Allow me to discuss a number of persons and asinine statements that agitate me, that I sometimes am compelled to respond, particularly when people try to explain why they don’t read the New Pittsburgh Courier. These persons run the gamut, Blacks with advanced college degrees, college students in their third year, males, females, etc. Some of their excuses are listed below.
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1. I reside in an affluent, predominately White community and none of the merchants sell the paper [could order a subscription].
2. I don’t have time because I am a professional, mother and wife [action of the Courier is one of the reasons she is employed in a professional capacity]
3. Two young bank employees said “they were not aware that the Courier was a Black paper and were not aware it is printed in Pittsburgh” [bank manager, a White female took them to task for failure to know their Black history].
4. The Courier is not as relevant as White dailies such as Washington Post; the paper only comes out once a week [when is the last time one of their relatives was in the Washington Post unless it was a negative story].
5. I have only been a resident of Pittsburgh for a year [a year is long enough to become familiar with one of the icons in Pittsburgh].
6. The paper only covers churches, fraternities, sororities not everyday persons [If the person took time to read the paper it is replete with stories about everyday people].
I generally listen briefly to these persons with their confused reasons for not reading the paper. Most of the time I don’t get upset, I just move on. The joy of being a columnist heavily outweighs the merchants of negative.
As I have traveled throughout this county and even to other cities it has been a rewarding experience when persons stop and tell you how much they love the Courier and what it has meant to them and their families over the years. A 14-year-old young lady stopped me in the store and asked since you write for the Courier did you know August Wilson? I said yes and then she made the request that once she cleared with her teacher she would welcome my participation in a project on August.
The overwhelming positive responses I receive from people are a constant reminder of the quote from Mal Goode. Mal, with great regularity could be heard saying “when there is a wedding, birth, graduation, promotion and any positive event the NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER WILL BE THERE TO COVER IT.”
(Louis ‘Hop’ Kendrick is a weekly contributor to the Forum page.)
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