Saturday morning, August 22 at 8:00 a.m. on WCLK's The Local Take, I'll speak with author, journalist, media pundit and Clark Atlanta University Alumna Tiffany Cross. Her new book SAY IT LOUDER! Black Voters, White Narratives, and Saving Our Democracy. Her book reads like a discussion with friends trying to solve the challenges of our times.
I ask her about our country all having different ideas on our history and that it's hard to get on the same page. She shares that she cannot help people who don't accept the history of our country.
She writes about the ways that the myth of white supremacy has hurt our country and that she no longer attempts to educate people who question the systemic and institutional racism in our country.
The media informs us, and she encourages young people who are interested in journalism to read. She speaks to reading the New York Times and the Washington Post on a regular basis. She also speaks about The Root and The Hill along with other publications where you find out about policy and how that policy will eventually impact your life. She emphasizes that we cannot be left out of the policy discussions.
She speaks about not being able to "teach" intellectual curiosity, but it is what has driven her studies and her career. Every morning when she saw her grandparents reading the paper as they started their day made an impression on her. It's something that stayed with her and she daily reads newspapers from cover to cover online. She speaks to having and following certain writers and the need for a mass media pipeline of Black people entering the journalism industry. While young people are looking to being seen on television the power is behind the camera where executive producers, producers and talent directors wield the power.
Cross has researched Russian interference in USA elections, not in 2016 but in 1919 during what is known as Red Summer. White supremacist raged against returning veterans of World War I lynching 100's until the soil was red. At that time Russia flooded African-American media with propaganda attempting to widen the divides that still exist.
I ask Cross about her love of words and she mentioned a childhood book "Golden Slippers" which was a collection of poems by the masters Langston Hughes, Contee Cullen and more. She speaks about the words of those poems grounding her.
For more information about Tiffany Cross
To purchase Say It Louder!: Black Voters, White Narratives, and Saving Our Democracy.
