I was reading "The Black Cabinet" by @jillmwatts last night and there was so much discouragement in how much the New Deal actively harmed Black people, exacerbating inequality by helping whites while abandoning Blacks for fear of pissing of racists but I was struck by one story

The night secretary was late so there was no one screening calls and the phone rang and rang until FDR answered himself. “I’m Sylvester Harris, down in Mississippi. A man is getting ready to take my land and I want to know what to do. The papers say to call you and here I am.”

FDR promises to look into it and, indeed, he helps the man which is just the human interest story papers love. But...

The press today do not invent entire interviews like that, but think of how they choose what to highlight and amplify. There was the cringeworthy congressional testimony of Diamond & Silk who surely know how to behave at a hearing, but chose to play it as though born in a barn

There is the overcoverage of Kenye's meltdown. There is how Breitbart used to actually have a Tag for Black Crime that you could click from the main menu. There's the NY Post which probably would rewrite a conversation in dialect if they could get away with it.

There is a lot of research on how media racializes crime coverage. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/criminal-justice/news/2018/08/29/455313/dangerous-racialization-crime-u-s-news-media/

And someone should do a study on FB crime posts. You know the news stories of Mr. & Mrs. Senior White Farm Couple in rural OK slaughtered by some Black guy ten years ago but is reposted as though it happened yesterday.

I have a niece who shares all the crime posts she gets. She lives in North Dakota. So how come 80% are Black criminals? In North Dakota?

I know she is not the one being selective because I messaged her & asked why she keeps sharing crimes from out of state. I said looking at what she shared, someone might think she had issues. She said she just forwards them all. She only forwards ND ones now, so mostly white

But a lot of us white people sure do want to see a minstrel show today, so there's such love for Diamond & Silk and others who play to stereotypes. Don't forget, they began as a pro-BLM podcast but never caught on until they decided to put one over on racist Republicans.

So how much progress has there been since the 1930s? In terms of the media hyping stereotypes and amplifying those willing to degrade themselves for white approval...a whole hell of a lot less than there should be.