Racism In The Kansas City Media

I make no apologies for what I am about to share because for 7 years now, I have struggled to get media coverage in Kansas City for Operation Morning Star's Mission of providing needed food, clothing, and other important items for the Lakota Oyate in South Dakota. And in particular, the Kansas City Star newspaper. Of course there are T.V. stations, other newspapers, radio etc...but that will take hours to share and right now...I am dealing with ANOTHER NO RESPONSE ISSUE from the Star.

And I am not alone, the American Indian Council and The Heart of America Indian Center here in Kansas City (I am a past board member of) also have had "objective media coverage issues with the Star on a continual basis over the years. They don't even waste their time talking to the Kansas City Star, Hispanic and "Illegal Alien" Mary Sanchez, Minority Affairs reporter, about anything pertaining to the American Indian Community because they have concluded they/she will only report NEGATIVE STORIES and as for Operation Morning Star, Sanchez has never responded to my calls ONCE over a SEVEN YEAR PERIOD!

And I also contacted Helen Gray, Religious Editor of the Star with "hopes of coverage", but of course, the "religious perspective" of the Kansas City Star does not include America's religious history of collaboration in what has happened to American Indian Peoples. So she forwarded my email to the "Independence Bureau Chief, "The bureau chief in Independence said he would try to do something. Nobody make a promise. But let's hope he comes through" Did he? Take a guess. This was 11/28/06.

In the beginning 8 years ago, I called the Star about a story. I talked to a Editor by the name of Melissa Berg who happens to be JEWISH (click here on JEWISH RACISM targeting American Indians) and I point this out PURPOSELY. She categorically REFUSED to cover a CHRISTMAS "fund raising/clothing-food drive" at Raytown Middle School in Kansas City Missouri. This event was sponsored by the wife of Gil Wilson, the then station manager at KCXL 1140 in Liberty Missouri.

I was a Talk Show Host at the time. Wilson's wife was a teacher at Raytown Middle School. Mrs. Wilson had her students actively engaged, excited, and involved supporting Operation Morning Star. They raised monies, bought presents for the children, did a clothing and food drive for members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

When asked about giving coverage to this fund raising event, Berg (who is Jewish) stated that they...the Kansas City Star... ONLY grant coverage to "local fund raising events for residents in the KC area". She assumed that I was obviously going to accept that LIE and end of story. WRONG! I proceeded to call the office of Art Brisbane, then the number one man at the Star, and inform him that the Kansas City Star was going to be the benefactor of some "free subscription" advertising complements of my radio show.

Since the "advertising" consisted of the actual and obvious and historical TAG of being a RACIST AGAINST AMERICAN INDIANS LABEL when it comes to news coverage... Mr. Brisbane then decided to dispatch TWO reporters to cover the story. Since then, even with struggles to get stories out, phone numbers and web page information either wrong or left out of stories, the Star has reluctantly, yet sometimes sloppily, covered OMS activities.

Well, history is back to the beginning again, because the Kansas City Star REFUSES to return my phone calls so I can get coverage for this years trip to "Indian Country". Randy Smith and Steve Shirk refuse to return my call for a story on our Christmas trip to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota.

Note that, this is THE newspaper that just last January, published a guest editorial I wrote that addressed the harsh realities facing the "First Nations" in this country!

What NOW you may ask is going on????????? Here is what I think is going on...ya ready??????????

Well...I asked KC Star Editor Randy Smith to send a reporter to the Harjo event and one was there, a Lynn Franey, the "minority and immigration" reporter. I called her the day after to see if she wrote a story and she said she did but it was NOT published in the Kansas City Star on the day following because the NIGHT EDITORIAL HEADS at the STAR, chose to deem the visit of Harjo and her SUBJECT UNIMPORTANT enough to print in the paper as there evidently were MORE IMPORTANT SUBJECTS to cover along with the convenient and timely but "justified" "lack of room" issue.

Thus, the story ended up being "tucked away" somewhere on the Star web site a day or two later according to Franey and of course out of sight, and thus the typical "token acknowledgement" of the fact the Star is a "racially sensitive paper" when it comes to RACIAL STEREOTYPES of American Indians. (APPLAUSE PLEASE! )

The use of "Washington Redskins" is OK though according to the Kansas City Star as evidenced in their prioritizing of the Harjo visit in it's paper, BUT...BUTTTTTTTTTTT.... God forbid when anyone uses the word "nigger" or would call the DC team the "Washington Niggerskins" because all HELL would break lose then, would it not? BUT...nothing to worry about in the case of American Indians because they are being HONORED in the use of such kind, thoughtful, loving, naming of the Washington Football team which is made up of predominately BLACK AFRICAN AMERICAN'S...lets try about 75 percent or more! And yes, I did leave this MESSAGE with Lynn Franey on her voice mail.

UPDATE 12/10/06...CASE IN POINT: In the Kansas City Star "As I see It Column" on 12/9... there is an article, IN THE EDITORIAL SECTION by a Black African American Woman named Melvina Young, a former college instructor of U.S. History, African American history and culture, who lives in "Lee's Summit"...

(The "Racially Diversive" KC Star has since removed this "story" :) Of course they would to cover their racist double standard when it comes to American Indians vs. blacks

ANOTHER PUBLICATION BY THIS AFRICAN AMERICAN RACIST HYPOCRITE PUBLISHED IN THE SAME RACIST AGAINST AMERICAN INDIANS NEWSPAPER, THE KANSAS CITY "CHIEFS"/STAR!

Racist insults are more than ‘insensitive’

Hmmmm...appears the Star supports the "N" word position but not the "R" word when it comes to Franey's reporting of the Harjo visit and her informational presentation and the Star PUBLISHING IT! Evidently, there doesn't appear to be a "lack of room" or priority problem with the "N" word :)

Of course, no mention by Young of the "R" word and the fact that, Black African Americans wear "REDSKIN" uniforms while making MILLIONS in so doing (nice BOUNTY PAY...ya think?) ...yep...but that's ok with her Black African American community and papers like the Kansas City Star. (After all, Black African Americans like her are no longer enslaved and therefore there is no need to seek out a "Indian Nation" to be hid out among, become included in, accepted by, and received as family and become "citizens" of said Indigenous Nations.)

Wednesday, November 29th, I was reading the Star and I noticed Larry Stewart, the "Secret Santa" who happens to be WHITE and who gives out ONE HUNDRED DOLLAR BILLS here in Kansas City to those "in need" during "Christmas", was IN CHICAGO giving out 100 dollar bills there. AND...I also noticed that with this WHITE MAN...was with the Kansas City Star's (I am guessing now..."Black") minority reporter, Lynne Franey.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm...thinking...why would she be there in CHICAGO to do a story there?

WELL...wouldn't you know it...on the 100 dollar bills was stamped the name BUCK O'NEIL, the BLACK African-American now deceased baseball player who's name is being extolled as a baseball hall of fame inductee! Okkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk...

And yes, I understand that Stewart and O'Neil were "friends". And YES, I understand the word "injustice" when it comes to African Americans BUT..."Indian Country" has been DELIBERATELY NEGLECTED by the Media in the United States and the Kansas City Star has had it's role in this as much as any paper.

You see, over the last SIX YEARS, I have many times asked/suggested to, KC STAR V.I.P.S Randy Smith, Steve Shirk, Mary Sanchez, and Mark Zieman, to send a Kansas City Star reporter with me to "Lakota Country" in South Dakota, to report on the conditions of suffering and need there. Answer is ALWAYS...(if there is one!) "we would but we DON'T have the money in the "budget" etc. etc. etc.

Interestingly enough though, Franey the Black African American KC Star reporter, goes to Chicago with Larry Stewart, the White European American "Secret Santa" to do a story that covers a "black slant" and published on the FRONT PAGE TOO (matter of fact, there have been many MAJOR AND MANY FRONT PAGE STORIES ON O'NEIL in the Star, as well as about animals, animals, animals, and more animals etc. etc. etc.

I am taking bets too, that this trip to Chicago for her and photographer HAD TO BE Kansas City Star FUNDED by the "Paper with no funds", unless that is, Mr. Stewart did a "no no" and handed out a few hundred dollar bills to the "paper with no budget" to make this trip possible.

But when it comes to "Indian Country", no money is in the Star Budget for a reporter to go to a Reservation in South Dakota and for sure, NOTHING is front page worthy, let alone worthy of PRINT anywhere in the Star when the topic exposes America's history to this day of racist and hateful and neglectful behavior toward American Indians.

If it is a BLACK SUBJECT ..."lynching" "slavery" "N" word etc., no problem...front page, editorial page, and which by "default" ("AS I SEE IT" :) ! ) in "their" collaboration, endorsement, and silence concerning American Indian issues as such, makes them not only the same as WHITE RACISTS WHO USE THE "N" WORD, but WORSE because they should know better, speak out and do something but instead, they choose NOT to do so because that might jeopardize their newly found $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ benefits and positions in the "football/media/music/entertainment fields of da White Masters". (Read Frank Baum's Quote Below - Author of "Wizard of Oz".

AND, Editor Randy Smith just returned from KENYA...a month long trip...not sure if a "vacation" but I would bet that the Star did assist "financially" in some way. (I could be wrong. "The Secret Santa" might have underwritten this trip also, to help with the Star's budgetary crisis:) )

By the way, the unemployment rate in KENYA AND WHICH IS A BLACK AFRICAN NATION, IS CLOSE TO 54 PERCENT!.

Now I must confess though, and this really "hurts" to do so, that there was just recently an Editorial by Tim Giaggo, a prominent American Indian journalist just last week in the Star. But I perceive that as the Star's "cover their ---" politically correct "gesture" to show that they are American Indian supportive and sensitive and it actually works on the surface. But underneath, there remains a historical "pathology" when it comes to reporting the truth of the day to day realities facing American Indians.

And guess what????? I even sent "Mr. Secret Santa" an email and asked him if he would come to "Indian Country" with me this Christmas and hand out 100 dollar bills. We could stamp them with the names of Sitting Bull, or Crazy Horse, or the name of an American Indian I was HONORED of interviewing on radio, Carl Gorman Sr., the Navaho Code Talker representing those American Indian Code Talkers responsible for an estimated saving of 100's of THOUSANDS of American lives because the Germans and Japanese could not understand their languages which were being spoken to communicate critical combat operation information on the European and Pacific fronts during World War 2.

Carl Gorman's name could be stamped on hundred dollar bills and of course...Chief Big Foot's figure could be placed on the a hundred dollar bill too.

it was on December 29th of 1890 that Chief Big Foot and 300 of his people were murdered, children, women, and men,

by the United States 7th Calvary at Wounded Knee! MERRY CHRISTMAS US GOVERNMENT STYLE!

As for a "Hall of Fame" inductee, either Chief Big Foot or Navaho Code Talker Carl Gorman has my vote to be in any and all "Hall of Fames", hands down over anyone in "sports"!

Guess which RACE/ETHNIC GROUP HAS THE HIGHEST RATE OF COMBAT MILITARY SERVICE PER CAPITA IN THE USA? YOU GET ONE GUESS! :)

It wasn't the WHITE members of the SEVENTH CALVARY WHO RECEIVED MEDALS OF HONOR FOR SLAUGHTERING CHIEF BIGFOOT AND HIS PEOPLE AT WOUNDED KNEE IN 1890, AND WHOSE DESCENDANTS HAPPEN TO BE WHERE OPERATION MORNING STAR IS GOING THIS CHRISTMAS TO DELIVER GIFTS OF NEEDED FOOD, WOOD BURNING STOVES, AND OTHER NEEDED ITEMS TO AND WILL ATTEMPT TO CONTINUE TO SERVICE THROUGH THE NEXT YEAR WITH ADDITIONAL TRIPS.

They have served MORE in the United States Military PER CAPITA then any other race or ethnic group in this country.

So you see, OMS is going to deliver "gifts" to the very decedents of those SLAUGHTERED BY THE VERY SAME UNITED STATES MILITARY AT "WOUNDED KNEE", THE CHEYENNE RIVER LAKOTA NATION!

Oh...as of yet, there is no answer from the "Secret Santa" on my offer to take him to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation and give out 100 dollar bills to Families, Single Mothers with Children, and Elders with NO JOBS, FOOD, or MONEY for PROPANE!. (No help from anyone with BIG $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ in the town of the Kansas City "CHIEFS" either!)

And for some reason...HO HO HO, neither do I expect an answer from the Star to give OMS "coverage" for this years Christmas Trip because after all, I am just a WHITE EUROPEAN AMERICAN MAN (with NO Cherokee, DNA in me...did a test I did ! :) ) trying to get assistance for AMERICAN INDIANS while pointing out the obvious "media hypocrisy and racial favoritism" in their paper, and WHITE EURO-AMERICAN MALES just can't do that and get away with it because they end up being BOYCOTTED or called RACIST cause they exposed the "n" word hypocrisy to point out racism against American Indians! Go figure on that one! :)

I have been to "Indian Country", seen, felt in my heart and spirit the sufferings of the Oyate. Their reality is OUR reality because it is here in America, the land stolen from them and stained in their blood, where the "Washington REDSKINS" play football in Washington D.C. We may have our sports, our jobs, our new "chariots", big screens, stocks and bonds worth millions and billions, new church buildings, and "idols" endless but where I go, it is about SURVIVAL with little or nothing and America continues to stand condemned because it continues to turn and look away.

Guess who's watching and will hold us accountable individually and collectively?

Try He who has also been ignored...try God. (At least American Indians are in GOOD COMPANY!) And be assured God hears the blood of those "REDSKINS" murdered in history past crying out for vengeance against the "murderers", as well as on behalf of those still suffering the same at the hands of the same. Might not be as "literal" but for sure...the "hardness of heart" is still there...just wrapped up in a "nicer, kinder, gentler solution" of a package called "socially engineered genocide" while blaming the "victims" of this "progrom" for their own demise.

Sooooooooo...it appears therefore that I am just the "wrong race and gender" trying to get needed help for the "wrong race" in the eyes of the Kansas City Star, a paper who continues to have it's "love affair" with Africans and African Americans, while not just keeping American Indians on the "back of the bus" but continues to not even allow them ON THE BUS! No "Movin on Up" for the "Rez", ya know what I mean!? Of course, "rez Indians" in contrast to other "ethnic groups", don't have a hankerin to live in a community like "Lees Summit" either :) let alone in the midst of a people who "don't understand because they haven't experienced it".

Now you know "The Rest of the Story"~! And all I asked for was HELP exposing "Indian Country" realities here and elsewhere...just like in the beginning and now we have gone "full circle"!

Now watch the Star publish more articles by Giaggo...and that is GOOD! About time!

L. Frank Baum's Editorials on the Sioux Nation

L. Frank Baum wrote in the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer, December 20, 1890, a paper he edited and drove into bankruptcy. Best known as a writer of children's books and creator of the Wizard of Oz, he first penned editorials calling for genocide of Indians.

"The Whites, by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are MASTERS of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians. Why not annihilation? Their glory has fled, their spirit broken, their manhood effaced; better that they die than live the miserable wretches that they are."

"The PIONEER has before declared that our only safety depends upon the total extirmination (sic) of the Indians.

"Having wronged them for centuries we had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth. In this lies safety for our settlers and the soldiers who are under incompetent commands.
"Otherwise, we may expect future years to be as full of trouble with the REDSKINS as those have been in the past."

Below are Photos of "Christmas in 1890" For Chief Big Foot and His People, Members Of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.

Reporter Carl Smith described the dead Miniconjou leader in the Chicago Inter-Ocean on January 7, 1891:

"Big Foot lay in a sort of solitary dignity…He was dressed in fairly good civilian clothing, his head being tied up in a scarf." He has underwear of wool and his general appearance was that of a fairly prosperous parsonage. He was shot through and through, and if he ever knew what hurt him, appearances dissembled very much. A wandering photographer propped the old man up, and as he lay there defenseless his portrait was taken…He was however spared the customary adjuration to look pleasant.

A medicine man played a pivotal role in the tragedy at Wounded Knee. He was performing the Ghost Dance and threw a handful of dirt in the air. The first gunshot of the fight rang out almost immediately thereafter. Some of the army officers later asserted that the dirt throwing was a prearranged signal to begin fighting, but most of the witnesses rejected that assumption.

Ethnologist James Mooney's often-repeated identification of the medicine man as Yellow Bird cannot be substantiated. Four eyewitnesses, three Miniconjous and one mixed-blood, identified him as Sits Straight, also called Good Thunder.

" Evening Star, Jan. 28 and 30, 1891, statement of Long Bull; and Donald F. Danker, "The Wounded Knee Interviews of Eli S. Ricker, " statement of Joseph Horn Cloud, 173.) There is no mention of a Yellow Bird at Wounded Knee in any of the accounts of the day.

The identity of the central figure in this image is not known. Joseph Horn Cloud mentioned another man, Shakes Bird, who was also singing Ghost songs when the fighting started. He was killed and perhaps is the man in this photograph.

The burial party collected the dead from the ravine south of the Indian camp where many had sought shelter. Army officers look on.

One hundred forty-six bodies were interred in a mass grave on the small hill where the Hotchkiss guns had been positioned.

Other RACIST experiences with LOCAL KC MEDIA

Racist insults are more than ‘insensitive’

By MELVINA J. YOUNG

L. Frank Baum's Editorials on the Sioux Nation