The Interest of (Black) America….

America…or at the least…the mainstream media (MSM) misses Trump. It is not exactly breaking news….but after the coverage of a certain international sports superstar figure. I am sure of it. However, before we get deep into the bag of that opinion.

Let’s take it back to this past Tuesday (February 23, 2021). We all got the alert on our phone as soon as it happened:

“Breaking News! Tiger Woods has been involved in a Car Accident”

At first, like many people, the quick rush of concern with the unknown rushed over me…asking questions like “Is he okay?” “Was there anyone else involved?” “How serious are the injuries?” ect…your mind cannot help but run when it comes to this. Especially after Kobe Bryant and many others passed away a little over a year ago in a horrible helicopter crash. The idea of invincibility of our black icons has all but evaporated. However, as news started to trickle out that he was alive, aware and relatively okay (no accounting to the injuries to his legs), the coverage of how he crashed persisted for the rest of the day. I mean, literally, 8 hours straight of news talking about this single person car crash. You would have thought with all this coverage that nothing else was happening in the country. Well, you would be mistaken-especially when it comes to black America.

In the same week that coverage of a black icon car crash was being incessantly poured over. States like Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Texas were enacting more restrictive voting laws designed to make voting a little more challenging in the next round of elections. If those states sound familiar-it’s because those are the states that Biden either squeezed out a victory against Trump (Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona), or came dangerously close to upsetting (Texas).

So yes, the Presidential race is over, but the political war has just begun. Simply put, the Republicans are aiming to put the clamps on voter increase in those new battleground states. This is especially relevant in Georgia, the State House of Representatives are seeking to roll back on no excuse absentee voting. In total, 23 states are hoping to enact regressive laws to tamp down on voter turnout. Can you guess what the majority power in those state houses are? Yes! You guessed it, Republican!

Also, please kill that noise that it’s about ‘voter integrity’. That issue had been so heavily litigated that Trump went 1-60 in court challenges nationally. Not changing the outcome, one iota-in some measures even lost ground. This idea of voter integrity is so ludicrous, that take Texas for an example. That state not only has some of the strictest voting rules in the country, but one of the lowest levels of voter turnout and no reported cases of voter fraud-and yet-the state legislator has determined its top legislative priority is ‘election integrity’. Isn’t that a bit crazy? Well, maybe not so much when you consider it was in Texas that the Governor only produced two early voting absentee ballot drop off stations in the entire city of Houston. You can guess why that was the cause.

All this doesn’t make a difference because frankly the national media is not concerned with voting or impacts of voter suppression surrounding black Americans. One can make the argument that unless something salacious happens concerning black America or any community of color-the story really doesn’t exist. Especially if it does not concern a black celebrity. Honestly though, I think it gets deeper than that. I truly believe the media is going through Trump withdrawals, and they do not know how to get their fix.

For 6 years the media obsessed about all things Trump. When he was in the White House every move he made, every comment he uttered became the top story. Ever since his social media banishment, and the lack of significant commentary from the ex-president, the media has had nowhere to go with its political sensationalism. Biden isn’t exactly bringing about juicy material on his Twitter feed and the press conferences. So, the only thing left is to go back and be carnivorous in our attention to the everyday lives of our celebrities. One point made clear though…whether its car crash or an ex-president, the media cannot get enough of a wreck.