Digital media has changed the face of journalism forever.
Not only has it changed the way we receive our news, but it's also changed what we perceive to be real news.
It's opened the world up to the words of truly insightful people who have something intelligent and/or uplifting to say. It's also done to journalism what reality shows have done for television -- skew our perception, skillet fry our brains thus lessening our IQs.
Some media in its various forms exist purely as fodder against those that they have been wronged by or some other grievance that they wish to make public.
The problem with that kind of journalism is that it isn't journalism at all; it becomes simply put digital graffiti with punctuation.
I realize that as I sit here and write this, the type of story that I try to avoid writing, I am treading on a thin line of being "that guy."
"That guy" in question at this moment is Mr. Cory A. Haywood, a writer for EURweb. HelloBeautiful.com recently published a story concerning the writings of this young man and a call to silence him.
It would seem that Mr. Haywood has made quite a following for himself at the cost of using racial stereotypes to attack black women in multiple stories -- one right after the other.
In a blend of misogyny and what many believe to be disdain that borders on hatred for black women, he sifts through his stories using his words with not the slightest bit of care -- and it's just beyond the understanding of nearly anyone who reads it except for the very people he seems to place on a pedestal:
White men and women.
Mr. Haywood claims that his love and preference is for black women, the women he prefers to "hump" the most -- as he stated, "Since two."
One wouldn't be able to tell from his writing.
The thing that is most puzzling about Mr. Haywood is his way of addressing stereotypes: He doesn't actually address them at all. He instills them further when that is actually the thing that we, as black people, have to work harder to get away from.
The thickness of the controversy from his stories is that there appears to be a real racism and hatred for black women, it's evident in the choice of words and it's a feeling that anyone reading them can't deny.
These stories have accused black women of being the puppets and pawns of white men; however, it never truly addresses it in a mature fashion, or even in a way that can allow Mr. Haywood to be taken seriously.
Yes, there are many, but not all black women who have denied the love and affection of a black man. It's not because they wish to be white or because they feel that to be a black woman loved by a white man will make them more accepted -- it's because every racial stereotype about black men and black women infuses us with the disease of ignorance.
The belief becomes that there isn't a good black man out there and if there is it either isn't true or he's trying to be something he's not -- a white man.
Black women, just like anyone else who watches much of the black television, black films, black music videos or listens to much of our music has been conditioned to believe that a black man is a thug not to be taken seriously because he doesn't take himself seriously in his own life.
These stereotypes make us look like clowns and all Mr. Haywood is doing is feeding them.
After reading these stories, why the hell do we need anyone else to oppress us? We seem to be doing a good job of oppressing ourselves and each other through our media and with people who stand on a soapbox and speak vertically instead of horizontally and in doing so, speak pure nonsense.
Mr. Haywood, perhaps if you considered turning your conversation horizontally, you can gain further wisdom and understanding in the matter thus creating an intellectual debate about the topic. What you're doing is riling everyone up and gathering the worst kind of attention for yourself.
You're being called gay and a racist. I'm sure you're neither, nonetheless, that's what people are saying.
Mr. Haywood, as writers, it's our responsibility to create intellectual material for discussion and awareness -- not to become shock journalists.
We need to be having a conversation about heritage, what it truly is to be black, looking at ways as a society to stop being a slave to these stereotypes that exist about us -- we are a great people with a great story of endurance that isn't yet over. We can't afford to put each other down right now. We need to elevate one another and show that we are capable of rising to the occasion and above all of this foolishness.
This can never be made possible if we just write stories to antagonize each other.