Alright, so we all heard Mr. Dan Browning’s story on me where he tried really hard in a passive aggressive – Minnesota nice way to make me sound… wait for it, really wait for it because it is original…..drum roll please….the angry black woman. That is right, a term I have not heard before… oh wait I have. Isn’t that my nickname by so many MN DFLer’s – you know the party of tolerance, welcoming and all that crap.
First and foremost, people like privileged Brownings of the world only energize me. 2nd, in White liberal Minnesota media owned and operated – I don’t really expect much to begin with. They will never ever ever be able to cover anything from our lenses, especially racial disparity. They hardly look like us, their leadership hardly reflects the communities of color. For instance, the head Tribune editor, most of their reporters and head editorials are mostly… wait for it again…White men. You know that group that usually controls….oh what is the word. Oh yeah – everything. By the way, MPR (Minnesota Public Radio) – you know the radio for the public – guess how many African Americans work there as reporters…..come on wait for it please…..good drum roll here…..ONE. They just hired…..oh wait I meant as a contributing part time Mukhtar who will only do bad stories from our community. What a surprise. Mukhtar is going to tell us how our kids and teens are somehow opting out of going to the mall and seeing movies….you know things that teenagers like to do, and instead going to countries they hardly know, speak their language or understand their culture to fight for justice. What? That is right, what teenager says – you know today is a good day to leave everything I know, my family, friends, safety and go to a place I never been, know nothing about and maybe even die. Rather someone should ask – why, what is causing this, what is the root cause? Maybe lack of real African American teen jobs, no opportunities, harassments by police, Mpls failing education system, lack of good health care, shall I go on. You get the idea. So even if “they” the controlling freaks hire one of us – it is to demonize our community.
So, what do we do. Well – it is easy to just complain and whine. I think it is better to use that energy to write our own stories in our own news outlets, write our own online news sites, become reporters, news directors and shape our own message. Malcolm X once said the media is the most powerful entity. It can make the innocent look guilty and the guilty look innocent. I always say a reporter can write a story about cockroaches in a way that you want to adopt them as pets and by the same token, a reporter can write a story about Mother Teresa in a way – you might question if she was related to the KKK. In other words, shaping the narrative of our message shapes policy. And, if we let the Brownings of this world speak for us then it will never be from our lenses.
There is an online news site called Crew of 42 that was started by an African American political reporter and the reasons she started this are so true yet so sad. Lauren Victoria Burke is her name and she writes about Congress and Politics. Lauren chose to write more about CBC (Congressional Black Caucus) because when White reporter wrote about them – she said this;
1. CBC angry – when any one member takes a strong position.
2. CBC forms a roving gang and wants something – when two or more members agree and act accordingly.
3. CBC in disarray – when two or more members disagree.
Think about those for a minute, what does it tell us and how does it relate to autism and Mr. Browning’s story. Remember his provocative title – MN autism task force disbands in dysfunction. What – you overrated White privilege reporter? really. Let’s explain this again – I disagreed with mostly White DFLers about how they wanted to NOT share any of the HRSA grants that I advocated for with minority owned organizations and that is called dysfunction because god forbid – we disagree. Come on – how original. Aren’t they the party of fair share and all that crap anyway.
Anyway, Thanks for the energy Mr. Browning – I am now more determined to speak to our young students of color to be tomorrow’s news reporters so that people like you who are clearly subjective and out of touch don’t keep telling our narrative. Oh, and while Caucasian autism families were encouraged to send emails and call their legislators, yet somehow when I did it – it was no good & bothersome. In fact, I think they called it action alert and asked many parents to send emails to their legislators or those in committees, yet my emails asking for equal access were bothersome, come on – really. The level of hypocrisy and double standard would be all too funny, if it weren’t all-true. Rep Norton would ask her red t-shirt wearing gang to send lots of emails in their autism advocacy, but somehow did not like mine. unhh – interesting. Imagine if we defeated Norton and voted her disparity and bias autism legislations out for good.
Here is how welcoming DFLer’s are:
Democrats pay Black staffers 30% less. Yes, really and you still want to work and vote for them.
This happens when minorities don’t vote for their own.
My previous post on Mr. Browning and his out of touch with minority autism advocacy.
Mr. Browning’s other autism stories which is interesting because he kept asking me why I did not like MN DFLers. I don’t think good reporters should care one’s political views unless you are writing an op-ed. He seemed to be obsessed with autism stories before maybe because he does not like autism and GOP mixed as if only DFLers have autistic children.
Above words do not represent any agency, candidate or committee.
Idil – Somali Autism Mom & Minority Advocate