"There is not a Black America and a White America and a Latino America and an Asian America -- there's the United States of America." -- Barack Obama, 2004 Democratic National Convention keynote address.
"theGrio.com. The African-American perspective on news. Our lives, our world, our stories. theGrio.com. Part of NBC News." -- promo for new NBC News website, August 9, 2009.
So much for Barack Obama's promise of a post-racial America. NBC News apparently believes that African-Americans can be pigeonholed. In NBC's view, there exists "the" African-American perspective on news. So announced the NBC News promo, aired during today's Meet The Press, for a new website, theGrio.com.
View video here.
And what is "the" African-American perspective? The official NBC launch press release for theGrio highlights three contributors:
Melissa Harris-Lacewell: The Princeton prof is a regular guest on The Rachel Maddow show, a regular contributor on NPR and a columnist for The Nation
Santita Jackson: a radio talk show host who is also the producer of Jesse Jackson's radio show. She is the former Director of the P.U.S.H. Television Studio.
Al Sharpton: say no more. Please.
Welcome to post-racial America 2009, NBC-style! E-grio-gious!
