Pathetic Propaganda Posing as a Documentary

I recently saw a pathetic, ridiculous, half-baked, truth-avoiding, poorly-produced "documentary" that nearly led me to explode. Emancipation, Revelation, and Revolution purports to fill the void in Black political discourse by telling the "true" story of the GOP and its position as a salvation for Black America. In reality, it is propaganda masquerading as an educational documentation of the history of America's political parties relative to Black America.

Alveda King, a niece of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was featured in the film and was also one of its apologists. In response to a comment at a post-screening forum that the film wasn't balanced, King called it a "balancer" relative to whatever else is in the marketplace of ideas. Even the film's producer/director, Nina May, didn't hide the imbalance in the piece and didn't dispute the contention that the film was political propaganda.

This film is disgraceful. It's more one-sided than anything you'll see on Fox News - prime time or otherwise. Virtually no dissenting voices; nearly all of the 28 people featured in the film are well-known conservatives who are in line with the Republican Party. No historical context and a slanted view of history that is designed to leave viewers with the belief that a single politically opportunistic telephone call from Senator John Kennedy to Coretta Scott King after the arrest of her husband, Dr. King, was the event that led Black people to vote for Democrats. History demonstrates otherwise but the film doesn't deal with any of the real reasons why African Americans left the Republicans.

The film glosses over or ignores contributing factors such as the Hayes-Tilden Compromise, GOP capitulation to southern conservative "redemption," the southern strategy, the embrace of disaffected racist Democrats, opposition to the Martin Luther King holiday bill, constructive engagement in South Africa, vetoing civil rights legislation, and so many other examples where the GOP came up small with Black voters.

The "documentary" also traffics in odd, cheesy subliminal messages. Ominous background music underscored discussions critical of Democrats, while uplifting music played in the background when praise of the GOP was spoken. Then, inexplicably, the film pivots into a 15 minute condemnation of same-sex marriage, an issue that ranks low on the list of priorities among African Americans.

In arguing that the Dems were racist and that the GOP has been miscast by the liberal media as the enemy of Black people, Emancipation, Revelation, and Revolution completely overlooks the role of ideology in policymaking. Conservatives have long opposed Black progress. Conservatives opposed Reconstruction and civil rights. Conservatives pushed the "Lily-White" movement that purged Blacks from leadership of state Republican parties throughout the South. Conservatives have pushed for the maintenance of a racial status quo that held down Blacks and then blamed them for the lots in life.

Republican activists such as those in this film would rather that Black voters focus on party labels rather than ideology because the GOP is now the home of America's conservatives and rode to prominence in the 1960s on the strength of conservatives who left the Democratic party and embraced by the Republican Party.

Michael K. Fauntroy is an assistant professor of public policy at George Mason University and author of the recently published book Republicans and the Black Vote.

Follow Michael Fauntroy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/MikeFauntroy

Comments

[Average]

From the headline, I thougt this was about Al Gore and Michael Moore!

[UltraClassic]

Read you post and for the most part I understand where you are coming from. But a couple of questions for you. How do you respond to the high number of blacks and Hispanics that Bush has appointed to high positions? Also, how do you respond to the absolute trashing and thrashing that conservative blacks like Rice and Thomas get from liberals and leftist democrats? Have you read some of this stuff? It's sickening, degrading and debasing.

I don't think it's so much a race thing anymore. Granted racism is still out there and will always be there. But I think it's getting to be more of a class, economic and idiological issue that creates the disagreements we see. Nothing can make a black or Hispanic conservative quicker than creating a successful business, making and meeting a payroll and paying quarterly estimated taxes. Trust me, there are plenty of those folks out there that are done with liberalism and the democrat party.

Both parties today look to divide and conquer rather than unite and win. The lines of division include class, economics, education, religion, regionalism as well as race. BTW, I'm pretty put out with the GOP and will vote either libertarian or democrat in '08.

[MajorKong]

Let's not forget the whole "Southern Strategy" that started with Nixon in '68.

[ljsfolly]

This is just the beginning of "reality documentaries" which will attempt to show minorities in negatives but it is obviously republicans manipulating the truth.

[Not Blind]

The true character of today's Republican party is demonstrated by Karl Rove's voter suppression strategies, subverting the 1965 Voting Rights Act by: 1. purging qualified voters from registration lists; 2. using "caging letters" and other dirty tricks to suppress African American voting; 3. removing voting machines, forcing voters in majority-black precincts to wait for many hours to vote; 4. using the Justice Department and US attorneys to subvert rather than to enforce voting rights; 5. employing not-very-subtle race baiting in campaigning; 6. and the co-ordinated campaign for mandatory state-issued voter ID cards---a clever re-introduction, slightly disguised, of the poll tax [a tax used for decades to discourage Blacks from trying to vote.]
But African-American voters are disenfranchised and vote in low numbers generally. The simple reason is they get no press, no forum or attention to issues that concern them until or unless there's an election. Then, all the politicians warm up to Blacks, visit their churches, talk about how they want to improve the quality of life for African-Americans, provide jobs and opportunities, etc. Once election day is over, the African-Americans are soon forgotten and forsaken, as are the Latinos and other racial groups. Theirs is not the American dream or land of opportunity.
This is especially true in the educational system. Schools located in rich, predominately white suburban areas have far greater resources and amenities than schools in the rural or urban centers, where most students are of color and poor. Teachers in wealthier districts get paid much more, while those in rural and urban districts are paid less, to do more with fewer resources.

[drblack]

Religion makes people dumb.
How anyone could care what someone else puts into or takes out of their own body is anti-freedom.
I would hope people of all races and cultures stop worrying about gays and start worrying about themselves.
This kind of thinking is in line with what the Talibam believes...why don't all religious extremists take their superstition and kill each other somewhere away from decent reasonable people who love Freedom.

[Listen2me]

People under age 55 just don't realize that from 1964 onwards, every effort to lead the country away from racial prejudice and discrimination was vehemently resisted by reactionary Republican politicians.

Segregationists, starting with the worst of them all, Strom Thurmond, left the Democratic party and joined the Republicans, while pro-civil-rights Republicans were shouted down.

Ronald Reagan launched his 1980 campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, trumpeting the slogan of "states' rights."

That phrase was the universally-known code for the defense of segregation.

In the entire USA, Reagan chose to speak in a town known ONLY because it's where three civil rights workers were lynched in 1964.

Reagan stood (figuratively) on the graves of the civil rights martyrs and pledged to turn back the clock on race relations and equal rights.

It paid off.

The formerly Democratic "solid south" is now solidly Republican.

The party of Abraham Lincoln and Thaddeus Stevens and Frederick Douglass is now proudly and consciously the American White People's Party--Confederate flags and all.

This is true, despite the positions of prominence given to co-opted blacks like Clarence Thomas and Condoleeza Rice.

The true character of today's Republican party is demonstrated by Karl Rove's voter suppression strategies, subverting the 1965 Voting Rights Act by:

purging qualified voters from registration lists;

using "caging letters" and other dirty tricks to suppress African American voting;

removing voting machines, forcing voters in majority-black precincts to wait for many hours to vote;

using the Justice Department and US attorneys to subvert rather than to enforce voting rights;

employing not-very-subtle race baiting in campaigning;

and the co-ordinated campaign for mandatory state-issued voter ID cards---a clever re-introduction, slightly disguised, of the poll tax [a tax used for decades to discourage Blacks from trying to vote.]

Dr. King's niece, and the liars responsible for this film, have some explaining to do. And some apologizing---as Ken Mehlman, Republican National Chairman, apologized a few years ago for the race-baiting strategy used by the Republican party in the 1970's.

Was THAT in the movie?

[mamacat]

Well now.
It is no secret that the GOP has been taken over by power-hungry, lieing, dirty trick loving bigots, with seemingly unlimited funds.
So, what can we do about it? Should we try to out-lie and out-dirty trick them? Anyone who chooses that route to power is no better than a 21st century Republican, and logically would just join the GOP, since that would be a quicker route to power than trying to out-lie them.
No, it seems that the only way to stop the current rape of America, and indeed the rape of that part of the world that can't defend itself, is to keep telling the truth. If enough people care about what is good for them and choose to go to the polls, then Republicans will lose control of government.
Unfortuneately, they have immense wealth, and have the power to spread big-lies 24/7. Whether democracy will survive in this environment remains in doubt.

[Chocolate2008]

Micheal, "my brutha" , while I appreciate that you are trying to expose the truth, as an African American woman who is now registered with the Independent Party, I think you should be a little more honest and forthright about what the Democratic Party also did to African Americans and how they , just like Republicans, take our vote for granted. Neither party has really done anything for the Black community other than pander and play the "I Love Black Folks" role during election season.

Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats deserve the blind loyalty of African Americans and as soon as we realize that, we will stop voting like a herd of monolithic sheep and we will stop letting the DNC treat us like a bunch of working mules who are only supposed to give money, canvass and vote for the Democratic Party, but when it comes to us running for office or voting for other Blacks, we don't have the Democrats permission. They will be the first ones trying to scare us into thinking that America is too racist to elect a Black while sticking a White man from the South in our faces.

So, while this documentary is total biased BS , let's not counter with total biased BS as a rebuttal. The Democratic Party has yet to apologize for Jim Crow, Ku Klux Klan and a variety of other things and that's a fact. Sure , they "appear" more tolerant than the Republicans.....when it's time to vote. But you know what? It's getting old. I'm sick of Democratic politicians only discussing African Americans when there's an election coming up and so are many within my generation. Photo Ops and "Big Black Name endorsements" do not work on Blacks from Generation X or the Mellinials. We are better than that and we deserve better than that.

[realitytrumpsbull]

GOP/DNC/It doesn't matter anymore NC, the
corporations took their fortunes and bolted
for China. Buddy, can you spare 9 trillion?
LOL

[Dap]

Dear Dr. Fauntroy,

Another eloquently expressed essay/post. Thank you for all your efforts. Agape.

*********************************************

The Wedge Strategists.

Something all should be aware of: (What's going on within Conservative think tanks.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedge_strategy

While the above link deals with one specific issue, Intelligent design, it clearly shows the intent of "Wedge Strategists" it is a divisive practice and is in fact being used on many issues, it has become a ideologue's gambit.

Study it, and learn to recognize it, as it is being implemented.

Sh*T does not just happen, make *NO* mistake about it!

[darker]

Of course, propaganda rules!
LIES rule! No facts necessary [or wanted!].
Fools in America will believe anything.

Spray whipped cream on dog doo and they will
eat it up for "dessert"!