Negative Media Creates Negative Behavior

bycaljones6750

329 followers

7 years ago

I'm walking down the street on a sunny afternoon, happy joyous and free. Suddenly, dead ahead, eyeballing me intently, was a pretty nice-sized pit bull. Oh expletive deleted, I thought, I'm fixing to make my debut on the 6 o'clock news: Man mauled by ferocious pit bull." Before I could develop an exit strategy, he lunged at me. I don't need to tell you what I almost did.

Well, turns out that all he wanted was to say hi and get a pat on the head. But because the breed has been demonized by the press, I assumed that he wanted a piece of my expletive deleted.

After telling this story a couple of times, I realized that this friendly rascal was the victim of bad press. I'm sure there was a pit bull out there somewhere mauling somebody, but not this one. My fear was rooted in the many negative news stories that I have heard about pit bulls, so I reacted based on this unwarranted fear.

I can relate. I can't tell you how many times I have been standing on the corner waiting on the light and a car pulls up and the driver locks the doors; or how many times a white person has crossed the street to avoid me. My reaction was to get insulted and say a few unkind things under my breath. I had them all wrong. Maybe not all of them but certainly most of them. In all probability these were not racist acts, merely reactions based on the negative portrayal of black men by the news media.

This was a life-changing revelation. Now, when a white person crosses the street, I wave and shout hello. When the driver locks the car doors, I give a little salute and smile. I realize that a negative reaction to these affronts will only serve to validate their fears. My job is to invalidate them. Thanks doggie for a valuable epiphany.