Revolution Televised.pdf

44 Was the Revolution Televised?
learn more about his blackness and Africa. This causes an uproar,
as many of the others really believe that he needs to focus on black
Americans. When another student expresses that he wants to work
with SCLC, with all poor people, he is also challenged. By addressing
the idealism of the Civil Rights movement, the opponent suggests
that the race problem is so large that any black person with knowledge
needs to use his or her education to build a black community.
Although the students are allowed free rein in discussing the issue,
the editorial hand is visible in the reporter’s closing comments:
Unlike any other black graduating class in history, these young men
and women must make up their minds about participating in the
Black, and thus the new American, Revolution. Will their search be
for middle-class detachment or insightful involvement? This is this
mandate to the Class of ’68.
The obvious appeal to the youth is the notion of group advancement
suggested in the term insightful involvement. By posing this in
opposition to the notion of middle-class detachment, Black Journal
works toward promoting the popular views of uplift.
The second segment of the premiere episode serves as a historical
survey of the black press. The birth of the black press is traced back
to mainstream newspapers’ refusal to print antislavery appeals.
From here the viewer is taken on a virtual walk through history to
learn the importance of Freedom Journal (1827), Walker’s Appeal
(1829), Frederick Douglass and the North Star (1847), as well as
other black papers throughout history, ending with Black Journal
as a present-day form of the black press. The words of the founders
of Freedom Journal, “We wish to plead our own cause, too long
have others spoken for us,” remind the viewer of the continued relevance
of the black press. Black Journal asserts that the black press
gives full coverage to stories ignored by the white media.
Black-owned businesses are the subject of the fourth segment, another
push for group advancement. New Breed Clothing, the example
used in the episode, promotes itself as “an organization of some
150 Soul Brothers who offer new directions in men’s clothing—the
Afro-American look . . . designed for the black man of today incorporating
elements of his past and present.” In the words of New
Breed president Jason Bennings, “We are quietly building a nation.”
The feature incorporates images of a male fashion show with