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Black Sites That Are White Owned


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As far as I can tell the following article was originally written around 2003, but perhaps several years earlier. I discovered it on the Talking Drum Website and they attribute the article to the afronet.com website, which appears to be defunct now (my browser warns me that the domain now hosts malware).

As some of you know, I've been on a prolonged rant about the state of the Black internet for the last year or so. It was interesting to read Cinque's article and see mach of what he predicted has actually happened.

The alarming thing is that so few people even notice. Of course, the reason is that there are not enough Black platforms to raise the issue or that are conscious enough to even care.

It is also interesting, at least to me, that I believe the author is the same "Cinque" that used to contribute article to AALBC.com in the 1990's (http://aalbc.com/reviews/cinque.htm).

Black Sites That Are White Owned

by Cinque B. Sengbe

The Internet is evolving so fast, everybody has a site. Every movie has a URL and nobody does any advertising without carving out a space in cyberspace. The Internet is so commonly used, that I predict that by 2005, 85% of the families living above the poverty level will have a presence in cyberspace. Family web pages will be commonplace. I can envision some sites headers now. "Coming in 2005, www.atterberry.com to a domain near you. Check the family tree and download relative's baby pictures.

So just who is using the web? EVERYBODY IS. Every ethnic group in America is utilizing the Internet. All the people who don't want to be left out of the loop are making the adjustment. Don't believe any of the hype saying African - Americans are not flocking to the Internet. Don't believe one iota of it.

I have observed the African American web presence more than double in a year. If you don't believe me just try to do a search under some of the Black or African American thematic topics that you used to. See how much more data comes up.

There is just one catch. Many of the sites that you think are controlled by African Americans are not Black owned, controlled and conceived. I have an acronym for this. I ask is it a BOCC= B(lack) O(wned) C(ontrolled) C(onceived) ?

Is this a problem? Heck yes. Herein lies another disappointing thing "happening" wherein we are not controlling our images and ideas. Yes, I know that there are those who think that "it is only important that the target audience be African American." Some say it is not relevant that popular African American sites be BOCC's. I just want to name some sites, which most people assume, are BOCC but have White ownership. Black Voices (www.blackvoices.com) is owned by the Tribune Media Corporation. Not Barry Cooper! Blackfamilies.com (www.blackfamilies.com) is owned by Cox Interactive Media. Not John Pembroke! Cybersoul (www.cybersoul.com) is owned by HBO. I have just one statement, to those who think that it is not important who owns the Black Image in cyberspace. "If it was not important to control the Black images in cyberspace White firms would not want to!"

I am not saying that Blackvoices, Blackfamilies and Cybersoul are bad sites, they provide great information, but I am saying that this trend is detrimental to the potential African Americans on the Internet, especially from an economic vantage point. I remember when Afronet gave space to a White columnist. There were so many people who told me what an ill-conceived move they felt this was. I agreed then, but I ask, Where are your voices now!!

These sites are well financed and whether they make money or not having that cushion allows the worker bees to not worry about if they are making money or not.

But how do the sites make money? ADVERTISING!! Procter and Gamble advertises on Black Voices, but do you think CEO Barry Cooper gets any of that money ? Is he or his staff rewarded with a bonus? NO!! Does he have any control over the way the money is spent on the site. NO! The money goes straight into the coffers of the Tribune Media Corporation. Advertising is the lifeblood of television, newspaper, radio and the Internet. Yes, those sites may look great and have all the fancy bells and whistles, but do you really think Cox Interactive, Tribune and Time Warner love the African American way of life that much? What say do you have in supporting BOCC ? Or the question should be. Are you BUYING BLACK!! The Internet may be the last place the African Americans can control the destiny of their portrayal in the media. If we don’t support these sites now, by buying books, music or other gift items THROUGH these site, they eventually will go out of business. Next time you decide to buy something on the Internet, take the time to pull up a BOCC site and then buy the item or recommend to the site owner that he or she should carry that item, its not as hard as you might think. Anything you can buy at Yahoo!, you can buy on any BOCC site.

My hypothesis is that in five years Whites will either own or become the significant contributors to the majority of the most popular "Black" web sites. These people realize that to be able to control access to data and what data people receive is critical to controlling them. Since the Internet is nothing more than a whole bunch of computers networked together, it has allowed Black folk to meet and express ideas without interference from Whites as you have with television, radio, and other media. During the days of chattel slavery it was a no-no for Blacks to meet up and discuss ideas. Even in Africa, colonial European efforts combined to prevent African People from communicating without their presence. Although many African countries have their independence now, the colonizing groups still exert a lot of influence over their radio and television programming. Nowadays Black people can legally congregate in most places on the globe. It is still discouraged like it is in my hometown of New York City, but it’s just more subtle.

I remember some years ago I was home from college for winter break and I was accosted by police for simply walking with too many other African American males at night. We were on the sidewalk and they were riding in the street. They blared their sirens and rode their vehicles on the sidewalk blocking our path. They got out of the car with hands on their guns and told us to get up against the wall. We were orderly, quiet and had committed no crime, but we were Black, all male and there was 20 of us. There was only two of them initially, but by the time it was all over, there was a 1 to 1 ratio of Black males to police officers. Nobody got arrested, although due to my outrage over being stopped, I came close. Their mission was to give us the "subtle" message, "this is what happens when we see too many of you people together." The sergeant who arrived on the scene said we were stopped because we were reported being disorderly by a 911 caller. Likely story. Twenty Black people were together doing nothing but "shooting the breeze," but for this white woman, it was a frightening scene. Just think about the fear that the Internet represents when you have millions of people who come together in web site chat rooms, post to message boards, read the ideas of other people who look like them. It gets even scarier if some of these people aim to do more than "shoot the breeze" but instead talk about legitimate social issues like the murder of unarmed African emigrant Ahmed Diallo at the hands of the New York City Cops. Eventually this sort of linkage could spill over into "activism." There has to be a medium to dilute or control the way people interpret national, global or local events. These types of questions posed by the site administrators on the message boards and the site survey questionnaire, which downplay race as a factor are examples of the little things which a White controlled site is more likely to do. To those who feel the need to monitor us, the Internet is no exception. The best way to do this is to use a "Black Face/person" as the visible site person. Another example might be in the case of a movie, or T.V. series that Blacks feel is worthy of boycott. The white site is not likely to endorse a boycott and takes the route of "let's all watch the show before we judge it prematurely, lets see how it represents "us," as one White owned Black series did with the short-lived television sitcom "The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfieffer," which burlesqued slavery and virtually made a joke of the horrible life that African people enslaved in the Western Hemisphere experienced.

You would never see that sort of nonsense done with other human tragedies like the Jewish Holocaust. Thank God we were smart enough to recognize that this show could not continue to air with our economic support. I could draw thousands of analogies of ways, in which these web sites are likely to subtly use subversive methods to control black frustration and rage, but I feel that portion of my conveyance should be left to your own imagination. I am sure that you have experiences which would allow you to recall or draw your own examples. Although there is a small upside. I think the phenomenon of Black web sites controlled by whites can actually wind up being very educational. There is a lot of information being circulated which passes itself off as legitimate data simply because it was done by a Black person without careful attention being paid to the actual content of that data. More so I believe that regardless of the race of the author, the work the individual does should be viewed on its scholastic merit. Scholarship can not be quantified simply by race; cyber-browsers should go further with information they receive on the web even when Blacks control the web site. If Black people realize that the data they are receiving may be an interpretation from a White controlled perspective (as are 95% of the other media and communication outlets) they may dig deeper and go further with the data and discover that the data they received is erroneous. If the ambiguity of web site ownership causes cyber-browsers to do a double take at the information they receive, then in my opinion it is a good thing. Many Black people too easily accept information on the basis that the author is Black or has a cultural or ethnic sounding name. I have seen information appear on BOCC sites which was more detrimental in its propaganda than stuff that normally receives a red flag on White media outlets.

Take for example the recently released "Encarta Africana" Encyclopedia released by Microsoft. This double CD package has been billed as the first comprehensive work on African culture and history throughout the Diaspora and Africa. The brain children behind this project are Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr., Chairman of Afro-American Studies and Kwame Anthony Appiah, professor of Afro-American Studies and Philosophy. Both of these men are Black and have a following among various groups in the Black community. I have read interviews with them and about them which makes me worry what they have done with the original efforts of W.E.B. Dubois to produce this Encyclopedia. Dubois moved to Ghana in 1961 to establish the Secretariat of the Encyclopedia Africana, but he died before it was completed. There is a lot of criticism from sources regarding the efforts by Gates and Appiah. I do know that the Secretariat in Ghana totally disassociated Dubois’ original project from their effort. The teacher in me forced me to go through the lesson plans for educators at www.encarta.msn.com/schoolhouse. In our efforts to learn more about other white sites we spoke to John Pembroke of Black Families.com which is owned by Cox Interactive. He was quite evasive about providing information about the staff, page views and amount of money Cox invested. John’s official position is Brand Manager (now what’s that) ? He is not the CEO, CFO, COO or even the founder. So you know he answers to someone else. Are all of these H.N.I.C. executives selling us out? Even the recent BET venture is still partially white owned. Why?

The bottom line is that you should know which sites are created by Black efforts or White efforts. You should check it out for yourself. You might be surprised by what you will find. Just remember when you spend your money, are you handing it over to the white man or are you buying black? With the Internet, believe me folks, WE HAVE A CHOICE!!

Black Web Sites That Are Not 100% Black Owned

www.blackfamilies.com - Owner: Cox Interactive

www.blackvoices.com - Owner: Tribune Media

www.cybersoul.com - Owner: HBO

www.blackplanet.com - Owner: Asian Avenue

www.peeps.com - Owner: BMG

www.defjam.com - Owner: Polygram

www.netnoir.com - Owner: AOL (20%)

www.bet.com - Owner: Microsoft/USA Network (50%)

Permission granted by afronet.com

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I always thought it was ironic that Essence magazine was owned by a white company. And I always figured this was the reason it was such a lightweight superficial journalistic endeavor. It's more of a catalog than anything, primarily concerned with fashion and cosmetics and a rigged best selling book list. Ebony is at least black-owned and does diversify its subject matter.

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Black properties seem to follow this trajectory

  1. Black folks some up with an idea to address some unmet need in the Black community

  2. Black folks create a business to satisfy that need

  3. Black community embraces the business (unmet need satisfied -- Black ownership is a big plus)

  4. The Business becomes successful (ie profitable)

  5. The founder of the business sells business to white entity (for tidy profit)

  6. The white owners solely interested in increasing revenue pervert or abandon original idea which the original business was founded

  7. Repeat

Whether the businesses are websites like Black Voices (now Huffington Post), Magazines (Essence), TV Networks (BET) or even Record Labels (Def Jam) the story is the same.

The concept of institution building has been destroyed. We always sellout. As a consequence we don't have anything, not as individuals not as a people...

As a child I was always impressed by what the Nation of Islam was accomplishing in the community. While the heady days of the Nation seem to be over, I now appreciate what they were accomplishing.

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While I agree with what you say Troy, there is the other side of the coin. Another reason people start businesses is to build wealth. Once that business is successful the owner(s) have two choices; continue to grow the business or to sell out. In many family owned situations the children have no interest in the business so the parents must find buyers. I have a friend who is a third generation family owner of the business he runs and faces such a situation. The dilemma is many times those who step up to purchase are not black. Johnson is lucky that the children have continued to run the business.

Although many businesses are started for noble causes, in the end it's just a business that at some point will be sold. We can only hope that as we prosper as a people there will be more black business folk with the acumen and the finances to keep our business institutions in the proper hands.

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Of course you are right Milton. But again this is why Black folks, as a "people", do not control very much here in the US.

I'm also making a distinction between a "business" and an "institution". As you described a business is strictly concerned with generating profits for the owner. Noble causes are irrelevant to a business -- unless they generate profits.

If a firmly middle class Black family wanted to live a in a Black middle class neighborhood where Black people ran the businesses, provided the professional services, ran and developed the curriculum at the schools and owned most of the homes. Where would they go?

In a nation of 40 million plus people this should not be too far fetched, right? Can any one name 5 communities in the vast country of ours with the characteristics I've described?

Typically middle class or upper middle class Black families live in white neighborhoods where their children attended predominately white schools where their children of usually 1, 2 or at most a few amount many. The story continues in the best colleges and the best corporate gigs.

Of course this sounds like the American dream for most, and financially it works out quite well for some families, but the adverse consequences on a people are profound.

To clarify one of your points which business(es) are Johnson children running?

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If MIlton is talking about the late owner of Ebony, John H. Johnson, then his only suriving heir, Linda, still owns the magazine but she has handed the reins of the magazine over to Desiree Rogers, who left her job as social secretary to MIchelle Obama after she overstepped her duties during her ternure...

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  • 3 months later...


Glad to find this thread......
Remembered it and actually went back looking for it after having a conversation about this not too long ago today.

Not only are a lot of so-called "Black sites" actually White owned, but I believe they're using White people posing as AfroAmericans to post on these sites to inject certain views and ideas.
I've seen so-called "Black" people posting strange things and taking funny positions that I never heard Black people utter in real life.

((rubs chin and ponders)))
 

.....ooohkaaaay....how many Black people brag about having sex with gerbils and hamsters????

 

 



One of the reasons a lot of these sites are no longer owned by Blacks is for the same reasons a lot of the television stations aren't owned by Blacks anymore, because a lot of our people lack the discipline to properly run thier own sites.

I have a very small site and I've operated larger sites of my own and it takes time, discipline, and a good sense of FAIRNESS to manage a website.
You have to keep an eye on everyone and what they post making sure it's safe and legal.
You have to be careful not to let your emotions get in the way and play favorites.
You can't be hitting on all the women who post on your forums.
It costs money and time to get a domain, find a design, and other things necessary to get and operate the site.

A lot of our people don't like "managing" things, nor do they like monitoring the behavior of people which is why even in real life on jobs a lot of Black people actually turn down management positions....then turn around and get mad when someone else takes it, lol.


 

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"I've seen so-called "Black" people posting strange things and taking funny positions that I never heard Black people utter in real life."

 

I have not considered this but do not believe for a nano-second that does not happen. 

 

You also have to understand that Black sites do operate at a distinct disadvantage, when compared to similar white sites.  White sites are simply more likely to get more funding through investment and business, are more likely to be supported through media coverage. 

 

Black sites pay a premium for talent as well.  Black writers flock to write for white sites for free, but get mad when Black sites pay too little. 

 

Forming alliances with similar businesses is virtually impossible.   There is not one Black book site that has started since the commercialization of the world wide web, almost 20 years, that has reached it's potential.  Sites like mine that have hung on is the best we have to offer.  This is beyond pathetic.

 

I've been doing this myself for 15 years I have tons of stories and examples.

 

I'm actually working on a revised list of websites.  I'm reviewing ownership, audience, impact (popularity, traffic, etc).  The angle is to identify websites that one would want to advertise on to promote a book to a Black audience:

 

106 & Park Connect
A Cultural Exchange
A New Quality Book and Boutique
A Place of Our Own
AALBC.com (African American Literature Book Club)
AAMBC African Americans on the Move Book Club
Aframerican Book Store
African Bookstore
Afri-Ware
Afro
AllHipHop.com
Ashay by the Bay
Atlanta Post
Authors N Focus
Azizi Books
Becoming Gods Answer Bookstore
BET
Big Blue Marble Bookstore
Black and Nobel
Black Art Plus
Black Athlete
Black Book News
Black Book Reviews
Black Books and Reviews
Black Books Direct
Black Books Galore!
Black Enterprise
Black Gospel
Black Star News
Black Web 2.0
BlackAmericaWeb
BlackBookPlus.com
BlackDoctor
BlackLiterature.com
BlackNews.com
BlackPeopleMeet.com
BlackPlanet.com
BlackSingles.com
BlackVoices
Book-Remarks
Bossip
C&B Books Distribution
Cartel Cafe & Books Store
CentricTV
Chicago Defender
Community Book Center
Concrete Loop
Cush City
DallasBlack.com
Dare Books
DC Bookdiva´s Mobile Bookstore
Deja Vu Book Lounge
DiverseBooks
Ebony
EDC Creations
Eso Won Bookstore
Essence
EurWeb
Everyone´s Place
Frugal Bookstore
Gateway Bookstore
HBCU Connect
Hello Beautiful
Hip Hop Book Club
Hip Hop Wired
HipHopDX
Hood Book Headquarters
Howard University Bookstore
Hue-Man Books
Independent Bookstore Database
King-Mag.com
La Casa Azul Bookstore
Library of Congress, Library
Literary Sweets, Bookstore and Chocolate Shoppe
Lushena Books
Madame Noir
MahoganyBooks
Marcus Books
Martin Luther King Library
MediaTakeOut.com
Medu Bookstore, Greenbriar Mall
MeJah Books
Mood Makers Books & Art Gallery Village Gate Squar
Mosaic Books
Mosaic Magazine
Mutana Afrikan Warehouse
National Book Club Conference
Neworld Review
North Paran
Not Just a Bookstore
Positive Vibes
Pyramid Books
QBR The Black Book Review
Queens Borough Public Library
Rawsistaz
Sam Weller Books
Sankofa Video and Bookstore
Shrine of The Black Madonna Cultural Center
Street Fiction
The Book Look
The Literary Network
The National Black Book Festival
The Page-Turner Network
The Pan-African Connection Bookstore
The Root
The Schomburg Center for Research Into Black Cultu
The Tree of Life Bookstore of Harlem
The Truth Bookstore
The Urban Book Source
The Wild Fig Books
The YBF
Thumpers Corner
TimBookTu
Ujamaa Book Store
Urban Books On Wheels
Urban Reviews
Vibe
Wee Bee Books
Written Magazine
XXLMag.com
Zoe Christian Bookstore

.

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