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Speaker 1: Friends Media.
Speaker 2: It's the fourth of July, and you know what that means. Cookouts,
Speaker 2: line dances, fireworks in the day off.
Speaker 1: Yes, God, and that's what I love about black folks.
Speaker 1: We ain't celebrating America's independence, but we will take that
Speaker 1: day off.
Speaker 2: I mean. Frederick Douglas said it best. What to the
Speaker 2: slave is the fourth of July. Here's an excerpt from
Speaker 2: the speech.
Speaker 1: This fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice.
Speaker 1: I must mourn to drag a man in fetters into
Speaker 1: the grand illuminated tim of liberty and call upon him
Speaker 1: to join you in joyous anthems were in human mockery
Speaker 1: and sacrilegious irony. That's one of Douglas's most famous speeches,
Speaker 1: probably because it still captures the feelings of millions of
Speaker 1: black Americans today.
Speaker 2: Right. This speech is from eighteen fifty two, and here
Speaker 2: we are in twenty twenty four. You know, Douglas also
Speaker 2: printed the speech in its entirety in his newspaper aptly
Speaker 2: titled Frederick Douglas Newspaper on July ninth of the same year.
Speaker 1: I bet the local white newspaper wanted no parts of
Speaker 1: that funny.
Speaker 2: You should mention that I was curious and I did
Speaker 2: find an article from the same year published by the
Speaker 2: Boston Herald. Want to read a few.
Speaker 1: Lines h before a century shall have elapsed from that declaration,
Speaker 1: we shall not only be the greatest maritime nation upon
Speaker 1: the face of the earth, but we shall exert a
Speaker 1: moral power, before which bayonets will dwindle into insignificance and
Speaker 1: scepters become babbles. With the expansion of our country, the
Speaker 1: ideas of our people expand. Railroads are annihilating space, and
Speaker 1: telegraphs are rivaling the lightning and speed. In the mental world,
Speaker 1: there is more liberality of opinions, more candor and judgment,
Speaker 1: and more tolerance toward the views of our fellow men
Speaker 1: who The difference between that article and what Douglas wrote
Speaker 1: is night and Day, Sleep and Woke, j Lo and Mariah, I'm.
Speaker 2: Eves and I'm Katie. Today's episode black, White, and red
Speaker 2: all over. So looking at those two examples about the
Speaker 2: fourth of July got me thinking, how does coverage of
Speaker 2: the same event or topic differ between black and white
Speaker 2: newspapers Like that can be the only instance of wildly
Speaker 2: different perspectives coming from these newspapers published in the same year,
Speaker 2: same country, covering the same topic. I don't know. I'm
Speaker 2: since in a little pattern, so I think to truly
Speaker 2: understand why we might see a stark difference in the
Speaker 2: coverage in black newspapers versus white newspapers. You got to
Speaker 2: know a little sum about a fellow named Jim.
Speaker 3: Crow him a time I wheel about a young Jim Room.
Speaker 2: So following the end of reconstruction in the late nineteenth
Speaker 2: century that Jim Crow era saw the encoding of racial
Speaker 2: segregation across the many aspects of American life, including newspapers, newspapers, radio,
Speaker 2: All forms of media that were around at that time.
Speaker 2: Why owned and controlled newspapers, radio stations, and other media
Speaker 2: outlets cadded primarily to a white audience, often ignoring or
Speaker 2: misrepresenting the experiences and perspectives of Black Americans. This exclusion
Speaker 2: for the mainstream media led to the emergence of a
Speaker 2: vibrant black press. Newspapers like the Chicago Defender, the Pittsburgh Courier,
Speaker 2: and the Baltimore Afro Americans served as vital sources of
Speaker 2: news and information for the black community, and these newspapers
Speaker 2: provided perspective and covers that were often absent from white
Speaker 2: owned media. They reported on issues and events that really
Speaker 2: mattered to Black Americans, like the fight for civil rights
Speaker 2: and the achievements of the black community.
Speaker 1: After the break, we'll see if there's something to this theory.
Speaker 1: Stick around Exhibit one. Black Power bookstore and.
Speaker 2: Researching pros to the people my book about Black Bookstores.
Speaker 2: I looked at a lot of newspapers and discovered some
Speaker 2: colorful characters. One of my favorites was the late Lewis
Speaker 2: Henry Michell, owner of Harlem's National Memorial African Bookstore. Here's Michelle.
Speaker 4: Black is beautiful, but black isn't power. Knowledge is power.
Speaker 4: For you can be black as a crow, you can
Speaker 4: be white as snow. And if you don't know and
Speaker 4: ain't got no do, you can go And that's for show.
Speaker 1: Ooh he seems fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I really wish I would have known him. Michelle
Speaker 2: is seen as one of the greatest, if not the greatest,
Speaker 2: black booksellers in America. He sold books around the late
Speaker 2: nineteen thirties, early nineteen forties to the mid nineteen seventies.
Speaker 2: Him and his bookstore were known the world over.
Speaker 1: So did black and white newspapers write about Michelle and
Speaker 1: the National Memorial African Bookstore.
Speaker 2: Definitely, Michelle stayed in the news more on the black
Speaker 2: side things, of course, but white newspapers wrote about two.
Speaker 2: Here's what the Daily Home News in New Brunswick, New
Speaker 2: Jersey had to say about him in nineteen sixty six.
Speaker 2: Ease you mind reading the headline for me?
Speaker 1: Black Power bookstore is headquarters for Harlem Bitterness. That's a title. Okay,
Speaker 1: The word bitter is a strong one.
Speaker 2: Okay, right out the gate. You know what time they're on?
Speaker 1: You do so.
Speaker 2: Basically, in this article, a white reporter goes to the
Speaker 2: store to profile it and to talk to Michhew. He
Speaker 2: describes the outside of the store, which has a sign
Speaker 2: that says God damn white Man. He describes the inside
Speaker 2: of the store, which is full of flags of New
Speaker 2: African nations and shelves bursting with Negro literature. He calls
Speaker 2: Michew a militant extremist with an almost neurotic contempt for whitey,
Speaker 2: and he makes fun of his height, calling him nome size,
Speaker 2: which I thought was a nice little touch.
Speaker 1: It's rude.
Speaker 2: He had a lot of quips about Michelle. He quotes
Speaker 2: a lot of Michell's quips he was known for, like
Speaker 2: the way he talks. He talked in like aphorisms and rhymes.
Speaker 2: So he talks about how Michelle said, the good white
Speaker 2: man he met was in the grave and talked about
Speaker 2: Michelle and how the bookstore was focusing on black supremacy.
Speaker 1: He was a perfect kind of sound bite person. This
Speaker 1: article was really funny to me because it has that
Speaker 1: same kind of tone and tenor that so many white
Speaker 1: articles about black spaces do, or white articles about black
Speaker 1: things do, which is one of ogling, which is one
Speaker 1: of exoticizing. It's just clearly such an outsider's view of
Speaker 1: surprise and shock and awe of what the writer sees
Speaker 1: when they go into the bookstore and how they feel
Speaker 1: about his character. That feels very familiar to me, especially
Speaker 1: from contemporary articles from newspapers, And that was really funny
Speaker 1: to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can tell who he's speaking to when he's
Speaker 2: writing this article. He's speaking to white people who already
Speaker 2: have their like apprehensions about a black bookstore and what
Speaker 2: might be going on there, and he's really stoking those flames.
Speaker 2: And you know, like at the end of the day
Speaker 2: newspapers are there to sell you ads and to make money.
Speaker 2: The information I think is secondary truly, And I think
Speaker 2: this was like a part of a black power series
Speaker 2: where they were talking about different like black power things
Speaker 2: going on. So people following along on this series, like
Speaker 2: they hear about this little known size black supremacists who
Speaker 2: said the only good white man he met was in
Speaker 2: the grave. Like whatever fears or preconceived notions they have
Speaker 2: are going to be on ten. Like this article does
Speaker 2: not asswage those things at all. But I think that
Speaker 2: is the purpose of it.
Speaker 1: And then he starts with the word bitterness, So he's
Speaker 1: automat studying the tone for how you should feel about
Speaker 1: what Michelle is saying in the article.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's definitely at us versus them situation in this article.
Speaker 2: So hold that in your mind while we look at
Speaker 2: what black newspapers were saying about Michelle and the National
Speaker 2: African Memorial Bookstore. Here's an article from nineteen sixty two
Speaker 2: from New Insterdam News. It's titled Cooperation and Unity away out.
Speaker 1: That headline is miles in a way different than the
Speaker 1: last one. Yeah, like the opposite side of the spectrum.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And the coverage was different too. So Michell actually
Speaker 2: wrote this article in the new Insterdam News, which I
Speaker 2: do think is very telling, Like I don't think he
Speaker 2: would be invited to write his own article in a
Speaker 2: white newspaper. And they start off this article that he's written,
Speaker 2: but they give him a bio. They talk about how
Speaker 2: he's the owner and operator of the bookstore for the
Speaker 2: last twenty five years, president of the African Nationals and
Speaker 2: America Incorporated, Chairman of the Harlan Consumer's Committee, so really
Speaker 2: establishing him as a a man in the community doing
Speaker 2: good things and talking about like all his involvement, and
Speaker 2: then it gets into what he has to say, which
Speaker 2: for the last one, I feel like the tone was
Speaker 2: like fear mongering, and the writer in the white newspaper
Speaker 2: was definitely speaking to white audiences. But Michelle, I think
Speaker 2: makes it very clear that he's speaking to black audience.
Speaker 2: He's like, hey, you, this is what we need to do,
Speaker 2: Like I'm a part of this, You're a part of
Speaker 2: this us as black people in America, Like this is
Speaker 2: what we need to do to ensure economic security, to
Speaker 2: uplift each other. So it's definitely a different tone, like
Speaker 2: he's he has his audience and he has his message
Speaker 2: in his bias, but he's not even trying to advertise
Speaker 2: his bookstore. He's just saying like, hey, black man, like,
Speaker 2: let's listen up, Yeah, listen to black man, Like, let's
Speaker 2: you know, get together and not be oppressed and you know,
Speaker 2: cooperate and be in unity and community with each other.
Speaker 2: So I thought that was really telling of the different
Speaker 2: the newspapers. Yeah, And I think this also has a
Speaker 2: much more personal tone. So I think that also has
Speaker 2: to do with the fact that show is writing it himself,
Speaker 2: but that format instead of and Alan is going to
Speaker 2: remove some of the distance between the person who's talking
Speaker 2: the person who's reading the newspaper. And I think he
Speaker 2: does this thing in which he drills down from a
Speaker 2: more global perspective, or he uses we in the beginning
Speaker 2: much so he's involving people in the conversation. He's not
Speaker 2: necessarily defining that we, but that we definitely includes and
Speaker 2: is focused on black people. And then later on, as
Speaker 2: you continue reading through the article, we can see him
Speaker 2: going more into the eye how he was inspired in
Speaker 2: some of the things that are more personal to him,
Speaker 2: and he's talking about when it lay in his bed,
Speaker 2: he has a vision, so we get to see more
Speaker 2: of him who he is as a person, what his
Speaker 2: motivations are, and how those things influence the work that
Speaker 2: he was doing. Which rather than have this very surface
Speaker 2: level perspective that the person had the writer had and
Speaker 2: the other article, in this case, we say we can
Speaker 2: see his humanity very clearly, and you can't really make
Speaker 2: excuses or do these workarounds around trying to cater or
Speaker 2: trying to influence how people will understand his quotes by
Speaker 2: using words like bitterness.
Speaker 1: It's like, we see what his motivations are very clearly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I will say it did seem like the
Speaker 2: white reporter actually liked him, you know, it was surprised
Speaker 2: that he's like, oh, this guy's kind of funny. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, even though he didn't agree with his messaging,
Speaker 2: which I mean, I don't agree with exactly everything he
Speaker 2: says in this article that he wrote himself, but I
Speaker 2: do like that he would always talk about and this
Speaker 2: I just know this on background from researching him. He
Speaker 2: used to work at his brother's church. His brother was
Speaker 2: very well known. His name was Solomon Lightfoot Michelle, very
Speaker 2: well known, like evangelical pastor and had like hit records
Speaker 2: on the radio and stuff, but he loves the church,
Speaker 2: saying that he didn't believe in God no more. But
Speaker 2: he quote in the Bible like I don't know what.
Speaker 1: Always seen that happen with more than one person.
Speaker 2: But I mean he talks about like how like poor
Speaker 2: people being taken it. And in the vision that you
Speaker 2: talked about earlier, he said so one night while lying
Speaker 2: in bed, I had a vision when I turned to
Speaker 2: the Bible to two Samuel twelve, chapter A king had
Speaker 2: a herd of sheep, and there was a poor man
Speaker 2: with one lamb. The greedy king took the only lamb
Speaker 2: the poor man had and cursed the king. And I mean,
Speaker 2: I don't really know Lewis Michau's financials like that. Like
Speaker 2: I know that he was a very well known bookseller
Speaker 2: and people from all over the world would come to
Speaker 2: the history, So I don't think he was hurting for money.
Speaker 2: So for someone who you know, probably isn't in position
Speaker 2: of like the poorest person in Harlem to kind of
Speaker 2: really advocate for the poor, he talks about how greedy
Speaker 2: people are one hundred and twenty fifth Street, where that's
Speaker 2: the main thoroughfare in Harlem, so I think he was
Speaker 2: really in this article talking about community and wanting to
Speaker 2: uplift the community, all parts of it, not just like
Speaker 2: the talented tenth, but like really trying to uplift people
Speaker 2: and kind of have like a more nationalist, cooperative community vibe.
Speaker 2: And that is definitely not the vibe in the way newspaper.
Speaker 2: It's kind of like, even you're speaking to white people,
Speaker 2: you're not really saying like, hey, white people, let us
Speaker 2: like do this for ourselves, but it's kind of like
Speaker 2: us versus them.
Speaker 1: In the article written by the white person, there was
Speaker 1: no attempt at understanding. It was just like these are
Speaker 1: the things that I see from the outside. Like there's
Speaker 1: that line where he says, not surprisingly, there are no
Speaker 1: white books and there are only black books in here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not really an attempt to understand the whys behind
Speaker 1: why this exists, or like what the writer's place or
Speaker 1: the white audience's place would be in coming into a
Speaker 1: store like this.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And I think that's the thing with black newspapers generally.
Speaker 2: They're there as like a counter narrative and to kind
Speaker 2: of like correct the record, like Okay, these white people
Speaker 2: are saying these things about us. And it's not true.
Speaker 2: So we're going to have our own media and we're
Speaker 2: going to say what we know to be true about us.
Speaker 2: And I feel like this comparison really shows that the
Speaker 2: newspaper is like, this is black folks to black folks,
Speaker 2: and we know what's up with us. And I think
Speaker 2: Show shows that perfectly as a bookseller, as a writer,
Speaker 2: as a community person, like he's in the streets for
Speaker 2: the for the blacks.
Speaker 1: There's another thing about this article that stood out to me,
Speaker 1: and that's how we talked about the other title, including
Speaker 1: the word bitterness in it, and the title for this
Speaker 1: article written by the show. It's peace. It is wonderful
Speaker 1: is a phrase that's in there, and in one of
Speaker 1: the pictures that accompanies the article, it says peaceful scene.
Speaker 1: And I wonder if you have any insight our perspective
Speaker 1: on this specific articles or black newspapers roles in specifically
Speaker 1: adjusting perspectives of how people think about black people by
Speaker 1: using intentional language by saying, see, look, this is peaceful.
Speaker 1: This is not how other people are trying to portray us,
Speaker 1: where they direct responses to the I'm sure proliferation of
Speaker 1: articles like ones that said this is bitterness look at
Speaker 1: you know, all of these things that black people are
Speaker 1: doing that we should look.
Speaker 2: Down upon generally, Yes, I do think so. I think
Speaker 2: it is in response, like you know, if white people
Speaker 2: call it right, we'll call it a uprising. You know,
Speaker 2: if people are protesting, sometimes black newspapers or black people
Speaker 2: will emphasize how peaceful the protests were are, like how
Speaker 2: moral we are for doing this protest, like really trying
Speaker 2: to change the narrative for this was particular instance, him
Speaker 2: and Jackie Robinson.
Speaker 1: Had beef, so it's not peaceful.
Speaker 2: Him and Jackie Robinson had public beef. Jackie Robinson was
Speaker 2: trying to like help some Jewish I believe, restaurant owner.
Speaker 2: So he was boycotting the Jewish restaurant owner and talking
Speaker 2: so much stuff about Jackie Robinson. There's pictures of this
Speaker 2: in the Schomberg and it is so funny, like and
Speaker 2: he is so short, and he's just really in these
Speaker 2: streets like coming after Jackie. But then I think later
Speaker 2: that same day, you know, Malcolm X was in town
Speaker 2: and he was like, hey, brothers, like let's go to
Speaker 2: the radio station and talk this out. And so they
Speaker 2: like squashed the beef. So that's what they're talking about
Speaker 2: right there. But I think it is like a separate
Speaker 2: because he was just like always in the news, he
Speaker 2: was always doing something, So I do think it's kind
Speaker 2: of like a separate thing. I think the cooperation and unity,
Speaker 2: but maybe he was referring to that because he was
Speaker 2: mad that, like the white Jewish people were taking over
Speaker 2: like the hood. Basically, he's like, why are you putting
Speaker 2: a restaurant here when like the a black person should
Speaker 2: have a restaurant here, And he is talking about like
Speaker 2: economic stuff and the black buying power and all that.
Speaker 2: So maybe it was connected. Maybe that's why he was
Speaker 2: writing this.
Speaker 1: So after the break, prepare to get your freak on.
Speaker 5: Say what stay with us?
Speaker 1: Before the break we looked at how differently a black
Speaker 1: newspaper and a white newspaper per tra Lewis Michell and
Speaker 1: his bookstore in Harlem. But now we're taking it back
Speaker 1: down south exhibit too.
Speaker 3: Freaknick, You've been to Fort Lauderdale, you've been to Panama City,
Speaker 3: you've been to Cancun, you've been to Montano Bait.
Speaker 4: But when you take.
Speaker 3: Away the sands, when you take away the water and
Speaker 3: you put all those people on the black stop in.
Speaker 4: The Black Mecca.
Speaker 3: You get the Black college spring Break. Welcome to Atlanta,
Speaker 3: Hi not Ey something fo the station with hip hop
Speaker 3: list Eaves.
Speaker 2: What do you know about freak meeat?
Speaker 1: Well, I know. Freak Nick began in my city, the
Speaker 1: city of Atlanta, and it had to do with college
Speaker 1: students needing to enjoy spring break. It started in the
Speaker 1: late nineteen eighties, I believe, and at first it started
Speaker 1: out as a smaller occasion, but it still had things
Speaker 1: like performances, and they were there to have fun, kind
Speaker 1: of like kick back, enjoy themselves, party a little little bit.
Speaker 1: And then it grew into something much bigger and there
Speaker 1: were these big acts and a lot of debauchery happened
Speaker 1: at the events, and a lot of arguments over that debauchery,
Speaker 1: and it has lived in fame and infamy since then.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Yeah, a lot of debauchery, a lot of traffic,
Speaker 2: a lot of ass shaking, we smoking, gambling, and as
Speaker 2: we've seen in the last couple of years, a lot
Speaker 2: of documentaries coming out, a lot of people wanting to,
Speaker 2: you know, talk about Freaknik, rehash what it was in documentaries,
Speaker 2: radio or podcasts, even books. So yeah, that was Freakniek
Speaker 2: for you.
Speaker 1: Are you proud that freaknik is in the spotlight as
Speaker 1: an Atlanta thing? Like this export of Atlanta.
Speaker 2: I don't know, since we were too young to like
Speaker 2: be in Freakneek. I guess our parents weren't. But I
Speaker 2: don't think my parents was doing Oh okay, I see them,
Speaker 2: But you know what, I do think it is funny
Speaker 2: when you see picture the people who brought their kids
Speaker 2: to freak me, like, I'm not missing out on it.
Speaker 2: It's like, why you got yall two year old here?
Speaker 1: Right? Be so for real?
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean I would say I'm neither proud norish.
Speaker 1: My sister was that age. Ish, she was a little
Speaker 1: too young, but she was still around the age like
Speaker 1: by the time we got there, because I grew up
Speaker 1: in the early nineties in College Park and so you know,
Speaker 1: my sister was in high school at the time, so
Speaker 1: she was closer to that kind of situation. But that
Speaker 1: was definitely a little bit that was before my time
Speaker 1: as well. Yeah, but I knew the stories already from
Speaker 1: a young age. It's part of our I canon here
Speaker 1: growing up in Atlanta, right, like, the stories of it,
Speaker 1: no matter how young you were when you were growing
Speaker 1: up in Atlanta. If you were here in the nineties,
Speaker 1: you knew about it.
Speaker 2: Everybody got a story.
Speaker 1: So it seems like everyone also still has an opinion
Speaker 1: about Freakingnick with the multiple documentaries that have been made
Speaker 1: that you were just talking about, and then someone's always
Speaker 1: trying to revive it.
Speaker 2: So it's no surprise that when it was happening, the
Speaker 2: newspapers were chalk full of criticisms and praises depending on
Speaker 2: the source. The thought of tens of thousands of extra
Speaker 2: Negroes descending upon an already black city did not make
Speaker 2: the white owned newspapers and their majority white readers feel
Speaker 2: all warm and fuzzy inside. In nineteen ninety six, the
Speaker 2: Atlanta Journal Constitution published an article in their viewpoint section
Speaker 2: which was called Metro Voices. In it, Mitch Scandalacus described
Speaker 2: Freaknick as a quote major problem that's quote bad for
Speaker 2: business and causes quote impossible traffic jams that prevent people
Speaker 2: from shopping.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, you can't believe it.
Speaker 2: Ntch wants to say that clear message Freaknick is not wanted,
Speaker 2: but much of his frustration that pesky little issue of
Speaker 2: race keeps coming up whenever he tries to talk about
Speaker 2: black college students annual spring break celebration wreaking havoc on
Speaker 2: the city. Mitch says in.
Speaker 1: His article, regrettably, any discussion of Freaknick is almost always
Speaker 1: clouded by the issue that clouds far too many discussions
Speaker 1: in Atlanta today. Race. But whether you are white or black,
Speaker 1: ask yourself this question. If two hundred thousand white college
Speaker 1: students came to Atlanta and behaved exactly the same way
Speaker 1: as the freakingent crowds have behaved over the past few years,
Speaker 1: would you want them to come back?
Speaker 2: Clock y'all as.
Speaker 1: What you got to say to that?
Speaker 2: Gotcha?
Speaker 3: All right?
Speaker 1: Mitch? Okay? We have seen so many people try to
Speaker 1: do this kind of anigland around a question, this kind
Speaker 1: of fallacy and thinking before so Mitch was really clearly
Speaker 1: focused on the economics of the situation that it was
Speaker 1: bad for business. Yeah, cared a lot less about the
Speaker 1: people who were involved in this in their enjoyment and
Speaker 1: seemingly seemingly so. And also assume that nobody wanted it,
Speaker 1: Like he was kind of speaking for everybody. We're just like,
Speaker 1: why would we even be talking about this if nobody
Speaker 1: wanted it here.
Speaker 2: I think I'm going to go ahead and assume he
Speaker 2: was white and probably like well off, maybe a business
Speaker 2: owner himself. The way he was talking, so I think
Speaker 2: he was saying like, no one of my ilk wants list,
Speaker 2: which I think is fair. Probably like sure ninety nine
Speaker 2: percent of white business owners who are doing well do
Speaker 2: not want this to go on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, really concerned about the traffic jams.
Speaker 2: Too, Yeah, he was. And I think Mitch's article is
Speaker 2: so much a testament to like the Atlanta way that
Speaker 2: we've spoken to before on this podcast. Kind of just
Speaker 2: like we're going to focus on having a good image
Speaker 2: to the rest of the world. He brings up like
Speaker 2: the Olympics are coming, and like, we don't want to
Speaker 2: jeopardize anything with the Olympics, but we know what the
Speaker 2: Olympics did to like black Atlanta, Like they're tearing down
Speaker 2: people's houses and you know where they live, so that
Speaker 2: when the world came to Atlanta, they would be impressed.
Speaker 2: So I think Mitch's view point did represent a lot
Speaker 2: of Atlanta's viewpoint of the situation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And to be fair, I also think that it
Speaker 1: expanded beyond just the freaknik viewpoint. It was also the
Speaker 1: spring break viewpoint that so many conservatives and evangelicals would
Speaker 1: have had about things that weren't buttoned up enough for them,
Speaker 1: Like spring break alone at the time was a lot
Speaker 1: about debauchery, and it was about like having fun and drinking,
Speaker 1: and it was about thing that they thought things that
Speaker 1: people who were more conservative thought that teenagers and young
Speaker 1: adults shouldn't be doing on spring break, and to have
Speaker 1: that on such a grand scale as a freaknick would
Speaker 1: be offensive to them.
Speaker 2: I do think race played a big part of it,
Speaker 2: because he said, like, oh, if like white people were
Speaker 2: doing this, but like white people do do that type
Speaker 2: of stuff, like they do go to Panama City, they
Speaker 2: do go to Miami. Maybe they don't brand it a
Speaker 2: certain name, but they do be at spring break, you know.
Speaker 1: Yes, and no, I'm not saying that race wasn't involved.
Speaker 1: I'm saying that that's an additional layer on top of
Speaker 1: the fact that this person writings probably didn't care for
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff around spring break period, like they
Speaker 1: were already very stuffy conservative. This is the kind of
Speaker 1: person who says, all these half naked people out in
Speaker 1: public need to put some clothes on, you know, it's
Speaker 1: not here for any of that. So, yes, race, I'm
Speaker 1: not saying race is not involved, but it's absolutely involved.
Speaker 1: It's just that this person probably was that kind of
Speaker 1: person to not want any kind of situation like this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: anything that would stop people from shopping right, no traffic fans.
Speaker 1: So that was like an opinion column that citizens could
Speaker 1: write into. But what did the paper itself say, like
Speaker 1: the staff.
Speaker 2: Writers True Metro Voices was an impendion column. I found
Speaker 2: this article written by a staff writer and in it
Speaker 2: you can definitely hear the racial tension present. Similar to
Speaker 2: the opinion section, the staff writer says that a councilwoman
Speaker 2: who was a fan of Freaknik implied at a council
Speaker 2: meeting that the police were looking to kill some of
Speaker 2: the partygoers, and said the same councilwoman compared Freaknik to
Speaker 2: apartheid because of the city's decision to close some of
Speaker 2: the highway exits. So she said, like these are apartheid tactics.
Speaker 2: Other standout phrases from this article in the AJAC clogged
Speaker 2: our streets and trashed our town and absolute carnage.
Speaker 1: How do you feel about that apartheid comment?
Speaker 2: I mean, I do think with Freaknik, the reaction to
Speaker 2: it was very racially motivated, like apartheid, and I do
Speaker 2: think they were trying to control people's movement based on
Speaker 2: their race and based on like, you're not supposed to
Speaker 2: be a here, you're an outsider. So I mean, I
Speaker 2: think with white people, a lot of their racist tactics
Speaker 2: are just in them. You know, whether you're in Cape
Speaker 2: Town or whether you're in Atlanta, that racist is going
Speaker 2: to pop out and you're going to do the same bullshit.
Speaker 1: So it seems like at the end of this article
Speaker 1: that's when the writer starts editorializing a little bit more
Speaker 1: and inserting their own opinion, because at first is kind
Speaker 1: of a blow by blow about what's going on with
Speaker 1: the councilwoman Carolyn long Banks, and then towards the end,
Speaker 1: that's when they start inserting their own opinion about how
Speaker 1: they feel like council people should stand their grounds and
Speaker 1: tell people that they need to be behaving correctly and
Speaker 1: behaving respectably. Essentially the partygoers.
Speaker 2: H yeah, And I mean, I think even the quotes
Speaker 2: that the writer decides to include I think are very telling.
Speaker 2: And it was implied that the police were trying to
Speaker 2: kill kids. The writer says that rhetorically the congresswoman descended,
Speaker 2: so it's like kind of making her seem like kind
Speaker 2: of undone, like, oh, is she crazy?
Speaker 4: Y'all?
Speaker 2: She's saying the police trying to kill people, but like,
Speaker 2: of course, like police did do that.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the writer is definitely trying to portray the councilwoman
Speaker 1: as radical.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's more extremely reckless, doesn't care about the city.
Speaker 2: So it is mostly like quotes, but I think they
Speaker 2: were picked very intentionally, and like the previous article talking
Speaker 2: about Louis Mitchell's bookstore, like you know who the audience
Speaker 2: for this is and who's going to be scandalized by
Speaker 2: this coverage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I know in your research, Katie, that you
Speaker 1: came across a bunch of different articles and different newspapers,
Speaker 1: and that the practice of journalism when it comes to
Speaker 1: these really contentious issues that have to do with race
Speaker 1: is very wide ranging and had a lot of nuance,
Speaker 1: and that so many times just because a person said
Speaker 1: something in the opinion section didn't necessarily mean those were
Speaker 1: the reflective of the views of the newspaper in general.
Speaker 1: And just because the newspaper was white didn't necessarily mean
Speaker 1: they were always like anti black and everything that they wrote.
Speaker 1: Just because the newspaper was black didn't necessarily mean that
Speaker 1: their viewpoints were all the same, Like black people in
Speaker 1: themselves have wide ranging opinions about different things. And I'm
Speaker 1: sure like if in the case of Freakinick, there were
Speaker 1: also black people who didn't want a bunch of people
Speaker 1: descending upon the city. But I think it is of
Speaker 1: course fair and valid and legitimate to see how all
Speaker 1: of a newspaper's articles about a subject, taken in totality,
Speaker 1: reflect how people felt about that and how they wanted
Speaker 1: to express those views to their audiences. Because of course,
Speaker 1: when you're creating a newspaper, when you're choosing what to
Speaker 1: put in it, you know who your readers are. You
Speaker 1: do that analysis. You want your newspaper to continue to
Speaker 1: be that, you need to fund the newspaper. It has
Speaker 1: to be funded. So there are going to be biases
Speaker 1: that are included in the journalism that happens in the newspaper.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, yeah, biases in any media. In this podcast, anything
Speaker 2: you read like people are making it and people are biased.
Speaker 1: So for sure.
Speaker 2: Okay, now that we heard from the adac, let's see
Speaker 2: what the bullack newspaper in Atlanta was saying that Atlanta
Speaker 2: Daily Worlds, can you do us the honor of telling us?
Speaker 1: The title Gladly College Fest Freaking Nick ninety three promises
Speaker 1: to have meaning?
Speaker 2: So basically this article by Della Pulam, a staff writer
Speaker 2: at Atlanta Daily World, kind of it has a redemptive tale,
Speaker 2: like we know that people didn't like freak me. We
Speaker 2: know some stuff happened, and we're getting back to our roots.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be smaller, but we're gonna have a scholarship
Speaker 2: and people are gonna show off their talents, and you know,
Speaker 2: these celebrities are going to be here like she named
Speaker 2: drops baby Face and La Read and you know this
Speaker 2: is about college students and we're getting back to that,
Speaker 2: to college prep workshops for high schoolers and all this stuff.
Speaker 2: So I think it had like a redemptive like, hey, hey,
Speaker 2: not too much on us, like this is what we're
Speaker 2: really about, or about education or about community being the
Speaker 2: people together, which I think goes back to my point
Speaker 2: about black newspapers trying to be a counter narrative, Like
Speaker 2: I think this article is like real respectable.
Speaker 1: Honestly, That's what I was gonna say because it seems
Speaker 1: like they were admitting telling on ourselves, basically admitting to
Speaker 1: that everything everybody has said before about this being a
Speaker 1: terrible situation for Atlanta. Now we have to make up
Speaker 1: for that.
Speaker 2: I don't know if they were saying it was that terrible.
Speaker 2: I don't know, so like from Humble Beginnings in nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty four, like we're taking it back to that, you know,
Speaker 2: like it got a little racous, but this is what
Speaker 2: we're really about. This is what we're going to do,
Speaker 2: come through. They're so advertising it, but they were definitely
Speaker 2: a situating the positives. You know, they weren't talking about traffic,
Speaker 2: they weren't talking about sexual assault. You know, they're name
Speaker 2: dropping celebrities. It was kind of damage control.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's giving how when somebody when a black
Speaker 1: child or a black person dies, and they have to say,
Speaker 1: look at how good of a student they were after
Speaker 1: the fact, or look at all these good things that
Speaker 1: they did in society. They have to kind of justify
Speaker 1: the good parts of the things that everybody else is
Speaker 1: saying are negative about that person. That's kind of what
Speaker 1: it reminds me of.
Speaker 2: And I found this to be kind of a pattern
Speaker 2: in the Atlanta Daily World, especially about Freaknik. There were
Speaker 2: other ones where they're saying, like Freaknek students vow they'll
Speaker 2: quit the drinking. You know, people saying like, oh, there's
Speaker 2: too much to going on, and they're like, oh, we're
Speaker 2: not We're not doing that anymore. And it seemed like
Speaker 2: ninety three was a year that they were trying to
Speaker 2: turn it around, like there was a concerted effort to
Speaker 2: like push out this narrative like Freakneak is cleaning, it's
Speaker 2: up its image. We're not going to be doing all
Speaker 2: that or do a scholarships. We're not gonna be drinking,
Speaker 2: we're not gonna doing drugs. But like there wasn't really
Speaker 2: much mention about like the sexual assault that was going on,
Speaker 2: which like I think is more important than the traffic
Speaker 2: because it's just gonna be traffic. It's Atlanta, there's gonna
Speaker 2: be traffic, but not mentioning of like the more you know,
Speaker 2: illegal things that were happening. Like the black newspapers didn't
Speaker 2: want to really touch on that because I think it
Speaker 2: would just confirm what white people said about these freakneakers
Speaker 2: that they were called.
Speaker 1: They wanted to only touch on the harmless things that
Speaker 1: it was really easy to justify after the fact, and
Speaker 1: drinking was one of those things. But the article about
Speaker 1: them saying I'm not drinking anymore was really funny to
Speaker 1: me because I'm sure or they could throw a stone
Speaker 1: and hit five other people who would be like that
Speaker 1: was great, I'm drinking against tonight the party is still going, yeah,
Speaker 1: and I'm ready for the next freaknik.
Speaker 2: Three students said, we drink and drink and drink, but
Speaker 2: that is it for a long time. So it's like,
Speaker 2: I feel like a lot of people who drink are like, oh,
Speaker 2: I'm never I was just.
Speaker 1: About to say that. I mean, I can tell you
Speaker 1: how many times I've said that.
Speaker 2: It's like, girl, they hungover, just wait, drink. This is
Speaker 2: a quote from that article about drinking. I will not
Speaker 2: drink again, said ladies at film in college, who said
Speaker 2: jokingly they had enough liquor in their system to last
Speaker 2: a lifetime. So like, clearly they're just talking, but you know,
Speaker 2: they make you make this a whole article trying to
Speaker 2: like clean up the image of free peak, which like
Speaker 2: I understand because you know, like people were very racist,
Speaker 2: like saying like terrible things about these students, And I
Speaker 2: just think like if one hundred thousand extra people are
Speaker 2: in city, like somebody's going to go down, regardless of
Speaker 2: the race, the age, Like someone's gonna do something illegal.
Speaker 2: I think unless you're Muslim and taking the hajj, they're
Speaker 2: not doing nothing illegal. I'm assumed they're not.
Speaker 1: It's a pilgrimage of a different sort, but it is
Speaker 1: not a modest one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So like if it's not that occurring, like somebody's
Speaker 2: gonna someone's gonna be drinking too much, someone's gonna be littering,
Speaker 2: someone's gonna be jying. But in the moment, people did
Speaker 2: a little bit too much on freaknique, and black newspapers
Speaker 2: were trying to combat that.
Speaker 1: So m hm. And we're selective in that combating. So
Speaker 1: were there any white newspapers that talked about sexual assault?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it got national covers too, So like the
Speaker 2: New York Times is talking about Freaknikue and things are
Speaker 2: going on. I think like it was because it was
Speaker 2: the early nineties, So I think the sexual assault like
Speaker 2: talking about it like in Earnest was more like a retrospective.
Speaker 2: But you know, it was just like kind of like
Speaker 2: they're naked and cogging up the highways, like that was
Speaker 2: the main thrust of the coverage. And I mean, yeah, like,
Speaker 2: I think we've come a lot way in the understanding
Speaker 2: sexual assault and knowing like you could literally be walking
Speaker 2: down the street naked and like no one should touch you,
Speaker 2: but I don't think people really. Yeah, so we've talked
Speaker 2: about a bookstore and a college ring break party. But
Speaker 2: of course these are not the only examples of disparate
Speaker 2: coverage based on the source. And that's not just a
Speaker 2: phenomenon of the past. It's happening right now. So I
Speaker 2: think a big takeaway from seeing these examples is media literacy,
Speaker 2: which entails considering the source and considering the intended audience.
Speaker 2: Like we said, each newspaper, each podcast, each radio program,
Speaker 2: they have their own biases. They're trying to get whatever
Speaker 2: message they're trying to get out, and not saying that
Speaker 2: is a bad thing, like that's just what it is,
Speaker 2: but being able to know that and understand the biases
Speaker 2: and be able to peep it and think for yourself.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we know that we're being influenced. Let's be mindful
Speaker 1: of our awareness of that influence and then also try
Speaker 1: to under stand that we can choose to take what
Speaker 1: we want from it, and we don't just have to
Speaker 1: mindlessly do that.
Speaker 2: And now it's time for role credits, the segment where
Speaker 2: we give credit to a person, place, or thing that
Speaker 2: we encountered during the week. Eves, who what would you
Speaker 2: like to give credit to you?
Speaker 1: I would like to give credit to short braids. These
Speaker 1: aren't that short. I have braids in right now, but
Speaker 1: I do like the length of them. I've been wearing
Speaker 1: them for a couple of weeks now, and usually when
Speaker 1: I do get braids or twists, when I get weave
Speaker 1: there a little bit longer. But it's been pretty freeing
Speaker 1: having such a like it's like a little bit underneath
Speaker 1: my shoulders length. So braids all day, shorter braids all day.
Speaker 2: I like you, Okay, I'd like to give credit to
Speaker 2: surprise parties. I went to one recently and NEWS don't
Speaker 2: know how to keep auspries.
Speaker 1: Did you set up the party or did somebody else
Speaker 1: set up the party?
Speaker 2: Someone else set it up. I was just there, but
Speaker 2: I feel like people will be trying to make the
Speaker 2: surprise about them, even though it's absolutely not about you. Like,
Speaker 2: basically everyone was calling this the person that was being
Speaker 2: surprised and being like, oh, what are you doing for
Speaker 2: your birthday? Like, no, niggas are so annoying, like straight
Speaker 2: up like you know me, I'm not the type to
Speaker 2: like have really be hitting her up that much on
Speaker 2: her birthday, So I didn't say anything.
Speaker 1: Those are the type of people who be too loud
Speaker 1: at the space table. They'd be talking too much. Go on,
Speaker 1: continue this theory, because you know how there's like a
Speaker 1: reverse psychology you can work when you're at when you're
Speaker 1: playing space and you can be like, oh, I got
Speaker 1: this heat in my hand, like I'm doing all of this,
Speaker 1: I'm doing all of that, I'm whooped the wood. I
Speaker 1: gotta set up whoop the looping there. Yeah, So I
Speaker 1: feel like that's the same kind of person who rather
Speaker 1: than a person who can be you know, they can
Speaker 1: say things at the right time at the space table
Speaker 1: and know when not to say things. You give up
Speaker 1: too much, basically you lay your cards on the table. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I think people just want to be like, oh,
Speaker 2: I tricked you. But it's like maybe if one person
Speaker 2: does that, but if seventy five people call and say
Speaker 2: what are you doing here? They like it's a little hit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what did the person say? Did the was the
Speaker 1: person actually surprised? Now? Did they like the party?
Speaker 2: Yeah, they had some time at the party, but they
Speaker 2: weren't surprised. They're like something that's going on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And with that.
Speaker 2: We will see y'all next week.
Speaker 1: Bye bye. On Theme is a production of iHeartRadio and
Speaker 1: Fairweather Friends Media. This episode was written by Eves Jeffco
Speaker 1: and Katie Mitchell. It was edited and produced by Tari Harrison.
Speaker 1: Follow us on Instagram at on Theme Show. You can
Speaker 1: also send us an email at hello at on Theme
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