Cochran says "Jim Crow, Jr." lives on
Famed attorney speaks at 24th annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Commemoration

By JENNIFER LEWANDOWSKI
Reporter Contributor

The United States still has a long way to go in strengthening race relations-particularly where the media is concerned, famed attorney Johnnie L. Cochran told a UB audience Feb. 16.

"There still exists a racial divide," said Cochran, keynote speaker at the 24th annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration held in the Center for the Arts Mainstage Theatre. While the blatantly racist Jim Crow laws may be a thing of the past, Crow's offspring-Jim Crow, Jr.-lives on in the 21st century, he said, adding that this "new bigotry"-a term he said he borrowed from nationally syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr.-is dangerous due to its more subtle nature.

"Out of sight, out of mind-that's exactly where I believe we have to begin," Cochran said at the event, sponsored by the Buffalo Association of Black Journalists.

Cochran, who called Martin Luther King, Jr. "one of the most important Americans of the 20th century," talked about what civil rights activist W.E.B. DuBois or King might think if they visited the 21st century.

"How would they find this America? What would they say to us?" he asked. "Clearly, we've made great progress. But we still, by all accounts, have a long, long way left to go."

Cochran, whose defense of former pro-football star O.J. Simpson became part of the media-dubbed "Trial of the Century," was emphatic about the role the media has in influencing its readers' or viewers' thinking.

"If you fail to diversify the images, you mold the general impressions that the majority has," he said. "(The media) bears the responsibility, but does it have the sensibility?" he asked.

He articulated his outrage over the ways in which the media perpetuates negative minority images-images that, over time, have the potential to become stereotypes.

"I know how many times I've seen (in the media) a white police officer leading a black man out of a crack house in handcuffs," he said. "It becomes pounded into our minds that all the nation's crime is going on in the black community." Statistics, Cochran pointed out, aren't reflective in the same way.

Another example of misrepresentation, he noted, is the media's seeming tendency to interview what he called "the least articulate individual" in the neighborhood, a notion that drew hearty applause from the crowd. "That person isn't representative of everybody in the neighborhood."

The fact is, there's a burgeoning minority middle class, Cochran said, with a wealth of positive stories about its "thriving citizens.

"Wouldn't you like to see more of that?" he asked the audience. Regularly appearing images in broadcast and print media do little to portray minorities in a positive light, he said.

"We know that drugs (are) not just a black problem. You would think that people of color are the only ones abusing drugs; you would think that people of color only live in poverty," he said, adding that misrepresentation isn't relegated to journalistic media. The entertainment media, too, bears some of the burden.

Cochran expressed his disappointment in the networks' decision to release a slate of shows this season in which not one black character had a leading role. He singled out one popular television show to drive home his point.

"I have nothing against the program 'Friends,' but all the friends are white," he said. "Aren't there any blacks in this town?"

Though moments such as this provided levity to the frank discussion, Cochran remained mostly serious about the responsibility of the media to bettering race relations. He said that while he doesn't believe the media is consciously insensitive, he does attribute poor representation of minorities in part to the decision-makers who are white.

"All these examples contribute to the racial divide," he said. "It's time for the media to hold a microscope to its own work and see if its reporting is as fair and accurate as it can be when it comes to the preservation of minorities.

"If African-American children only see people who look like themselves in compromising positions-as the people of society who just can't win-imagine what that does to their self-esteem," he said. "We can no longer afford to allow this to happen."

Cochran stressed that the media has a responsibility to deliver to the public positive stories about minorities. He urged members of the media to seek minority experts when reporting, something he said is already happening more frequently on some television networks, such as CNN and Court TV, "because competence and excellence knows no color."

He also said it's no longer sufficient to have just one minority employee serve as the conscience of an entire working staff. "Be righteous yourselves," he said. "All of us need to work to shore up the minority ranks of our staff.

"Let us be true to the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, who we celebrate tonight," he said. The media, which he called "the great purveyor of information," also has the power to be the antidote to the country's racial divide, he noted.