How media became 'part of the race grievance industry' harming Blacks

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Civil rights activist calls out media silence on Cincinnati attack

Bob Woodson, president and founder of the Woodson Center, speaks out about the media's refusal to cover Cincinnati, OH attack involving a black assailant.

Civil rights activist Robert L. Woodson Sr. believes America’s mainstream press is "complicit in the self-destruction" of Black neighborhoods by excusing poor behavior and said the only way forward is a return a media landscape that respects the agency of all Americans — regardless of race.

"The media has been really nihilistic. I really think they're demeaning the values of the country in the name of promoting social justice," Robert L. Woodson Sr. told Fox News Digital. 

Woodson, who is Black and a longtime civil rights activist, penned an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal last week, urging the nation to "disregard race in how we judge one another" before it leads to "national ruin." 

CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST CHALLENGES MAINSTREAM MEDIA'S RACIAL VIOLENCE COVERAGE

Robert L. Woodson Sr. (Woodson Center)

"When a mob violently attacked two people in downtown Cincinnati last [month], video of the beat-down spread across social media. But not a single major television network covered the story. It didn’t fit the mainstream media’s narrative about racial violence in America," Woodson wrote. 

"The victims were White," he continued. "Today’s media seems to conflagrate over violence only when the perpetrator is White and the victim is Black. Then the cameras roll, protests erupt, and hashtags fly."

Woodson said he became motivated to write the piece because he has been a longtime admirer of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who believed "the only defense that a minority has in a majority country is to insist on moral consistency."

"We were concerned back in the pre-civil rights days of Jim Crow South that Black was demeaned and devalued. If it was dismissed, it's a crime committed by a Black, by another Black, if it wasn't prosecuted as diligently as a White committing a crime against a Black woman. And so, we demanded that fair justice be administered," Woodson told Fox News Digital.

"But right now we're saying just the opposite. We're going back to the pre-civil rights era in terms of what we're insisting upon," he added. "The media is part and parcel, part of the race grievance industry."

Woodson, who has authored multiple books, including "A Pathway to American Renewal: Red, White, and Black," believes the press played a key role in civil rights deteriorating.  

"The media's complicit in this race grievances proposition that America is inherently racist and there are systemic forces that place Whites [as] all villains and Blacks are all victims," he said. 

"This is a bipolar view of the country that is devastating in terms of its impact. But it hurts the people who are most vulnerable," Woodson said. "That's why I advocate for low-income Blacks. They are the ones who suffer the consequences of police nullifications."

THREE MAJOR BROADCAST NETWORKS DIDN'T REPORT ON HEINOUS CINCINNATI BRAWL, REVIEW FINDS

Robert L. Woodson Sr. urged the nation to "disregard race in how we judge one another" before it leads to "national ruin."