By: Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez | ( TeleSur | – –
The entire premise of an industry, like the U.S. media, is based on exploitation and political corruption at the cost of Black and brown folks.
The media does not care about Black and brown folks because of capitalism and racism. Trump does not care about Black and brown folks because of capitalism and racism.
I think as a Latina, who has always struggled to find representation through what I watch on television and what is available on popular radio stations, and even who is writing in these big magazines, even those tailored for Latinxs, I am finally done looking and am going to start demanding. Because what has happened in this period of time when people have been saying that Latinxs in the U.S. media need to be portrayed differently: Trump and Trump supporters.
Latinxs in media, specifically Latinas, have been manipulated and exploited for political gain since television was invented. In the 1930s, the U.S. began to realize that our countries had a lot of natural resources, and they used the bodies of various Latinas in media to present the U.S. public with a conquerable/desirable idea of who we were to exploit our lands and our people. LATINAS IN MEDIA WERE ALWAYS A MEANS OR A TOOL FOR EXPLOITING OUR PEOPLE!
President Franklin Roosevelt enlisted . . . “the South American girls,” which included the likes of Dolores del Río, Maria Móntez, Lupe Vélez, and Carmen Miranda to seduce America into our countries, into exporting our bananas, coffees, chocolate, etc. Latinas were never on television to make a statement, to liberate nations, to make a change – NO. Latinas were always intended for consumption. We were marketed from day one.
Before Trump, the wall came up and nobody cared that migrants were essentially funneled through treacherous deserts to be murdered by the heat.
The entire premise of an industry, like the U.S. media, is based on exploitation and political corruption at the cost of Black and brown folks. These money-making industries will want to do just that, keep making money and if that means exploited the bodies of Latinas to further exploit the bodies of many other citizens in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean than that is exactly what they will keep doing. We applaud when Saturday Night Live mocks Trump supporters, but then they are the ones who also had Trump host their show. Money-making industries, like the U.S. corporate Media, will not save us. We see that, we have been seeing that, and if our history as Latinxs does not already convince us of that than I do not know what will.
Why is Trump’s border wall something that so many U.S. citizens seem to not give a fuck about? Before Trump, the wall came up and nobody cared that migrants were essentially funneled through treacherous deserts to be murdered by the heat. Nobody cares because the U.S. media has made us sexy and conquerable, but definitely not people with humanities and families and worthy of being defended against unjust laws and cruel politicians.
I demand that more Republicans de-register as Republicans, as many have been doing since the announcement came through, because your party is now officially backing racism and bigotry. I demand that the U.S. media actually give a fuck, because we can see right through your bullshit. I demand that you take responsibility for the state of this nation because you have allowed the exploitation of Black and brown bodies to result in today’s political landscape. I demand we stop watching the bullshit we are being fed on television, maybe if we hit them where it hurts: their pockets, they might listen. I demand that Latinxs rise up.
Maybe all this makes me an idealist, but what is our other option right now?
Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodriguez is a chonga Mujerista from Managua, Nicaragua currently living in Miami, FL. She recently graduated with her Masters from Vanderbilt University, and is looking to take some much needed time off from the academy to refresh. She is also the founder of Latina Rebels. Currently she is a writer at Philadelphia Printworks, freelance writer for Vivala, and a columnist/editor at Chica Magazine.
Via TeleSur
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Related video added by Juan Cole:
The article fails to argue that this exploitation of women in marketing is specifically directed at Latins. U.S. media does not consider Any group as “people…worthy of being defended against unjust laws” because it is controlled by money. The “exploitation and political corruption” of money is at the cost of all groups.
Ms Mojica Rodriguez is spot on concerning the corrupt corporate US media manipulating the daily font of information available to the public. She also focuses on a topic I had never considered. The use of Latina bodies to influence mass culture. It brings to mind the use of African female slave bodies by their masters on antebellum US southern slave plantations.
“I demand that more Republicans de-register as Republicans, as many have been doing since the announcement came through, because your party is now officially backing racism and bigotry. I demand that the U.S. media actually give a fuck, because we can see right through your bullshit. I demand that you take responsibility for the state of this nation because you have allowed the exploitation of Black and brown bodies to result in today’s political landscape.”
If you would actually make a cogent argument supporting your position instead of making shrill demands punctuated by four-letter words, someone might listen to you. As it is, your shrill rant simply serves to emphasize the lack of supporting evidence in your position. Making “demands” is no substitute for a well-reasoned argument.
I think that’s right. News corrupted by commerce. Not enough people saying this. Krugman is good on this issue.
The member companies of the media are businesses. Their main goal is to make money. If they made money by showing Latinas or anyone else as wonderful people, they would do that. I kind of get tired of the “blame someone else syndrome” as the cause for a problem. The problem boils down to an uninformed and ignorant populace. Too many of them are fed pap, because that is what they want to see. They don’t want to think, analyze, do research, or find out the facts. Most Americans know more about the Kardashians than the Supreme Court. With the internet, there is no excuse for not finding out what is true and what isn’t. When I was in college, there were a lot of classes available about Latin America. We had a Latin american Studies program. Anyone who wanted to, could take those classes or have that major. I took about 3 different classes, including a graduate seminar. Now you can find a lot of this information on line. Even before that you could find books in the library and read them for free. The problem isn’t the media, it’s the lazy public and the uninformed voters. The media are a reflection of that, not its cause.
I am so disgusted with the media, hate and racism (I’m a 75 year old white woman) that I keep my TV and radio off most of the time. Not buying what you’re selling, corporate America, neither your products nor your hateful politics. What would happen if everyone of us fed up with the junk we are being fed did the same thing? I don’t care to have my mind polluted any more. We have real problems in our world and what’s talked about in the corporate driven media is pathetic and doesn’t concern what’s really happening in our world, like the wars that are bankrupting us and making us more enemies, wars driven by the war profiteers who laugh all the way to the bank. Or our number one problem, climate change. Shame on you, media! Fortunately there is media that is not attached to corporations like The Progressive Populist, Mother Jones, Reader Supported News, The Progressive, In These Times, Nation of Change, Bill Moyers and Democracy Now with Amy Goodman. But they are drowned out by those who have all the money!! The CEO of CBS said the reason they are covering Donald Trump so much is because it makes them a lot of money! Forget the real duty of media to tell the truth and dig into what is happening. As with almost anything in America, just follow the money ! Ditch the main stream media! It’s corrupt and self-interested!
I had to give it to Trump the fall of 2015 when MSNBC etc were all Trump all day long. Starting at the beginning of the day on Morning Joe. By November 2015 Trump had only spent 220,000 on advertising. Masterful. He knows the game you have to give him that.
Even now Huffington Post has 14 pieces on Trump on their front page. Granted negative pieces but still they stir the interest. Trump owns the media elite. Again you have to give him that. He knows what they want. Throws out the red meat and they bite.
Now if he could just corner the Chinese on currency manipulation etc Or corner jobs for the American worker
Running for Chief Executive by saying you’ll destroy the executive branch bureaucracy, or running for Congress by fomenting hatred of Congress, has consequences.
We now have someone running for president who says he will destroy dissent and diversity, who swears to impose his will regardless of Constitutional impediments, who actively provokes the minorities he says he will silence. He hates the media that he exploits, says that it tells only lies about him, implies that his followers will only hear good news while he is crushing all their enemies.
So I think the media is definitely not going to enjoy what it gets by putting him in power. Something’s going to get destroyed.