A Black Agenda Radio Commentary
by Bar Executive Editor Glen Ford
So-called racial and ethnic "diversity" in corporate media doesn't seem to have made much impact on the racist packaging of what passes for news in the United States. Mayan Indians, victims of genocide at the hands of a succession of U.S.-backed Guatemalan dictators, this week announced they would attempt to "purify" a site visited by George Bush, to remove any evil spirits the president might have left there. To CNN's Black anchor Don Lemon, the story was a big joke.
Oblivious Uncle Toms and Mayan ‘Mojos'
A Black Agenda Radio Commentary
by Bar Executive Editor Glen Ford
"The vivid, visual reminder of genocide could not stand in the way of Don Lemon's urge to crack a joke."
Don Lemon is a youngish-looking Black man who co-anchors CNN's afternoon news block along with a youngish-looking white woman, Kyra Phillips. At CNN, news anchors are encouraged to act as if some news items are funny. Mr. Lemon, the Black man, was tickled pink about a story that Mayan Indian religious leaders were going to "purify" an ancient site in Guatemala that had just been visited by George Bush, so as to dispel any evil spirits that Bush might have contaminated the place with. Don Lemon thought that was very funny; he said the Mayans were "working their mojo." The white anchorwoman, Kyra Phillips, also chuckled. What a quaint and primitive, superstitious people those Mayan Indians are - ha ha!
While the two CNN talking faces were yucking it up, background video showed Guatemalan demonstrators carrying signs referring to genocide. Yes, genocide - and it concerned the very same story that Don Lemon and Kyra Phillips found so humorous. You see, the last time an American president visited Guatemala, it was 1982. Ronald Reagan embraced his good friend, the dictator General Rios Montt. General Montt, a born-again Christian, was busy exterminating the Mayan Indians of the Guatemalan highlands, a genocidal campaign paid for by the United States, that wiped out hundreds of villages and claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Mayans, who comprise the majority of Guatemala's population. President Reagan praised General Montt as "a man of great personal integrity and commitment [who] wants to improve the quality of life for all Guatemalans and to promote social justice." A year later, Reagan gave the Guatemalan dictator spare parts for his helicopters, so he could slaughter more Mayans. In return, General Montt helped put together an alliance with U.S. allies in Honduras and El Salvador, and with the CIA-created "contras" in Nicaragua, so that together they could efficiently murder tens of thousands more peasants throughout the region.
"Lemon and Phillips likely got points for their cleverness."
U.S. presidents do leave behind evil spirits in Latin America. But CNN's idiotic anchors are oblivious to history, even recent history, and even when their own video tape shows that Guatemalans are not. The word "genocide" on the protesters' placards is spelled almost the same in Spanish as in English, quite recognizable even to monolingual Americans. But no matter. The vivid, visual reminder of genocide could not stand in the way of Don Lemon's urge to crack a joke about Mayans working their "mojo."
Would anchorpersons Lemon and Phillips have chuckled in similar fashion had the story concerned a religious ceremony in memory of the dead at Nazi concentration camps? Of course not; they would have been fired, along with their producers and immediate supervisors. Of that you can be certain. But of course, Lemon and Phillips, the Black man and the white women, likely got points for their cleverness - an indictment, not just of corporate media, but of American society in general.
For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford.
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Anne Venhuizen is an attorney in The Bronx Defenders' Impact Litigation Practice.
Christopher Bruce is Policy Director of the Georgia ACLU.
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