Literacy and Media: Is left going right?

Literacy?

Adult Literacy?

Media Literacy?



Literacy is the ability to use printed and written information [prose, document, and quantitative] to function in society, to achieve one’s goals, and to develop one’s knowledge and potential

Everybody's discussing it this election season. Seems to be of the highest "priority" on the lists of national and local government, Mike Bloomberg, the Democrats in the NY mayorial race; just last night- Lenora Fulani delivered an undeterred message on NY1 News. Ms. Fulani, when speaking about the political strength and diversity of her party-the Independent Party- while standing on 25 years of literacy and education initiatives for children, left one Dominique Carter seeming very small.

In the wake of tragedy and suffering caused by hurricane Katrina, we're now openly discussing media bias, rich vs. poor, disparities in social classes and standards. The voice of the independent emerges. The left. But if the mainstream continues to discuss it, does that mean that it's going right? And Is the Right becoming the left?

"What chu talking about? You so stoopid..."

Is it really necessary to advocate for literacy- even in 2005? Who advocated for literacy in 1967? What independent voice sparked a fire in the minds of young African Americans in the ghetto in the mid-sixties? Why is knowledge one? Word. Does anyone really care about the potential of you who are "underpriviledged"? Where do you get your media? And "why you so stoopid"?

In 2004, The New Media Monopoly, by Ben Bagdikian showed that only 5 huge corporations -- Time Warner, Disney, Murdoch's News Corporation, Bertelsmann of Germany, and Viacom (formerly CBS) -- now control most of the media industry in the U.S. General Electric's NBC is a close sixth. For merely pointing it out he was called an alarmist. That's FIVE. 5. Cinco major corporations that provide you with "news".

So who's telling you what you think?

And have times really changed that much since 1965?

Who Cares?

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me--
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

-Pastor Martin Niemöller, 1945

I doubt if the full magnitude and weight of this poem is lost on anyone who reads it; regardless of race, blood or origin. They are famous words from a complex man; a German who was an outspoken advocate for accepting the burden of the collective guilt for WWII. He was instrumental in producing the “Stuttgart Confession of Guilt”, in which the German Protestant churches formally accepted guilt for their complicity in allowing the suffering which Hitler’s reign caused to occur.

Why should you care about Nation of Gods and Earths/The Five Percenters?

Perhaps you've never read or been moved by anything written by Noam Chomsky; or you've thought that all the Black and Latino leaders of the 1960's were all phantoms- or already well represented by the media; or you've never heard of Cointelpro; or you wholeheartedly believe that your local and federal government is upstanding, straightforward, and trustworthy; or you've inwardly wondered why many of the Gods from your neighborhood wound up in prison; but maybe once - just once - you've used the term "word" to solidify your point when speaking with friends, or have you casually asked someone to "break it down" when you don't understand something?

Take this journey with us, and we'll show you alot about what you thought you knew.