Earl Douglas is a writer and photographer from New York City, a frequent contributor to The Interrobang, and excecutive director of the Black Rock Coalition. He has worked in radio and for XM Satellite radio, and has worked with the Opie & Anthony Show at WNEW and XM. These are some of his thoughts about this week’s events.

In the last few days, social media has been lit up by the comments made by Anthony Cumia, co-host of ‘The Opie & Anthony Show’. Comments that have deemed to be, by some, offensive at best, racist at worst. I won’t recall the comments and the event that sparked them, because frankly, everyone knows about it (and we’ve written about it) and I don’t want to beat a dead horse. Even more to the point, I wasn’t there.

Based on my dealings with him, we were, and as far as I’m concerned, still are, cool.

I’ve known Anthony for 16 years. We worked together at WNEW and later XM Satellite Radio (I left before the merger with Sirius). I got to know him pretty well, got to know his brother Joe very well and also his sister Dawn. We were, and are, friends. We have had philosophical differences, we’ve had engaging debates on matters ranging from race to gun control, but even when we agreed to disagree, we always managed to see where the other was coming from and at times, come to some measure of common ground. Is he a racist? Based on my dealings with him, we were, and as far as I’m concerned, still are, cool. Did he have issues concerning race?

Blurred lines.

As someone who has been mugged, jumped, beat up, racially profiled, discriminated against on face value, and disrespected by people of EVERY color, I have thought – and Lord knows I have said – things that were, let’s just say, not pleasant or ‘politically correct’. Would I vent my feelings on social media? I wouldn’t, but that’s my choice.

We all have a legal and moral right to express ourselves. Anthony chose Twitter to express his outrage and anger about being attacked by a woman of color in Times Square. Some agreed with them, some did not. Sirius choose to cut ties with an employee who was making personal comments on his own social media page, on his own time without incorporating or associating himself with his place of employment. Who’s wrong?

Blurred lines.

We all have a legal and moral right to express ourselves

I love photography. LOVE. I love shooting pictures, looking at others work, exhibitions, gear, all of it. Camera phones, and the ability to have a picture out for the world to see in an instant via social media has made photography more popular than ever. Anthony’s situation arose from shooting pictures of public places and the people contained within it. He has insisted that he was shooting for the sake of shooting and the woman in question was part of the frame by circumstances. Others – mainly media commentators coming in after the fact – have suggested that Anthony was ‘creep shooting’, a term I just learned yesterday. Again, I wasn’t there, so I can’t say which was the case. But as a shooter, it only served to confirm my reasoning for shooting things with as little people in them as possible. The truth of the matter is, regardless of what he was doing, Anthony had the right to shoot pictures in a public place. The woman in question also had the right to be upset about it, but under NO circumstances did she have the right to turn it into a physical confrontation. That’s what cops are for.

Blurred lines.

If processing all of this wasn’t enough, I wake up this morning to the news that Sirius fired Anthony. Honestly, I thought they would suspend him, at worst. After all, Sirius is a subscription based service and the bulk of those who were upset at his comments, didn’t subscribe to Sirius, much less listen to O&A. Plus, the fans – based on what I saw and read on the various social media sites, were overwhelmingly behind Anthony. Timing also played a key role. The 50th Anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act, a slow news cycle and a long holiday weekend (which is probably why Sirius couldn’t go into damage control mode – no one was in the building), all made for one explosive media Molotov cocktail. Just do a Google search – the narrative on it is all the same. If I learned anything in my 19 years in radio is that when it comes down to sticking with the guys who got you there or looking at your long term bottom line ($$$$), bottom line wins every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Blurred lines.

Is the O&A ride over? I never count those guys out.

It’s all weird and strange to me because I’ve been out of radio for 5 years. Even still, I’m part of the fraternity, part of the family that was part of a wild and crazy ride. My part of the ride ended awhile ago. Is the O&A ride over? I never count those guys out. Never. So here it is. 4th of July. A day where we celebrates the birth of this thing we call The United States Of America. Fireworks. Cook outs. Day at the beach. Celebrating our freedom of speech. Religion. Assembly. Yet we still can’t talk TO each other – REAL talk – about race. About the OTHER side of how this country was built. About the deep rooted and deeply ingrained feelings that we have about people from different cultures and ideologies. It’s seems we have new ways to communicate to each other yet we are not talking TO each other, much less, listening.

Blurred lines.

Sometimes we just need to listen in order to learn.

Earl Douglas is a writer and photographer from New York City, a frequent contributor to The Interrobang, and president of the Black Rock Coalition. Follow Earl on Twitter @earldouglas528 and follow his blog at edouglas528.tumblr.com. Earl Douglas launched his new photo journal PRAXIS on Blurb.com today, July 4th, because it represents a new forum for creative expression.

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