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By Nehemiah D. Frank, founder and editor-in-chief
The white-supremacy institutions of Tulsa, Oklahoma are well-oiled machines, working against the progress of District One and its Councilwoman, Vanessa Hall-Harper.
What the Tulsa World Editorial Writers fail to understand is that the councilwoman’s constituents asked the councilor to push for the moratorium with the aim being an end to the proliferation of discount-dollar stores in north Tulsa.
It is important to remember the majority of the city’s African-American community and their allies consider the moratorium a victory.
Week after week members from the community and allies from across the city voiced their support of the moratorium at city council meetings. Very few spoke against having the moratorium.
However, regardless of how Black constituents and their allies feel, the Tulsa World’s largely-White, editorial staff considers it bad policy. These authors of propaganda are essentially saying, “Dear Black people, you are too incompetent to govern yourselves.” Notably, white media in the state of Oklahoma has a long history of demonizing and antagonizing Black people through media.
Today, they may no longer do it with cartoon illustrations, but they do it with their wealthy platforms in hopes of arousing hostility.
They then use their privileged rostrum — built on the pillars of white supremacy — to antagonize the one Black woman and person of color on the Tulsa City Council, all while forgetting other city councilors voted in favor of the moratorium too.
This targeting by the Tulsa World does nothing to bridge the racial divide in the city.
Why not personally call the City Councilwoman and whitesplain their concerns?
Can’t you smell the pre-election smear campaign Tulsa World is brewing? One can speculate the indirect endorsement for next year’s election that does not include the current district one councilor.
Perhaps it is an attack due to the recent screwup Tulsa World did when comparing the African American Affairs Commission to a ‘race panel.’
Printed version of the Tulsa World article on the African American Affairs Commission
Interestingly, the digital version of their story referred to said Commission by its correct name but failed to do so in its printed version; therefore, the seemingly high-esteemed and multimillion-dollar, all-powerful institution negatively affected the perception of thousands-upon-thousands of its readers, who are mostly white, into believing that Dist. One Councilwoman Hall-Harper is somehow unfit to serve the very people who elected her into office.
Tulsa World, please:
- Stop operating with a white hegemonic mindset
- Stop using your power to bully marginalized communities
- Stop walking the fine line pretending you are an advocate of Black Lives
- Stop cherrypicking stories to make north Tulsa appear as if it’s ridden with crime and uneducated thugs
- Stop stigmatizing our community with your conscious privilege and power – you are literally, bringing down the real estate value and therefore contributing to the prevalence of systemic racialized-oppression
- Stop, Stop, Stop
Nehemiah D. Frank is the Founder of the Black Wall St. Times. Frank is also the Co-Executive Producer of the “Dominic Durant Sports Show.” Frank graduated from Harold Washington College in Chicago, IL in General Studies, and earned a 2nd degree in Political Science from Oklahoma State University. He is highly involved in community activism, a middle school teacher at Sankofa School of the Performing Arts, a blogger for Education Post, and dedicates most of his time to empowering and uplifting his community. Frank is a 2017 Terence Crutcher Foundation Honoree and has been featured on NBC, Blavity, and Tulsa People.