Vulture Capitalism- We Are At War

Vulture Capitalism- We Are At War

We are at war whether we acknowledge it or not. The Internet is evolving so fast, everything has a site. Every play, commercial and movie has a URL and nobody does any advertising without carving out a niche in cyberspace. So just who is using the web? EVERYBODY. Every ethnic group in America is utilizing the Internet. All the people who don't want to be left out of the loop are making the necessary adjustment. Don't believe any of the hype saying African- Americans are not flocking to the Internet. Don't believe one iota of it…that is what the manipulators want you to think and I'll explain why.

I have observed the African- American web presence more than triple in the past few years. If you don't believe me just try to do a search under some well-known Black topics and see how much more data comes up. There is just one catch. Many of the sites that you think are controlled by African Americans are not Black owned, controlled and/or conceived. Don't you think this is a problem if someone else is controlling our images and ideas? It is not only important that the target audience be African American, but that they refuse to be manipulated by another demographic. The recent sale of Beats headphones might make Dr. Dre a billionaire (which some think is a cause to celebrate) but what is it doing for, and more importantly, to, the African- American community?

Let me point out some sites which are supposedly Black-owned, operated, controlled and conceived; companies which are created by prominent African- Americans but are actually, or eventually white-owned. Black Voices (www.blackvoices.com) is owned by the Tribune Media Corporation and NOT Barry Cooper! Blackfamilies.com (www.blackfamilies.com) is owned by Cox Interactive Media and NOT John Pembroke! Cybersoul (www.cybersoul.com) is owned by HBO. What happened to Boondocks? Can anyone, including Aaron McGruder give me an honest answer? What about BET? Huh? I'm waaaaiiiting…...Always remember this. 'If it was not important to control the Black images in cyberspace White firms would not want to!'

I am not saying that Blackvoices, Blackfamilies and Cybersoul are bad sites, they provide great information, but I am saying that this trend is detrimental to the potential African Americans on the Internet, especially from an economic vantage point. I remember when Afronet gave space to a White columnist. There were so many people who told me what an ill-conceived move they felt this was. I agreed then, but I ask, Where are your voices now!!? Go out and purchase the app 'Buycott' which enables you to scan any and every item you purchase before parting with your hard-earned cash so you can ascertain the true parent company and owner (and political inclination) of the product.

How do these sites make money? ADVERTISING!! Procter and Gamble advertises on Black Voices, but do you think CEO Barry Cooper gets any of that money ? Is he or his staff rewarded with a bonus? Of course not!!! Does he have any control over the way the money is spent on the site. Nada!!! The money goes straight into the coffers of the Tribune Media Corporation. Advertising is the lifeblood of television, newspaper, radio, magazine and the Internet. Yes, those sites may look great and have all the fancy bells and whistles, but do you really think Cox Interactive, Tribune and Time Warner love the African- American way of life that much? Hahaha….LMFAO!!! Don't you think you should have a voice in what is affecting the essence of your very life and livelihood? Are you patronizing truly Black-owned businesses? Because you better believe, other cultures are patronizing the businesses of their own. How many times do you see a wealthy Caucasian deliberately go to a Black-owned business to contribute his money? Almost never.

The internet may be the last place where African- Americans can control the destiny of their image portrayal in the media. If we don’t support these sites now, by buying books, music or other gift items through these sites, they will eventually collapse and go out of business (the oldest Black bookstore in S.F.. Ca in the Fillmore District, Marcus Book Store, after half a decade just closed its doors for the last time). Next time you decide to buy something on the Internet, take the time to search for a truly Black owned, operated, and controlled company or website and then buy the item or recommend to the site owner that he or she should carry that item, its not as hard as you might think. Anything you can buy on eBay, Amazon or Yahoo, you can buy on those other sites that will help in building up your own communities legacy instead of killing it. Mark my word, in five years Caucasian-Americans will either own or become the significant contributors to the majority of the most popular "Black" web sites, as well as businesses, if they don't already.

These people realize that to be able to control access to data, and what kind of people receive this data, is critical to controlling them. Since the internet is nothing more than a whole bunch of computers networked together, it has allowed Black folk to meet and express ideas without interference from Whites as they have with television, radio, and other media. During the days of chattel slavery it was taboo for Blacks to meet and discuss ideas, illegal for them to even speak English or read and write. Even in Africa, colonial European efforts attempted to prevent Africans from communicating without their presence. The transference of drumbeats throughout the jungle put that to bed which might be more symbolic for Dr. Dre's recent move. Although many African countries have their independence now, the colonizing media conglomerates still exert a lot of influence over their radio and television programming. Nowadays Black people can legally congregate in most places on the globe. It is still discouraged even in major capital cities like New York city, but it’s just more subtle.

The other day walking back from a friend's get- together, my friends and I were accosted by the police in Oakland, Ca. In the beginning there were three officers and ten of us, but by the time they started patting us down and asking for ID, more officers rapidly joined and soon there were thirty officers and still ten of us. We had done nothing wrong and obeyed all their commands. The intimidation was applied, simply to send a message, "this is what happens when we see too many of 'you people' together."- plain and simple. One of the officers then told me that a white female had reported the presence of a rowdy group of thugs walking down the street. Fear is a powerful emotion. Just think about the fear that the Internet represents when you have millions of people who come together in website online chat rooms, posting to message boards, reading the ideas of other people who look, and think, like them.

It gets even scarier if some of these people aim to do more than "just chit-chat" but instead talk about legitimate social issues like the murder of unarmed African emigrant Ahmed Diallo at the hands of the New York City Cops or the murder of Oscar Grant who was shot while handcuffed and laying face down by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle. Eventually this sort of linkage could spill over into "activism." There has to be a medium to dilute or control the way people interpret local, national or global events. These types of questions posed by the site administrators on the message boards and the site survey questionnaire, which downplay race as a factor are examples of the little things which a White controlled site is more likely to do.

To those who feel the need to monitor us, the internet is no exception. The best way to do this is to use a 'Black face/person' as the visible site person. Another example might be in the case of a movie, or T.V. series that Blacks feel is worthy of boycott. The white site is not likely to endorse a boycott and takes the route of "let's all watch the show before we judge it prematurely, lets see how it represents "us," as one White-owned Black series did with the short-lived television sitcom "The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfieffer," which burlesqued slavery and virtually made a joke of the horrible life that African people enslaved in the Western Hemisphere experienced.

You would never see that sort of nonsense done with other human tragedies like the Jewish Holocaust. Thank God we were smart enough to recognize that this show could not continue to air with our economic support. I could draw thousands of analogies of ways, in which these web sites are likely to subtly use subversive methods to control black frustration and rage, but I feel that portion of my opinion should be left to your imagination. I am sure that you have experiences which would allow you to recall or draw your own examples. Although there is a small upside. I think the phenomenon of Black web sites controlled by whites can actually wind up being very educational. There is a lot of information being circulated which passes itself off as legitimate data simply because it was done by a Black person without careful attention being paid to the actual content of that data.

More so I believe that regardless of the race of the author, the work the individual does should be viewed on its scholastic merit. Scholarship can not be quantified simply by race; cyber-browsers should go further with information they receive on the web even when Blacks control the web site. If Black people realize that the data they are receiving may be an interpretation from a White-controlled perspective (as are 95% of the other media and communication outlets) they may dig deeper and go further with the data and discover that the data they received is erroneous. If the ambiguity of web site ownership causes cyber-browsers to do a double take at the information they receive, then in my opinion it is a good thing. Many Black people too easily accept information on the basis that the author is Black or has a cultural or ethnic sounding name. I have seen information appear on Black-owned sites which was more detrimental in its propaganda than stuff that normally receives a red flag on White media outlets.

Take for example the recently released 'Encarta Africana' Encyclopedia released by Microsoft. This double CD package has been billed as the first comprehensive work on African culture and history throughout the Diaspora and Africa. The brain children behind this project are Henry Louis 'Skip' Gates Jr., Chairman of Afro-American Studies and Kwame Anthony Appiah, professor of Afro-American Studies and Philosophy. Both of these men are Black and have a following among various groups in the Black community. I have read interviews with them and about them which makes me worry what they have done with the original efforts of W.E.B. Dubois to produce this Encyclopedia. Dubois moved to Ghana in 1961 to establish the Secretariat of the Encyclopedia Africana, but he died before it was completed.

There is a lot of criticism from sources regarding the efforts by Gates and Appiah. I do know that the Secretariat in Ghana totally disassociated Dubois’ original project from their effort. John Pembroke of Black Families.com which is owned by Cox Interactive was quite evasive about providing information about the staff, page views and amount of money Cox invested. John’s official position is Brand Manager (?) He is not the CEO, CFO, COO or even the founder. So you know he answers to someone else. Are all of these H.N.I.C. executives selling us out? Even the recent BET venture is still partially white owned. Why?

The bottom line is that you should know which sites are created by Black efforts or White efforts. You should check it out for yourself. You might be surprised by what you will find. Just remember when you spend your money, are you handing it over to the white man or are you buying black? With the internet, believe me folks...WE HAVE A CHOICE!! Educate yourselves!!!!!! The truth is out there if you care…Many thanks to contributing writers whose ideas and cartoons I have added to my meager contribution. It's time to start thinking about the future we need and not the future they have outlined for us to follow…..