Oakland (Special to ZennieReport.com) – As more African Americans have entered the news media space once dominated by white men, this vlogger named Zennie Abraham has noticed an interesting and sad dynamic. In a sad attempt to maintain the house-of-cards pedestal that white-owned and ran media held, there has been an effort to keep up the racist practice of making stereotypical news items that are based on racist tropes. In an effort to counter that sad practice, this vlogger has went on the attack with counter-content.
Now, a few reporters, all white and male, have taken to social media to whine about it. The familiar refrain is “Zennie Abraham called me racist for…” And fill in the blank. And guess what? If you take actions against me or another black person for not toeing what you believe a black person should think, you’re going to be the focus of criticism from me. Guaranteed.
What cracks me up is a minority number of white reporters actually thinking they have the right to write racist stuff. That’s the opposite of complaining that I say they’re racist, right? I can see them figuratively looking around for some to agree with them in a sick and sad effort to hide behind what they see as a crowd of racist reporters, all circling the wagons. The truth is, no one in their right mind would stand with people like that. So, they’re out in the cold. Batman wins.
If I tell you I do “sponsored content” and you attack me, then I turn around and find that you’re doing the same thing but hiding it, I’m going to mention it. After all, you started it, and you’re being dishonest. And you’re trying to make me as a black person look bad for being honest and direct about something you do, but hide the fact that you do it. Give me a break. News flash: sponsored content is legal, stop acting like you don’t make it.
Thinking that there’s something wrong with me doing what you do is being racist, and you know it. Don’t like it? Stop doing it. Pure and simple.
The fact is that news media can’t pay for itself with ad revenue, alone, anymore. There’s way too much content competiting for the ad dollar. On top of that, the sheer volume of platforms has established a kind of physics of online traffic flow, where your content has a finite amount of time to catch a wave of interest and hold it, before your window closes. Most of the time, for good.
But all of this talk about online traffic dynamics is boring to the types of folks I’m referring to because they don’t even actually run their own spaces (what we call “dedicated servers) and those that do work on their own use simple platforms that don’t call for any coding knowledge.
In the past, folks who fell into that category were older and both white and black, and I helped them get started with their first website. People like The Legendary SF Chronicle Columnist Glenn Dickey and KTVU TV Reporter Kraig Debro, and a many more. I even helped real estate developers and fitness models build their own digital media platforms – many of them with advanced approaches still not widely used today. And where one didn’t want to have their own platform, they turned to me for advice on starting a YouTube Channel, as I am Oakland’s first YouTube Partner.
Zennie Abraham Presents Kraig Debro Formerly Of KTVU:
Then, I was blessed to be on the CNN / YouTube Democratic Debates of 2007, where then Senator Joe Biden answered my “coin question”.
On top of that, I’m one of the first 128 bloggers to be invited to cover the historic 2008 Democratic National Convention. But since I did it more with vlogging than blogging, the DNC unleashed a monster. But a friendly one.
I started my own media company Zennie62Media, Inc. at Zennie62Media.com because white-owned and ran media wasn’t telling my story. Moreover, more time was spent trying to cover-up what I did. My effort to bring the Super Bowl to Oakland was one trigger point for me to start my own media company, and I thank God for the NFL and NFL Commissioners Paul Tagliabue and Roger Goodell and team owners like Colts Owner Jim Irsay for defending me and my work before the City of Oakland and the racist media.
I was and am happy to help anyone in media with coding, cybersecurity, and SEO. Indeed, Zennie62Media has its own family of vloggers trained in our classic style, like Richard Haick below, and Morgan Bach, one of our first:
But I will not stand for people who are triggered by me just because I’m an intellectually confident black guy. Get over it and mind your own life. But don’t think I’ll sit for a moment and allow anyone to shovel racist and sexist tropes. Indeed, if you’re in the media, you should know better.
And calling me and leaving racist messages (as someone did two days ago) will not stop me. The police are looking for that evil doer and they will find that person.
So, in closing, simple equation: less racist media means less complaining from me. Believe in God and be kind, and good will come to you.
Stay tuned.