Petey Greene, the late DJ and talk show host of a D.C. radio station in the 60s and 70s, had pioneered what we called today “interactive media,” making a connection with the audience. His talk show started out as a social release valve for African Americans to vent what they saw as injustices in the society and issues in their personal lives. As the civil rights movement took on momentum and with the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Greene, on radio and later included TV, became a political voice calling for social equality and human rights in America.

Fast forward to the present in Compton, southeast of Los Angeles, a once primarily African American neighborhood is now mixed community with a growing number of Latinos. Globally among rap music fans, Compton, though only 10 square miles in size, has become well known through NWA’s “Straight Outta Compton” music CD. Locally, this small city is “home to some 57 active gangs and patrolled by only around 80 L.A. County sheriffs,” writes Mark Allen Johnson in The Digital Journalist’s Dispatches. Compton is also where many Black and Brown tensions have erupted in recent years.

Ronald Ellerbe, editor of the community newspaper Hub City News, is the Petey Greene of Compton and other neighboring cities like Lynwood, Carson, and Watts. He has created a reader/editorial column called “I’m Mad as Hell,” which he describes as an avenue for all residents, African Americans or Hispanics or Asians, to voice their frustrations and issues. Over the three years since the Hub City News (circ. 20,000) was created, readers have sent Ronald letters addressing many issues from traffic fines to budget cuts and immigration.

“I know a number of my Hispanic readers are not fluent in English,” says Ellerbe. “So have had special Spanish-language articles in my paper to reach this group.” He tries to be fair with all ethnic groups and that has generated some criticisms from all sides.

In his “I’m Mad as Hell” column in the February 22nd issue, Ellerbe expresses his opposition the “hate campaign against so called illegal aliens receiving Social Security benefits”. While the opponents of the legislation (S. 1348) claim this access would undermine welfare reform and promote more social security fraud, he argues that this group annually spends “$4.8 billion in the American economy and pay about $200 million in taxes to local and state governments”. Furthermore, many undocumented immigrants actually use Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) instead of Social Security numbers.

“I’m Mad as Hell”
Ronald Ellerbe | Hub City News | 2.28.2008