Ferguson Protesters Dominate CBS's 'Young Adults' Panel on Race
CBS Evening News's liberal bias was blatant on Friday, as their "young adults" panel discussing the issue of "the excessive use of force by police – especially against minorities" was made up entirely of people who have participated in the protests decrying the grand jury decisions in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases. Correspondent Elaine Quijano asked, "How many of you have been involved with the protests that have taken place in the wake of Ferguson?" All six panelists raised their hand or nodded their head. [video below]
One participant – Charles Wade – admitted during the segment that he had traveled to the embattled Missouri town at the center of the Brown case. In a Friday Twitter post, he thanked the CBS journalist, Lauren A. White, and "all the folks who worked with her to pull together such a diverse panel." White actually used her own Twitter account earlier in December 2014 to reach out to Wade and other activists who are championing the Brown family's cause. Two other panelists – Ijeoma Oluo and Gani Afolabi – both identify themselves as "feminists" on their Twitter profiles. White certainly assembled a racially-diverse panel, but shut out diversity of thought.
Quijano tossed softball questions at the panelists during the first portion of the interview:
ELAINE QUIJANO: How many of you have been involved with the protests that have taken place in the wake of Ferguson? (all six panelists raise their hand or nod their head) Everybody here. Why?
GANI AFOLABI: I can't manipulate policy right now. I can't ask the President to do something today. All I have is my body. All I can do is go somewhere and show support. But that's all I can do right now.
QUIJANO: What is the change you're trying to achieve?
CHARLES WADE: You know, everyone says justice – like, we want justice. But everyone has a different idea of that. So, for some people, justice is a legal victory. That's not justice for me. To me, justice is equality and accountability.
QUIJANO: Do you think – when it comes to race relations in this country, have we reached a tipping point?
JOSE MIRANDA: That's what we said in the 60s. That's what we said in the 1850s. I think we may have reached another step of the ladder. But we're probably going to have to wait another thirty, forty, fifty years to then deal with another issue that we didn't get around to working with-
WADE: Because we move to healing so quickly. Like, people are already like – you know, after Ferguson – and I'm in Ferguson like, 'After Ferguson? Are you kidding me?' How – how are we after Ferguson, when you have – when – when the very thing that got us here has happened two more times in three months?
AFOLABI: But I think it's also important to – like, note that we don't have it perfect at all yet. And there are a lot of people in our generation that need to check their own privilege, and understand their own biases as well.
The CBS correspondent responded to Afolabi's "privilege" term by asking her and two other panelists to explain the far-left concept. Quijano did play devil's advocate in her follow-up question:
ELAINE QUIJANO: What is – let's unpack this term 'privilege' – okay? When you talk about white privilege, what are you talking about?
GANI AFOLABI: It's when you're afforded opportunity, because the status of our country was based on your norm. What's normal for you has to be normal for me. And if I want something different, then I'm pulling the race card.
QUIJANO: But aren't you implying then, when you use that word (sic) 'white privilege,' some people would say you are implying that all white people are born with a silver spoon in their mouth – that they are all given-
CHARLES WADE: That's-
JOHN REYNOLDS: So, it's not about silver spoons. It's not necessarily about that. It's about the fact that I do not have to multitask every second of every day worrying about how people are perceiving me as a white person. I – when I go into a store, as I'm leaving, I don't have to think, 'Did I do anything that's going to make them think I stole something?' And so, that's a privilege – the fact that I don't have to carry all this stuff with me every second of every day.
IJEOMA OLUO: There's such a wall around whiteness, where you can go through your whole day without ever having to address the things that black people are literally pushing through – just to get through their day. And make people uncomfortable – bring it in, bring it up – because the more that you can do that, the more empathy is built; the more people will actually believe us when we say these things are happening.
The journalist ended the segment by noting that "many in the group also said they feel disconnected from some of the civil rights leaders of previous generations. So instead, they rely on social media to mobilize themselves. But they also acknowledge sometimes being leaderless...can make it difficult to get real results." Anchor Scott Pelley complimented Quijano for the "insightful interview" before moving on to the next report.
— Matthew Balan is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Matthew Balan on Twitter.
