go out of their way, every week, to include a middle-aged, middle-class, irrelevant white guy who calls himself a "Libertarian" but again---not one person of a minority. And then there's always the really old, white guy with silver hair and moustache because, you know, old white guys' opinions just aren't "out there" enough already, right? (Other than the moustache, isn't that what Mike Shanin is already there for?).
The only question now is, will they do the same thing, yet again, with their other news weekly show, Nick Haines' "Week in Review"? It's usually what they do, of course.
If you watched KCPT's and Mike Shanin's weekly news program "Ruckus" again this evening, once more, you would think that the Kansas City metropolitan area has not one "person of color" within its borders. Not one Black American, not one Hispanic, not one Asian, nothing. Zip, Nada.
Fortunately, they did have three women on their panel--again, very white--so there's something but the rest? White men, mostly old. All three of the men are clearly Right Wing being one Libertarian and the other two deeply Right Wing.
It really does seem as though no minority person's experience nor opinion matter either to this organization, the local PBS station, or to this city.
And once more, part of the panel discussion was about our just-passed November election. Clearly they think no person in this metropolitan area has any input worth giving to the voting and all its ramifications?
Is there not one person in this city that couldn't be included on this little, cozy club?
Really?
Their name does stand for Kansas City Public Broadcasting. Right?
Once again, our local PBS TV station, KCPT had a full one half hour discussing local issues and once again, one more time, they chose to make it an entire half hour, an entire show, all participants, the whole panel full of white people.
Only white people.
The closest they got to a minority was having a white woman on the show.
Otherwise?
All middle-aged or senior, white men.
Check it out.
The show began with an interview with one Wendell Cox, Principal of Demographia. Then it went to a panel discussion, mostly on the just-passed election with the following panel members:
--Jason Grill, media/public affairs consultant,
--Mike Sanders, Attorney with Humphrey, Farrington and McClain
--Crosby Kemper III, Executive Director of the Kansas City Public Library and
--Annie Presley, Author
All white.
Every. Single. One.
In the longest segment, they discussed the recently-executed 2016 presidential election. You would think that would include some input from, oh, I don't know, some Black Americans? Some Hispanic Americans? Mexican-Americans? Any other groups?
Nah.
Just the white folks. Not so much as even one "token", to be crude.
You would think there weren't any Black or Hispanic or any other minority people in this entire city, watching this show, most weeks and that the election didn't effect them in any way whatever.
It apparently, really is a white man's world. At least in Kansas City.
Ironically and coincidentally (hypocritically?), the program was followed by two ads promoting inclusion and helping young minority youth in the city. I nearly choked.
To be clear here, however, they will accept monetary contributions from minorities, rest assured.
The local PBS station, KCPT, has a weekly news/conversation program each Thursday evening called "Ruckus" it is widely known. And it's usually a pretty good program, definitely, discussing local government and business current events. Given the shrinking of the Kansas City Star in town, it becomes an even more important outlet, if brief, at 30 minutes.
Last night's program, however, had at least one glaring problem I and I believe a lot of others would agree.
There was the very white, Right Wing host, three white men and one white woman.
That was it.
I swore there were Black Americans and Hispanics and other races that lived in our city.
I swore there was. Is.
There wasn't even any indication there was a Liberal or Left Winger on the program. Honestly, not one. You'd think they might have one so they could gang up and verbally beat up on and abuse them, the way now-deceased John McLaughlin used to do to Eleanor Clift on "The McLaughlin Group." Maybe Steve Glorioso wasn't available? Someone else? The program has had "people of color", minorities on it in the past, as anyone who watches it knows, just not last night.
Apparently, their idea of "inclusion" is letting a woman sit with them. Heck, the host, Mike Shanin, even asked her a question. Two, even.
Between the host and the crotetchety, deeply Right Wing attorney Steve Mirakian and, again, the Libertarian, they got the Republicans and Right Wing covered, 10 ways from Sunday. (I will say one good thing about the Libertarian. At least he's against the unnecessary boondoggle of a new, billion dollar airport).
The other part of this inclusion of theirs is letting a self--professed Libertarian (whatever that means) on the show.
But a Black person from the city this week? A Hispanic? Heck, an Asian? Anything else?
I guess that would make a ruckus.
Understand, I love my KCPT and PBS, absolutely. I wouldn't want to live without it.
I just thought their standards were and would be higher, and more inclusive, than this.
But think about it. Think about this 2016 presidential race.
It looks very like a Democrat will win the whole thing.
When you look at the Republican candidates, it seems clear their candidates are, honestly, far too extreme, at the very least, to be elected, if not just downright..... well..... dumb. Honestly. Legitimately.
So, truth be told, again, we're going to go from the first black president to either the first female...
Or the first, oldest, Jewish president in the nation's history.
I don't know if you were paying attention two days ago but, as the title above says, Senate Republicans just further turned American history on its head.
I think all of us were taught, in grade school and middle and high school, all, that America was about equality and fairness.
Right?
Well, nuts to all that, say those Senate Republicans, yet one more time with their vote Wednesday this week:
Despite weeks of heavy messaging, Democrats failed to get a single GOP vote as the third attempt in recent years to pass the wage equality legislation fell six votes short.
“The promise of equal pay for equal work should not be a partisan issue — it should be a matter of common sense and fairness, an essential step for the security of our families, the growth of our economy, and the strength of our middle class,” Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement after the vote.
“Unfortunately, Senate Republicans disagree,” she added.
I say again, why any woman--any woman--in this nation would vote Republican, for this political party or for anyone in it is beyond me.
Now that I'm at it, why would black Americans vote for them? Republicans have come out against renewing the Civil Rights Act.
Gays? Republicans are famously, famously against equality here, too, for gay Americans.
The elderly? Unless their wealthy, of course? Republicans are for dismantling Social Security.
Hispanics? Republicans are notoriously against immigration reform of virtually any sort.
It truly seems the only people left to vote Republican are white, wealthy men.
Well, and any middle- and lower-class American the Republicans are able to dupe.
Republicans and the entire Republican Party have been impeding progress for the nation and for Americans for so long, we're nearly getting immune to it.
But we can't be. We can't let these injustices stand. We need the nation to move forward and on so many different levels, not least of which is regarding the economy. Here's just two current examples, from yesterday in The New York Times:
Growers say inaction on immigration legislation is hurting productivity, and a powerful group that represents them says its members may withhold campaign contributions.
And this one is a real beaut since, in the last few elections, more and more Hispanics have been voting for the Democrats because, well, they get support from them. The Republicans say they're trying to be inclusive for all kinds of people--Hispanics included--yet they've famously and even notoriously and very publicly been fighting anything remotely close to creating a path to citizenship for Hispanics, Mexicans and others.
When I read comments in newspapers and especially on blogs (one local blog in particular, ahem), I am frequently stunned to read how some white people think they're oppressed by some racism because of, of all things, black people especially but minorities in general. Today, on the interweb, I found out why:
There’s a saying that “the new racism is to deny that racism exists.” If that is the case, it may explain a study conducted by researchers from Tufts University’s School of Arts and Sciences and Harvard Business School. Their findings claim that self-described white Americans believe they have “replaced blacks” as the primary victims of racial discrimination in contemporary America.
The authors say that their study highlights how the expectations of a “post-racial” society, predicted or imagined in the wake of Barack Obama’s presidency, has far from been achieved.
The study finds that while both Caucasian and African Americans agree that anti-black racism has decreased over the last 60 years, whites believe that anti-white racism has increased.
And that's all pretty bizarre--and, of course, wrong, deeply wrong--but here's the really big kicker:
...the study finds that the majority of Caucasians believe that anti-white racism is a “bigger problem” than what African Americans face.
Right. Got it. Sure it is. Whatever. Whatever you say, honkie.
”It’s a pretty surprising finding when you think of the wide range of disparities that still exist in society, most of which show black Americans with worse outcomes than whites in areas such as income, home ownership, health and employment.” --Tufts Associate Professor of Psychology Samuel Sommers, PhD
Yes, it's "pretty surprising", all right.
Freaking wow.
"Pity party on aisle five!"
If people who are losing their jobs or getting their pay cut or whatever, would realize who's doing that to them---the boss or the corporations, you know, the wealthy people---maybe they'd realize who the real problem is.
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