Originally posted 2008-05-21 05:31:19 -- Lockwood's essay is part of Aaron Barlow's Race and New Media project. Lockwood's observation: "It is the media’s responsibility to stop broadcasting this election as if one specific race or gender matters the most, it’s almost as if they are encouraging women and minorities to not vote." -- is particularily intriguing today as the DNC Rules Committee decides what to do about Michigan and Florida.-- bumped, cho

Does Your Vote Count?

As we all know we are well into the 2008 presidential election process, and out of the three remaining candidates one happens to be an African American man and the other a woman; what makes this so news worthy is that both of these two candidates actually have a good chance at becoming the next president. The media has focused this election more on race and gender and has gone as far as asking people if they were going to vote based on the candidates race or gender, never mind the political views and policies, we can worry about that once one is selected to represent the political party. Thanks to the media, the American people are aware of the situation involving the former reverend of Senator Barack Obama, and no matter how old the news and subject matter may be, that topic is still brought up. It seems that the media implies that only a certain group in America decide the election.

Sean Bell, Amadu Dialo, Abna Luima, Rodney King, These are just four out of many other victims that have been beaten by cops, often victims of police brutality are people who aren’t Caucasian, African Americans are not the only victims of police brutality young Hispanic/ Latin males as well as females are also victims of being targets so are Asian Americans, and the list goes on.

Alfred Lockwood

Before I begin, I would like to start off with a story that my journalism professor told the class.

One day a thief noticed a guy leaving his house and so he decided to climb up a tree and enter the house through the second floor window. The thief ended up falling from the ledge and crashing down to the ground, breaking his legs.

A few days later the owner of the house received a letter stating that he was to appear in court so that he could be put on trial and lynched because of the injury to the thief.

Alfred Lockwood
How does reality TV portray Race?

When thinking about reality TV shows such as The Real World, where the saying is “where people stop being nice and start being real” is the slogan used, other shows such as Road Rules, Big Brother, or more up to date shows like I Love New York, The Flavor of Love, Flavor of Love charm school, The Batchelor, The Batchelorete or the 2005 VH-1 hit Being Bobby Brown comes to mind. What’s the point of all of these shows being on TV? Well one is to entertain you of course that’s the main reason but the other is to supposedly show you the reality of things, because the only real way to find love is to go on TV and give the one you love a red rose or perhaps a large cartoon sized clock right? At least that’s what these shows want you to believe.