With Their Lips and with Their Feets: To the Pokey, More Satire, and Reverend Meeks

When we think of communication, we most often think of using language as symbols to convey meaning. But communication scholars have long recognized that communication through speaking and writing is not the only (or necessarily best) way to convey a message.

THIS WEEK, Stephen is hard at work on an article entitled “Media and Human Rights” that will be published in the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Human Rights (edited by Professor Dave Forsythe). While there is some relevance to racialized communication therein, it is largely concerned with two interrelated items: the extent to which freedom of the press is protected or suppressed by governmental structures, and the nature and frequency of reporting of human rights abuses by media outlets. Since the focus of the piece is on “media,” there is an inherent bias toward words (both printed and spoken), but reporting of images (both still and moving) are also relevant.

Nonverbal communication exists alongside verbal communication in THIS WEEK’s points of interest. On the verbal side, we have Barack Obama’s speech in Berlin, where he addressed a number of issues related to terror and oppression (with tacit references to race on more than one occasion) to a reported crowd of some 200,000. (BTW, check out this wicked cool site to get a 360-degree panoramic view of the crowd.) Toward the beginning of his address, he told the audience: “I know that I don’t look like the Americans who’ve previously spoken in this great city.”

Pretty cryptic stuff. We can only assume he was talking about those ears of his.



He referenced historical instances of religious conflict (in the Middle East and in Northern Ireland), ethnic conflict (in the Balkans and the Sudan), racial conflict (in South Africa), ecological conflict (global warming) and ideological conflict (The Cold War). With his repeated call, “This is the moment. . .,” he outlines a set of broad ideals that he claims “this is our time” to address.

The fallout? Short-term, he whooped McCain’s backside on the campaign trail over the past two weeks, garnering most of the media attention. Long term, though, the results are questionable. Will the warm reception by those overseas play into detractors’ script that he’s “not one of us?” Will the monumental speech in front of such a large crowd in Berlin reinforce images that he’s nothing but a skillful orator? We’ll have to wait to see.

One of America’s most popular contemporary orators, Stephen Colbert, wrote a biting satirical piece in this month’s Esquire magazine. The skillful commentary begins with the cover of the magazine.


To celebrate its 75th anniversary, Esquire has taken to replicating historic covers with contemporary twists. Colbert’s cover is a replication of a 1968 cover depicting Muhammad Ali in a pose mirroring a 15th century painting of a Christian martyr. Ali’s persecution was largely in response to his awareness of racial inequality (and power differences generally, illustrated by his public opposition to the Vietnam War – a war in which he refused to fight). Colbert similarly makes the case for racial inequality, but by way of a satirical journey through American history where he demonstrates how the white man has been repeatedly victimized. From the earliest days of the republic (“white men had to work like slaves just to oversee their slaves”) to women’s suffrage (“cutting the value of white men’s votes in half”) to the space race (“when our government launched a sinister conspiracy . . . to shoot all white men into space”) to the 1980s (when “white men were forced to wear effeminate pastel blazers [Don Johnson from Miami Vice] while black men got all the cool sweaters [Bill Cosby]”).

As we consistently note here when reviewing satire, it is a great commentary on power inequality for those who “get it,” but we (seriously) have students who report that their parents love Colbert because they think he’s making fun of liberals.

For a peek at those who are doing the talking with their feet this week, we turn to the sentencing of former Newark, NJ mayor Sharpe James (“he’s our maaaaaaan” -- if you didn’t get the reference, place Marshall Curry's excellent film Street Fight in your Netflix cue right away) to more than two years in prison for corruption. While the conviction of James, who is African American, is a result of one specific incident, the pay-to-play system of politics in Newark during his five terms as mayor is considered to be common knowledge in the city. The only questions centered on whether the ends justified the means – was Newark better, is Newark better, for having had Sharpe James as mayor for a generation? Like the indictment of Alaska’s U.S. Senator Ted Stevens earlier today, James’s sentence is a symbol not of individual malevolence, but of systemic problems that need more radical solutions.

Finally, we turn our attention to Illinois State Senator Rev. James Meeks of Chicago’s south side, who is leading a movement for inner city Chicago students to boycott the first day of classes. More than a simple walkout to protest inequality in funding in Illinois schools, though, Meeks will be leading buses of students to a North Shore suburb to have them attempt to enroll in a well-funded (mostly white) school.

Like most U.S. states, school districts are funded by a combination of state and federal funding, but a sizable portion (in IL, some 50%) of school funding comes from local property taxes, which creates a system that Jonathan Kozol and others have referred to as apartheid. Poor neighborhoods have lower property values and, thus, have a smaller amount of money for schools. Underfunded schools tend to be of poorer quality, which generates a student body with high numbers of dropouts and low levels of collegiate success stories, which makes it difficult for those students to become gainfully employed and increase the value of the neighborhood’s property (and many of the few who do succeed financially do not return).

It is uncertain what will happen when the students show up at New Trier Township High School on the first day of school, but whatever attention the stunt gets will be appreciated by Meeks and others who are concerned about the continuation of privileging the wealthy (who are disproportionately white) at the expense of the poor (who are disproportionately of color).

Perhaps if Rev. Meeks and Sharpe James would simply read Colbert’s history lesson, they would realize whom the real victims are. And if Obama is elected, the victimization will only continue (and likely worsen), so that white American male will forever have to face what Colbert argues is the greatest victimization of all, “being robbed of your ability to be the victim.”

NOTE: We want to take a moment to remind you of more ways to keep track of what is going on with The Project on Race in Political Communication. You can subscribe to this blog via RSS feed (above) or by email (below), share it on your Facebook page (also below), and you can join the RaceProject Facebook group. Subscribe to Stephen’s YouTube channel for updates when he is featured as a political analyst on television. Finally, check in periodically at the main RaceProject site for information and links of interest, including media appearances and information about how to have one or both of us come to speak in your town.