Turning Anger into Action
Much is being written across the blogosphere about the brutal, savage murder and dismemberment of a young Black gay man, Rashawn Brazell. Body parts of this outgoing, well-liked 19 year old were found in mid-February by New York City Transit workers along subway tracks in Brooklyn. Police believe he may have been going to meet someone possibly met on the Internet, although his mother has told reporters he was going to have his tax returns done. Friends who knew Brazell are distraught not only over the senseless manner of his death and the loss of someone they knew to be kind and caring, but over the larger issue of society’s seeming indifference to this story.
Ironically, just days ago, the killer of 15 year old Newark, NJ teen Sakia Gunn, was allowed to plea bargain down from a murder charge to aggravated manslaughter, aggravated assault and bias intimidation. Richard McCullough was charged with the 2003 stabbing death of Gunn as she and a 17 year old friend waited for a bus around 3:30 am, after spending the evening hanging out in Greenwich Village. The now 30 year old McCullough made unwelcome passes at them. They told him they were lesbians. Perhaps he felt his manhood called into question.
What seems to bother most people about these two cases, in addition to the loss of our Black lesbian and gay sisters and brothers, is that as far as most of the mainstream media is concerned, they were barely a blip on the radar screen. This is especially true in the wake of other similar murders that occurred which seemed to garner far more media attention.
When Matthew Shepard, a 21 year old White gay man, was brutally beaten and left for dead in a Wyoming pasture in 1998, it drew nationwide attention. Documentaries, a stage play, print and television articles were produced and now a foundation has been established in his name. By comparison, the Sakia Gunn murder just five years later, was seen mostly as a local news story, getting just a fraction of the national attention and only sporadic local news coverage.
When 28 year old aspiring actress and Minnesota native Nicole duFresne was killed by a gang of teenagers on a New York street in January, it was just the sort of story the media thrives on. She died in her boyfriend’s arms and the combination of a love story, mixed with urban violence, ending in tragic death, was too good for them to pass up. The story was front page news for days, right up to the capture of her assailants. The glare of the media spotlight no doubt contributed to a quick resolution of this case.
No one is discounting the pain felt by the families and friends of Shepard and duFresne over their loss. Our sense of outrage is not directed at them. But it is aimed at a news media that continually places Black lives on the back pages, dismissing our deaths as somehow attributable to an unhealthy “lifestyle” or just “the ills of the inner city” and thus we should all move on.
Despite claims at diversification, the newsrooms of America’s newspapers, television and radio stations are still overwhelmingly middle-aged, middle class, White and male. The daily decisions about what is news are evaluated through the prism of their life experiences, values and world perspective. When Nicole duFresne was gunned down senselessly, they no doubt thought, “That could have been my daughter.” The amount of space devoted to her story was proportionate to the amount of sympathy they felt towards the victim.
Conversely, when Rashawn Brazell’s remains turned up in plastic garbage bags, and the theory of the case raised the possibility this may have been the tragic result of a gay liaison gone awry, those same news decision-makers may have looked at it dispassionately. Subconsciously their thoughts may have been, “I can’t relate to this and doubt my readers will either,” and it became a one-day story.
To swing the pendulum the other way, to get people who are not from our community to care and report on our lives, requires that we care enough to raise the issue. Regardless of what they may feel personally, news reporters and editors will always respond to a large and visible public outcry. Letters to the Editor, phone calls, faxes, emails, press conferences, demonstrations, marches and rallies are all legitimate news events they can’t ignore.
Most of what appears in your daily newspaper is the result of someone making a concerted effort to get the story in there. Government, corporate and private public relations professionals, lobbyists, organized community groups, and others with a vested interest in the subject matter, have editors’ names and numbers on speed dial.
If we want the world to know and care about the lives of Sakia Gunn, Rashawn Brazell and other things going on in our community, we must learn how to work the media as expertly as everyone else. We have an obligation and responsibility to be a constant presence in the minds of news editors. We must let them know that we won’t go away and demand to have our stories told.
Below is a list of the leading news organizations in New York City, with links to how to contact the editors, news directors and assignment editors. Use this list. Snail mail is the best way, but regardless of how you contact them, doing something is better than doing nothing.
Newspapers
New York Times
Daily News
NY Post
Newsday
New York Sun
Village Voice
AM New York
Amsterdam News
New York Blade
Gay City News
Television
NY1
WCBS Channel 2
WNBC Newschannel 4
WNYW FOX 5
WABC7
WWOR UPN9
WPIX WB11
Radio
WBGO 88.3FM
WNYC
WQHT Hot97
WRKS 98.7KISS-FM
WBAI
WBLS 107.5 FM
WCBS Newsradio 880
1010 WINS
Keep political pressure on the Brazell case as well. He lived in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, which is in the 36th City Council District. Albert Vann is the Councilmember. Contact him. Demand action.
Posted by bernie at March 8, 2005 11:55 AMTrackBack
thank you for this.
it means a hell of a lot to the community of mourners.
thanks a lot for that, Bernie. it's good having a single point of contact on things like this.
Posted by: ej at March 8, 2005 7:34 PMI'm going to add some of these links to my original post. Thank you.
Posted by: Donald at March 8, 2005 8:05 PMThese links are great! I'm in the process of drafting up a template letter for this. Your advice is indispenable.
Posted by: karsh at March 8, 2005 11:14 PMGreat column, thanks. Its hard being one of the few black faces in overwhelmingly white newsrooms, and your take is exactly what happens. Other producers, anchors and executives are always shocked at crimes against young whites; our losses seem almost pat and trivial. I've been fighting the fight for a decade. Thanks.
Rod
brotha2Brotha
Thank you Bernie for what you have written. Now's the time for us to do us and come up with a plan:
We need to come together. To show them that there are many of us, many who care and are not only concerned but willing to do something.
We need to demand that the New York City police place a high priority
on this case and the one last year in the same area where a black gay
man was found with his throat slashed and tie to his bed.
We need to call the media out on their lack of coverage.
We need to make people accountable.
Just as if this was some white female coed in Minnesota, or a young
pregnant white woman in California, or a teenage white girl in Utah.
SHOW THEM THAT OUR LIVES MATTER TOO.
All interested parties should meet Thursday nigh, March 10th at Day
O's Resturant in the West Village and 6:00pm.
Thanks for the post. Definitely needed!
Posted by: Dwayne Wayne at March 9, 2005 11:34 AMI agree with the the lack of media coverage that Black gay hatecrimes get in comparison to those that are white. Part of that is our fault, meaning that those sommunities were relentless in their efforts around the deaths of, for example Sherpard and Teena. Where are we? We are still silent on these types if issues.
I've drafted a media statement regarding Gunn and Brazell that my organization is going to send out later today to the media, black, gay and mainstream. The National Black Justice Coalition is nation's only black gay civil rights organization. I'm one of the founding board members, in addition to being a journalist.
Jasmyne Cannick
Posted by: Jasmyne at March 9, 2005 12:09 PM