It never fails, every time I tell someone I live in Oakland I hear, "Oooh isn't it dangerous there?" Even people from other countries seem to know about the danger in Oakland. It is not surprising that Oakland has this reputation when the media is disproportionately reporting on crime instead of positive community accomplishments in the city.
Case in point... Just last month whenever I listened to the news about events in the bay area, all I heard was that take over robberies are rampit in Oakland restaurants. There was no report of the beautiful community even I had attended in which many parents, children and community members came out to show their committment to improving the environment in their neighborhoods. Disgusted by the lack of variety in the information I was getting from the news, I called a friend who lives in SanFrancisco. She told me she had just attended a neighborhood meeting to address all the homocides occuring in her neighborhood. Interestingly, not even one homocide in this neighborhood was reported in the news. Instead the the news about San Francisco focused on the Slow Food Nation events happening in the city.
I do not claim that Oakland is without problems, nor that these problems should not be reported. I only wish that the media would not soley report on the crime happening in Oakland, but also report on the beauty that exists in the city.
So I will end this blog by saying spead the news "Oakland is more than Crime!"
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3 comments:
I love Oakland. I love working and living in Oakland!
I heard the same thing before moving to Oakland last year and still here the same thing since from people here in the bay area. I agree that the media representation of Oakland is negatively biased...hopefully we can get that to change. I keep telling people when they make comments to me and inviting people to visit and hang in Oakland.
Oakland indeed has many fine points- yet- its always the bad news that sells. So newspapers and tv report on the negativity.
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