“The News with Community Views”
3
My theory of black channels argues institutions
indigenous to the African diaspora help facilitate
transnational exchanges between black social movements by
enhancing mutual identification between groups across
national boundaries in three ways. First, indigenous
institutions devote their resources to gathering and
sharing information about social movement organizations and
activists in other nations in the African diaspora.
Second, these institutions filter this information through
master injustice frames--the philosophies, narratives,
symbols and cultural products that historically
marginalized communities most consistently utilize over
time to articulate their subjugation as unjust and build
group consciousness. Third, indigenous institutions
validate the claims and work of black social movements in
other countries that are consistent with the parameters of
their communities’ master injustice frames.
In this paper,
the black press serves as an example of an institution
indigenous to the African diaspora that aids transnational
exchanges between black social movements in a manner
consistent with the theory of black channels.
The black press consists of a variety of newspapers
and periodicals that are owned by African Americans and
distributed primarily for consumption by the African
Convention