WBAI-FM TAKEN OVER BY BLACK RACIST VIOLENT CABAL OR....DUPES?
*Because **NYC** Could Be BETTER!!
E-mail message
From: st...@stevebrownonboard.org(Steve@SteveBrownOnBoard) Date: Wed,
Jun 23, 2004,
Subject: RACE-BAITING, "WHITE-TRASHING," ANTI-SEMITISM & IMPERMISSIBLE
BEHAVIOR AT WBAI
Race-Baiting, "White-Trashing," Anti-Semitism, Physical Intimidation,
and Other Impermissible Behavior at WBAI
The following piece identifies real people, reproduces transcripts from
actual sound checks, reprints excerpts from current list-servs and the
public record, and describes actual incidents that I myself have
personally witnessed, and that, in some cases, were also simultaneously
witnessed by hundreds of others.
Those whom I have specifically singled out by name in this piece are not
"small fry" or a few isolated "crazies," of which any organization such
as WBAI must expect to have its share. On the contrary, all are
prominent, long-time "personages" in the WBAI community. Most if not all
are also prominent producers and on-air personalities at WBAI, or indeed
are members of its highest management levels.
I wish to make it clear that (1) no one but myself is responsible for
the information and conclusions expressed below. And (2) that I am
writing, not as a member of the WBAI Local Station Board, but as a
listener and private citizen.
If any of those named in this piece wish to dispute the truth or
accuracy of what I have written, they are free to hold me responsible
either in a court of law or in the court of public opinion.
I ask only that they address themselves specifically to the truth and
accuracy of what I have written, and to the issues I have raised, not to
whether I "... should be ignored because [he is] motivated by dreams of
White supremacy," or should be "watched" because I am "just another old,
rich White man who wants to rule Pacifica and keep people of color out."
The above are just two of the ad hominem, "arguments by race-baiting"
that have often been directed at me whenever I attempt to call for a
discussion of certain issues.
And that is one of the reasons I have written this piece.
For I would like to see an end to the corrosive and divisive
race-baiting, "white-trashing," anti-Semitism, and physical intimidation
that have been occurring in and around the station with increasing
frequency.
It is my hope that those who encourage, or abet, or participate in such
behavior will be replaced in their positions of authority and prestige
by those more in tune with both the letter and the spirit of the
Pacifica mission.
To The Members of the WBAI and Pacifica Community:
Recently, as a result of some of my postings on the issue of
race-baiting, "White-trashing," anti-Semitism, physical intimidation and
other impermissible behavior at WBAI, I have come under attack by a
number of friends and colleagues of those whom I have accused of
contributing to the current (and, in my opinion, deplorable) state of
affairs at WBAI.
One such attack came from Dred-Scott Keyes, an WBAI engineer. He
recently wrote an open letter to the Pacifica National Board (widely
circulated on all of Pacifica's list-servs) entitled "Steve Brown and
the Arbitron Myth", in which, among other things, he accuses me of
unfairly criticizing WBAI's program director, Bernard White.
I do not know Mr Keyes personally, nor do I believe we have actually
ever met. But I honor his long-time service to WBAI and =96 since Mr
Keyes is a long-time associate of the WBAI Program Director =96 I also
honor his praiseworthy attempt to defend a colleague whom, he feels, I
have unjustly criticized.
Since Mr Keyes and others have raised important points around the above
issues, I hope this piece will answer them in a manner that respects Mr
Keyes' long service to WBAI as engineer, producer, and on-air
personality.
I will start, not with an examination of WBAI Program Director Bernard
White, but with WBAI engineer and producer Erroll Maitland. That is
because, although not as highly placed as Mr White, his statements and
behavior have been cruder, more inflammatory, and (but only marginally)
more physically abusive.
For example, here is an excerpt from an Erroll Maitland interview that
had been broadcast on KPFA (and was recently quoted on a WBAI
list-serve).
The except seems rife with race-baiting and is shamefully full of crude
anti- White characterizations. However, I reproduce it below, so you can
judge for yourself.
The excerpt is 34 seconds from the sound-clip of an interview broadcast
over KPFA, on July 8, 2003, regarding a debate over what should be
included in Pacifica's new bylaws.
<BEGIN TRANSCRIPT>
Reporter : Local station board member Errol Maitland of WBAI in New York
supported that draft [which was defeated, but which he says] would have
sent a message to what he calls "the neer-do-good liberals in Pacifica-
land."
Maitland: And that they shot down because at the core of their -- these
white people on the Pacifica board felt that black folks, that niggers
came in and messed up their nice laid back foundation and they wanted to
take it back . They wanted to take it back to the bosom of Berkeley
where it can become a lily white organization again, free from niggers.
<END TRANSCRIPT>
A WBAI Local Station Board member who had read Erroll's statement on the
list-serve then wrote (with what I detected to be an underlying note of
pride), that such statements could never been made at WBAI, because:
"... if Erroll [Maitland]'s [racially offensive] statement had been
broadcast over WBAI, there would have been a major protest from [our]
listeners, black and white."
But in fact, Erroll and others have been broadcasting offensive
statements of that nature over WBAI for years. And though there have
indeed been protests from listeners, by and large the management of WBAI
(and certainly Erroll Maitland) has shrugged them off, usually without
any response, let alone an apology to the listeners and an admonition to
Erroll and those like him.
For whatever it is worth, I have heard Erroll Maitland make such
statements myself.
So have countless others. And not just over the airwaves. But also at
meetings, fundraisers, public events, and broadcasting conventions.
In fact, I heard Erroll go on in this vein for 20 minutes in front of
the microphone at the 7th Annual Grassroots Radio Convention in upstate
New York, a few years ago, where, unfortunately, no one present made a
peep of protest. For it is an old story that it is "OK" when a Black
person utters the kind of crude racist remarks that would get a White
person tarred and feathered anywhere in Pacifica.
Even more recently =96 just a few days ago
=96 Erroll appeared on a Saturday morning program over WBAI and
discussed the Clearwater Music Festival, then going on. He characterized
it as
"just a bunch of White men playing Black Man's music, and that's no
good." [From memory. The sound clip will soon be posted online.]
But Erroll is not just words. He is a "major power" at WBAI who abuses
this power to cut off or cut into the programs of other producers he
does not like.
Or to deny them the airwaves, on his own whim, whenever he feels like
it, as he did when Robert Knight came into the station to do a scheduled
broadcast and Erroll decided, on his own, that he would not let Robert
on the air.
As far as I know, Erroll was never admonished, let alone disciplined,
for this egregiously improper and (with reference to the title of this
piece) definitely "impermissible behavior."
Another example of Erroll's documented impermissible behavior (still
studiously ignored by management, with whom Erroll is tightly connected)
concerns the physical harassment and abuse of a woman.
Not long ago he assaulted (there is no other word for it) a female
Pacifica volunteer, a white woman in her 50's, whose opinions he did not
like.
Erroll, who is an imposing 6-2 inches tall and weighs (my guess) nearly
250 pounds, pushed his entire bulk right into this woman's face (she is
approximately 5-1 and weights perhaps 110 lbs).
He then strode forward as fast as he could, so that she was forced to
stumble quickly backwards in order not to be trampled. And all the
while, as he drove her backwards across a distance of perhaps 25 or 30
feet, Maitland had a huge gleeful smile on his face, as he repeatedly
set off the electronic flashbulb of his camera into this poor woman's
eyes -- again and again, from a distance of approximately 6 inches.
The woman, who had a serious occular nerve condition, has been having
headaches and mini-seizures ever since.
You may wonder how I know this, and why I accept it as true. The reason
is that I personally witnessed this incident, and photographed some of
it as it happened.
Where did it happen? It happened in sight of several hundred other
Pacifica supporters who were attending a Pacifica National Board meeting
at the Cathedral of St John the Divine, 112 Street and Amsterdam Avenue,
in Manhattan, approximately a year and a half ago.
There is even an audio clip (since the convention had been recorded) in
which one can hear the voice of Leslie Cagan, Pacifica National Board
Chair, shouting out from her seat on the dais =96 "Stop, Erroll, Stop!"
The woman protested to the station manager, to the Pacifica Executive
Director, Dan Coughlin, and to the Pacifica Board Chair, Leslie Cagan
(who was a witness). The woman felt that the incident warranted an
apology, at least, and possibly some disciplinary action against Erroll.
You would think that with so many witnesses, this would have been
accomplished quickly (and fairly).
But neither Cagan, nor Coughlin, nor the WBAI station manager could be
persuaded to take action, or even request an apology from Maitland. That
is because our "leaders" are fearful to be perceived as "taking the
side" of a white woman who was challenging a Black man =96 let alone a
Black man with so many friends in high places at WBAI.
This situation continues today.
Of course, sometimes a Black man will be disciplined for the
"inconsequential" act of assaulting a woman. But he has to be a Black
man who has lost his friends in high places. For example, let us examine
the case of Clayton Riley.
Mr Riley is a Black man, a long-time WBAI producer "famous" for
assaulting woman. Yet he kept his air-time on WBAI for many years, in
spite of physical abuse, profane language, and anti-White racist
remarks. Yet he was fired by WBAI for launching a violent physical
attack on a woman, in full view of the public, at an earlier PNB meeting
=96 just as Erroll Maitland did.
So why was Riley fired for his public assault on a woman, when Erroll
was not even slapped on the wrist for his?
Because Riley had committed the foolish mistake of assaulting =96 not
just any woman, or "just" a White woman =96 but a Black woman. And one
who also happened to be even more highly placed than he, since she was a
director of the Pacifica National Board. So in this case, it wasn't
justice that triumphed, but simply power politics.
All things being equal, therefore, and absent any special considerations
of power or cronyism, an injustice committed against a White person at
WBAI, does not seem to generate much concern either among the Black
leadership of WBAI, or among their White supporters who pander to them
because they need their support to keep their jobs at the station.
Sadly, the comments and behavior of Erroll Maitland are not much
different in tone from offensive comments and behavior by others at
WBAI, both on and off the air.
For example, Program Director Bernard White allows anti-White remarks
and other personal attacks to go out over the air without any comment or
explanation or context. In effect, this is tantamount to encouraging and
abetting such comments and behavior.
Here is my own personal experience with Bernard White and Erroll
Maitland. Shortly after the LSB election in February 2004,
Mr White went on the air with Erroll Maitland and began to disparage, by
name, some of the elected members whom he did not like or who had
criticized some of his programming decisions in committee meetings or on
the list-servs.
Abusing his access to and control of the airwaves, he proceeded to talk
about me as one of the "rich people who had bought the elections" [this
from memory; the actual sound clip is posted online]. Then he referred
to me as "Steve 'mailing list' Brown," falsely implying to his listeners
that I had improperly used the station's mailing list to get myself
elected.
White then ridiculed others who were elected, as in "Paul=96are you
crazy [i.e., for electing him] =96 DeRienzo" and as in "Carolyn 'Bird'"
=96 whose name he deliberately mangled, and which he well knew was not
"Bird" but "Birden."
And then he pretended he could not pronounce the name "Miguel
Maldonado," former LAB chair, and current LSB member, whose name Bernard
White had pronounced several thousand times in the past, on and off the
air, with no apparent difficulty.
White also spoke about how some people "want to change the complexion of
Pacifica, physically as well as politically" =96
a coded bit of race-baiting of the kind that he frequently makes to
inflame and confuse his audience, as if to suggest that Pacifica and
WBAI are in imminent danger of a coup led by White supremacists, when in
fact WBAI and Pacifica are among the most diverse and least racist
entities in America.
Then there is the incident in which Bernard White fired Robert Knight as
the host of Wakeup Call at the end of last year (in order to take the
job himself, usurping over 15 hours of air-time each week =96 more than
three times that of any producer =96 in direct and flagrant violation of
WBAI's union contract with AFTRA and its agreement with USCOC).
As Knight related it to an audience of 100 WBAI listeners, whom I had
invited him to address on the subject, and as he repeated in a widely
circulated public letter, Bernard White had warned Robert Knight that
"You're playing too much White-man's music on your show" -- and promptly
fired him the next day. Forget the cause and effect, and simply look at
the words.
But Program Director Bernard White does not limit himself to words or
innuendo. He too, like his friend Erroll Maitland, resorts to physical
intimidation, as described below.
Many of you know that Mike Feder was a broadcaster on WBAI for over 25
years.
He is not an admirer of Bernard White, and they differ in how the
station should be run. Feder often made his views known in private, and
Bernard White did not approve. Recently, White began harassing Feder
consistently around the station.
Then, abruptly, about 2 months ago, Feder left the station without
explanation after 25 years of uninterrupted broadcasting.
When Feder was finally prevailed upon to explain, he did so on the air.
I found what he said to be shocking, but evidently, in spite of the
many complaints about
Feder's departure, management did not.
Here is what Feder had to say about his reasons for leaving WBAI. This
is just one of numerous incidents he recounts.
Please bear in mind, when you read the following, that Bernard White
stands 6-4 inches tall, and probably weighs more than 300 pounds. And
that Mike Feder is about 5-4 inches tall, and weighs less than 140
pounds.
<BEGIN QUOTE>
"The last two times I came into WBAI to do my show, Bernard, who really
had no business there on Sunday mornings, followed me into the bathroom,
cornered me and stood about two inches from my face, looming over me and
glaring at me, even blocking my way out of the bathroom. After a minute
or so , he stepped aside, but when I went to leave he followed me,
banged into my heels and followed right back into the station. He used
to, even before these two Sundays, come in and just stand there glaring
at me through the glass of the studio... Bernard has a habit of putting
his bulk too close to people he doesn't approve of--looming over them.
Its just physical intimidation."
<END QUOTE>
Another example, which many will remember hearing about, is Grandpa Al
Lewis' on-air account of how Djabel Faye, after becoming Program
Director, ran up to Grandpa outside WBAI's control room, shoved his fist
in this 85- year-old man's face, and screamed at the top of his lungs,
"I have the power over you now, White man!" Faye was not disciplined or
even reprimanded for this outburst.
Returning to Clayton Riley: For years this Black program host would
openly and loudly taunt White programmer Bob Fass, by calling him "my
bitch" in front of other staffers =96 with no response from management
or anyone else at the station.
Riley also physically attacked Robert Knight in WBAI's studios, yelling
and shouting at him that, "Amy Goodman is a White bitch and you kiss her
ass" Again, without consequences.
Clayton Riley, as I alluded to above, had a long history of abusing
women, especially White women at the station. (I believe that one woman
specifically left the station for this reason.) Although complaints were
filed, they were never acted on. For WBAI's management team evidently
did not care, or felt it was not politically expedient (or not to their
liking), to investigate assault charges by a White woman against a Black
man.
Although Clayton Riley's career of verbal and physical abuse spanned
Valerie Van Isler's tenure as General Manager, and also the tenures of
Samori Marksman, Bernard White and Djabel Faye as Program Directors, no
action was ever taken against him by any of them, either for his racist
commentaries or his physical violence.
He was supported and protected for years =96 regardless of how many
complaints about his anti-White racist remarks and physical abuse were
made by staff and listeners =96 until he committed the unfortunate
"tactical" error of attempting (as described earlier) to punch out a
Black(!) Pacifica National Board member (a female national board member,
of course) at a public meeting, on a national radio hookup, in front of
an audience of 500 horrified onlookers, during the New York meeting of
the Pacifica National Board.
Another example. Just recently, a virulent public race-baiter was
promoted to reporter on WBAI's news staff. His name is Fred Nguyen. Of
all the anti- White racists at WBAI, Nguyen is among the crudest and
most straightforward (as you will see from the quotes that follow, three
paragraphs below).
Program Director Bernard White was well aware of Nguyen's 4-year history
of virulent =96 and very public =96 anti-White outbursts on the
list-servs, and at public venues throughout our signal area.
(Especially after he received a copy of my expos=E9, "When is a racist
not a racist at WBAI?" that cited those remarks in detail.)
I suppose we should regard Nguyen's promotion to on-air reporter as =96
what? =96 a reward by the Program Director for good behavior? A
recognition of his exemplary service as "attack dog" for the tiny clique
of partisans that maintains control of WBAI's management and internal
administrative processes by labeling all opponents as "White
supremacists"?
Does no one feel that it shreds the credibility of our news department
to have an on-air reporter like Nguyen, who is on public record as
hurling thuggish racial epithets, like the following:
=96"self-selected white navel gazers,"1
=96 "white know-it-all lefties," 2
=96 "white suburbanite,"3
=96 "White supremacist,"4
=96 "WBAI is ... a...COLORED community,"5
=96 " [white] bigot,"6
=96 "[this is] a white people's list"7
=96 "angry white man,"8
=96 "white boys,"9
=96 "the white man's problem that you and the members of your pack
demonstrate,"10
=96 "white men like you,"ll
=96 "white ageing guys,"12
=96 "ageing white leftists,"13
=96 "Your theory of democracy is ... all about white power,"14
=96 "[you are] a self empowered white man who judges other cultures
through the lens of a historical predisposition to daily lynching,"15
=96 "No wonder people of color don't trust the white man,"16
=96 "[You support the] lynching mood that is being unleashed against ...
[someone] supporting black radicals and people of color"17
=96 "Hitler, himself, used such methods [as yours] ... You're going to
have to do better than proposing insipid visions of a color-blind
world,"18
=96 "people who oppose affirmative action and call it "quotas" ...[are]
racists,"19
=96 "[he] believe[s] that Pacifica should be controlled by white people
since Lew Hill happened to be white,"20
=96 "[You] want [to]...reestablish white supremacy in the network, with
some colored tokens, just to save the appearances,"21
=96 "[He] and his friends [are] ... trying to disenfranchise the mission
constituencies, by denying them a seat at the Pacifica table. White
people are always better at 'winning' elections because they have become
masters at the art of trickery,"22
=96 "You and your friends are trying to perpetuate white power over
Pacifica, and my role is to stop you,"23
=96 "I have a serious problem with the ...warped view ... you and your
colorless friends have of diversity,"24
=96 "With all that color blindness and guilt surrounding these smart
people ...there is an identity crisis in some so-called white leftist
quarters,"25
=96 "the climate of 'whites know best' in this movement is responsible
for keeping many constituencies away,"26
=96 " Stating that self-respecting people of color would stand for the
racial antics of some of the leaders of the EC takes dream as
reality,"27
=96 "she makes a lot of demands for someone who represents perhaps a
handful but a vocal group of white folks,"28
=96 "[She is] opposed to any power sharing with people of color and
bitterly opposed to people of color leading WBAI"29
=96 "She would not mind an all white LAB"30
=96 " It is very shameful that a sliver of mostly white so-called
democrats, who do not represent the listeners at all, would make this
attempt at a power grab."31
1 =96 Jul 18, 2002, 8:04 pm
2 =96 Jan 11, 2002, 5:25 pm
3 =96 Feb 22, 2002, 5:56 am
4 =96 Feb 24, 2002, 1:59 pm
5 =96 Feb 24, 2002, 1:59 pm
6 =96 Feb 24, 2002, 1:59 pm
7 =96 Feb 24, 2002, 10:20 pm
8, 9, 10 =96 Jul 11, 2002, 3:19 pm
11, 12, 13, 14 =96 Jul 11, 2002, 1:08 pm
15, 16 -- Jul 11, 2002, 1:08 pm
17, 18 =96 Jul 11, 2002, 1:08 pm
19, 20, 21 =96 Jun 30, 2002, 5:57 pm
22, 23 =96 Jun 30, 2002, 5:57 pm
24, 25 =96 Jul 1, 2002, 11:32 am
26, 27 =96 Jan 11, 2002, 3:40 pm
28, 29, 30 =96 Jul 23, 2002, 8:21 pm
31 =96 Jul 31, 2002, 7:51 pm
Who were the above remarks by Fred Nguyen directed against? Every single
one of those anti-White smears quoted above was specifically directed,
by name, against Carol Spooner and Leslie Cagan (both at the time
directors of the Pacifica National Board), Larry Romsted, Dave Fertig
(another PNB member), myself, and many others during the struggle to
create a new set of bylaws for the Pacifica Foundation.
He has not stopped making these remarks. And he is still a reporter on
WBAI's airwaves.
Then there is Janice K Bryant. This WBAI producer was a member of the
search committee assigned to find a new general manager for WBAI about 2
years ago.
One day, while on the air, this prominent, influential, and respected
WBAI producer
=96 a frequent on-air co-host, personal friend of Bernard White, member
of the WBAI LAB and also a national director of the Pacifica Foundation
(!) =96 nonchalantly informed her listening audience (actually boasted)
that
"... the only way there'll be a white station manager at WBAI is over my
dead body."
She was forced to resign from the search committee =96 not because
WBAI's management felt she had done anything improper =96 but because
management was informed by WBAI's legal counsel that if she remained on
the committee the station would be liable to lawsuits from
White candidates who did not get the job, and that the station would
probably lose those suits and be subject to huge financial damages.
Here is another stupid (but not less dangerous) recent example of
"white- trashing"on WBAI's airwaves.
I refer to Kamau Kalfani's program,
Under the Learning Tree (or Under the Bigotry, as many call it) on which
a supposedly serious discussion was predicated on the notion that the
sexual inadequacy of European White males is why Whites are predisposed
to kill Blacks.
And that Black women shouldn't seek out White men as sexual partners,
because they smell bad as a result of not having any "smelanin."
The audio clips are up on the net, uploaded by talking...@yahoo.com
[ca. 30 minutes into segment wbai-200030731-0259.mp3].
On another Kalfani show of only a few months ago [see
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=3D6093 ] WBAI listeners were
treated to a learned presentation in which it was pointed out that the
word "Jew" was derived from the word "jewelry." )
Or perhaps vice-versa, I never quite understood which.) And that "the
Jewish community is the spoiled brat of America."
And not more than a week ago, a WBAI producer attacked me, at an LSB
Membership subcommittee, for placing ads =96 that I had created to
obtain new WBAI members =96 in publications such as
The Nation magazine and The New York Review of Books. (The ads offered
CDs of a WBAI broadcast of Gore Vidal as a membership premium.)
What was her reason for attacking the ads (the first of which,
incidentally, has already netted the station approximately $18,000 in
profit and 500-600 new members in just 6 weeks)? She explained (in front
of the other 10 or 12 committee members) that "we don't need any more
rich liberal White men in WBAI's membership."
She also suggested that perhaps I ran those ads, right before the
upcoming LSB elections, in order to "pack" our membership rolls with
"rich white liberals who won't be expected to vote for people of color."
Is this supposed to be a "respected" WBAI producer, role model, on-air
personality from whom listeners are supposed to learn about tolerance,
diversity, harmony between the races and fulfillment of the Pacifica
mission?
As you see from the above, there is simply no shortage of offensive
behavior and language in and around WBAI, most of it supplied by a tiny
segment WBAI management, producers and staff =96 who, unfortunately,
completely control what goes on the station's airwaves, what appears on
the station's website, what appears in the station's e-Newsletter to
listeners, and what appears in the station's Folio that is mailed to the
listeners.
So I could go on and on with examples. .
But why bother? So many listeners know about these and similar examples
of race-baiting, "White-trashing," anti-Semitic remarks, and physical
assault that I do not need to belabor the claim.
I can only deplore the fact that even good people at the station have
become so desensitized =96 or are in such denial =96 that they cannot
even hear the ever-increasing onslaught of racist garbage that is being
dumped on WBAI =96 dumped with what, I must assume, is the permission,
if not outright approval, of our program director and the rest of our
management team.
I don't know if everyone has seen it, but there is a Code of Ethics on
the Pacifica Foundation website. It proclaims that
"the organization [Pacifica] shall avoid the following: Messages which
fuel prejudice, hatred, or intolerance."
Clearly the best way to "avoid" such messages, is to avoid tolerating or
associating with those who preach such messages.
That means taking a principled stand. It means not allowing ourselves to
become moral cowards =96 whether out of "White liberal guilt" or out of
fear of becoming the target of vicious and manipulative name-calling and
race- baiting.
One way to confront the problem is to stop describing it in "abstract"
terms and being naming those who are responsible. How many are willing
to do that?
Not many. Some of our leaders keep retreating behind convenient, evasive
(and risk-free) requests for ever more extensive "factual
substantiation" of race-baiting, "White-trashing," anti-Semitic remarks,
and physical abuse before they will act =96 which means, of course, that
however many verified instances of such racism are brought forth, they
will never be accepted as "enough" or "sufficient."
Or they will be characterized as the "only" instances =96 the rare
exceptions rather than the common rule. Or they will simply be brushed
aside, with assurances that, if such "transgressions" ever did occur at
WBAI in the past =96 they are no longer occurring now.
So we arrive at this very practical question. How do we gather enough
"factual substantiation" of race-baiting, "White-trashing," anti-Semitic
remarks, and physical abuse to justify action by management, by the LSB,
or by the Pacifica National Board? And by action =96 let me make it
absolutely clear =96 I mean immediate and outright dismissal (for
"cause") of those who have violated their responsibility not to "fuel
racial prejudice, hatred, or intolerance" at WBAI.
Unfortunately, most listeners do not have the foresight, or the
resources, to sit before their radios day after day, with tape recorders
and memo pads in hand, in order to memorialize offensive anti-White
statements as they occur =96 complete with references to the program,
the time, the date, and the track =96 so that such statements can be
instantly located and publicized, as was able to be done with the "lily
white/nigger" statement, quoted above, of Erroll Maitland (who even his
friends ruefully admit is a stone cold racist, although only behind his
back).
The inability to pull racially offensive air-checks out of a hat, on a
moment's notice, does not mean that such remarks have not been made in
profusion, by many WBAI personalities, on numerous occasions.
It is sad that a member of the LSB, when shown Maitland's remark about
"lily White liberals" and "niggers," said that
"... if Erroll [Maitland]'s [racially offensive] statement had been
broadcast over WBAI, there would have been a major protest from [our]
listeners, black and white."
Does anyone believe this now?
The fact is, WBAI listeners have indeed been protesting this abusive
language and behavior for years? They have complained -- by the hundreds
and perhaps thousands -- via postal mail, email, telephone, at LAB
meetings, at LSB meetings, at bylaws meetings, at Concerned Friends
meetings, and even (when possible) on call-in shows to Samori Marksman,
to Valerie van Isler, to Djabel Faye, to Bernard White.
But they were simply ignored =96 or worse, told in stinging on-air
rebukes that they were talking like white supremacists who can't stand
to see a strong Black man (or strong Black woman, as the case might be)
in a position of power or authority.
What complicates this issue even further is that anti-White material is
not usually broadcast in as crude and as stupid a manner as Erroll has
done (although sometimes it is).
Usually it is a matter of suggestion, or inuendo, or double meanings =96
in a context that gives the perpetrator a cloak of "deniability," such
as will allow him or her to look one straight in the eye and say, "You
must be mistaken; that's not what I meant at all."
I would now like to add a "pre-emptive" footnote:
I am sure that there will be some who will not attempt to answer the
above arguments with counter-arguments. They will, in fact, ignore my
arguments and simply claim that I am a racist. Their proof will be =96
simply =96 the fact that I, a White person, have dared to criticize a
Black person.
This kind of thing is happening more and more at WBAI.
I see it at LSB meetings -- where, two sessions ago, you may remember, a
woman in the audience was asked by a board member, in a rather neutral
way, merely if she had jotted down a particular point, only to have that
woman jump up and launch into a 13-minute tirade, at the top of her
voice, about how dare that board member talk to a Black woman like that,
and how she would never have spoken to a White woman this way, etc.
And I see it at committee meetings -- where, as was reported just a few
weeks ago, racially inflamed acrimony over a matter that had nothing to
do with race resulted in screaming fits, walkouts, and, if I heard
correctly, some chair flinging.
I attribute this increasing incivility and race-baiting, in and around
the station, to a corrosive atmosphere that has been encouraged and
enabled by crude and inflammatory racist statements (there is no other
word for them) of people like Erroll Maitland, and the much subtler but
no less destructive utterances of people like Bernard White, who use the
airwaves to hint at some vast conspiracy to suppress people of color and
turn WBAI into a White fiefdom.
That is the gist of three years of innuendoes, sly digs, and
unflattering remarks by the program director on air about certain people
in the WBAI community, and more recently and more frequently about
members of the Local Station Board, often by name, in unflattering
contexts.
Mr. White has consistently used the airwaves to undermine the Pacifica
bylaws, the credibility of the new LSBs, and -- most insistently -- the
authority, appropriateness, and validity of listener participation in
WBAI governance. And race-baiting has been his "argument" of choice. (As
when he speaks on-air about sinister people among us who seek to "change
the physical complexion" of Pacifica.
Virtually all of the racially offensive quotes I used as examples above
seek to instill in listeners' minds the false belief that Blacks are a
tiny and beleaguered minority at WBAI, under constant threat of being
submerged by an onrushing tidal wave of White racist listeners who are
frantically attempting to "take over the station" and "push people of
color out the door."
That this scenario is not only untrue, but so far removed from reality
as to be ludicrous on its face, has not seemed to deter Bernard or
Erroll or some of their acolytes at the station from behaving as if the
anticipated White assault was not only a reasonable prospect, but was in
imminent danger of become an actuality in the very moment.
The fact is that for the last 15 years the station has been almost
totally run by African Americans and people of color. That includes all
of its top paid and unpaid positions, as well as management itself.
And the myth of a White Conspiracy to take it over is just that =96 a
myth.
No one cared that WBAI was almost totally run and staffed in its top
echelon management and departmental positions by Blacks. Because WBAI
wasn't a "Black station." It was simply a good station.
Now it is a station with a narrow and strident agenda whose management
is attempting to sow racial disharmony where is did not exist before.
Mostly this appears to be a tactic for gaining personal power.
Just for the record, people of color now hold virtually all of the top
paid positions at WBAI. To wit:
ADMINSTRATIVE: General Manager, Don Rojas; Business Manager & Fiscal
Officer, Indra Hardat; Accounts Payable & Assistant to the General
Manager, Yvonne Singh; Subscriptions Director, Evelyn Andino; Premiums
Director, Paul Ashby; Premiums Assistant, Lambert Marksman [deceased
6/5/04]; Outreach Coordinator, Bok-keem Nyerere
PROGRAMMING: Program Director, Bernard White; Assistant to Program
Director, Shirley Irons; Public Affairs Director, Kathy Davis; Producer
of Wakeup Call, Sharan Harper; Host-Producer of Wakeup Call, Deepa
Fernandes; Host-Producer of Wakeup Call (Fridays), Mario Murillo;
Host-Producer of TalkBack, Hugh Hamilton; Co-Host-Producer of TalkBack
(Fridays), Earl Caldwell
NEWS STAFF: News Director, Jose Santiago; Producer-Host of Election
Coverage, Robert Knight; Reporters, Eric Williams, Ian Forest, Barbara
Day, Gail Walker, Fred Nguyen
OPERATIONS STAFF: Chief Announcer/Engineer, Michael G. Haskins;
Maintenance Engineer, Graceon Challenger; Production Engineer, Dred
Scott Keyes; Engineers, Errol Maitland, Shawn Rhodes, Sidney Smith,
t-dub.
But the myth of the threatened Black "minority" at WBAI has been a
useful myth for those who seek to sow hatred and divisiveness as a means
of maintaining their personal power and privilege.
Unfortunately, just because something is not true does not mean that a
large number of people cannot be made to think it is true.
And although the alleged spectre of White Racism at WBAI is no more real
than the alleged spectre of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, people
like Erroll Maitland and Bernard White are trying very hard to make it
appear true..
Sadly, this has simply encouraged people to shout "White racist!" when
they have a disagreement =96 instead of debating the actual issues
involved.
And eventually, even those being falsely accused may start to feel
vaguely guilty =96 and begin to wonder if perhaps they actually had been
doing what they damn well know they were NOT doing.
That is analogous to right wing "demonizing" techniques =96 as when
people like Rush Limbaugh and his Fox network cronies bemoan the
supposedly overwhelming preponderance of "liberal media" in this
country, until this total fabrication (and could anything be further
from the truth?) is almost totally believed by most of the electorate.
It is sad to see at WBAI. And I look forward to the day when it this is
no longer the case.
Regards,
Steve Brown
St...@SteveBrownOnBoard.org
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
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x-posted as a community service. ixpho:sounds like the guys who
destroyed wlib are now setting out to destroy wbai.
possibly the fred newmanite cult who fronts for extreme right-wing
interests yet represents as a black-run revolutionary party with a bit
of anti-semitism thrown in but which is actually run by an all-white,
all-male all_self-hating-male Jewish cabal whose sole interest is their
control of their harem, their personal privilege and enlarging the group
for money prestige and control over more people by infiltrating
grassroots organizations to take over or to destabilize depending on who
or what is the highest bidder/prospect.
time to maybe buy amy goodmans book and make checks out to infividual
programmers (dj's) you support on wbai and definitely for the lady who
caught seizures, for the lady to sue.
i too have heard some dj after bob fass's show play gangsta rap with
all the 7 words kept in and with the phrase clearly repeated many times
"kill the P" where it was unmistakenly meant to mean "kill the police"
which if any listener who is demented claims as a defense they were
goaded by the music and comments of a particular dj on wbai would spell
the end of wbai,
yet when i complaineof a similar instance to keyes and pointed out
on-air that it was a licensure and litigation and liability issue, I was
told "well you can always turn the dial" and was cut off.
so much for anyone in charge of wbai caring what happens to wbai other
than what they can loot from it in the short run till their fuhrer's
contract runs out.
racism is always dumb.
and those who espouse it always stupid...and usually do so to cover up
their own psychic or personal integrity deficits.
but when people are allowed to use force to enforce their barbarity,
well, and lies to justify such bullying, maybe it is time not to pay
them to do so. ix_pho.
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=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
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