Today we’d like to introduce you to Johnnie Domino.
Hi Johnnie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
My name is Johnnie Domino. I am an Entertainment Catalyst and Creator of the community news & media company GhettoWaze. The idea came from God and I did not believe it would become as big as it has become. It all started with me being tired of the police putting roadblocks in low-income areas writing high-dollar tickets and incarcerating the majority of blacks in Baton Rouge, LA. Louisiana is the prison of the capital of the world (Per Capita) more people get incarcerated here than anywhere in the WORLD… not just the nation.
The consistent targeting of poor people and black people by police is discouraging and I wanted to use social media to help the people of my community be able to avoid these targeted fundraising attacks by local, state, and sheriffs…. So I started @GhettoWaze and www.ghettowaze.com and with no promo, no ads, no asking for a repost…. the idea took off.
They recently deleted the original @GhettoWaze page for the last time a few months ago and they didn’t tell us why or what for….. it was at 57k all organically obtained followers. our backup page @ghettowaze2.0 is now at 14k already. The local news stations have been plastering black people on their channels while we find out that other ethnicities’ faces were sometimes not shown at all and in similar cases we see in abundance with black criminals we found that their white counterparts were NOT even mentioned on traditional local news.
Ghettowaze posts every Blue Criminal/Criminal Cops, their friends, the politicians who steal and their privileged family members, the sheriff’s drug dealing son who will never be indicted, and the sex offenders who are kin to the politicians and the sheriff. The Louisiana State Police Gang that brutally killed Ronald Greene and let our current governor know and if it wasn’t for good cops like Carl Cavalier (Who was fired for doing his job correctly and offered $200,000 to go away) these are just a few samples of the balance our community news outlet brings to Baton Rouge and surrounding areas.
We also noticed that the black drug dealer’s pictures were heavily posted on traditional news so we DO NOT POST drug dealers. Our overall goal is to make sure our community is aware of what’s going on with things that directly impact their lives, expose the police and the privileged members of the city that operate in power directly and indirectly, give the people of the community a voice and give the power to all to come together and communicate through our social media hub to avoid negative situations that occur in our city daily.
We even have a Ghetto Weatherman who is hilarious named Marlon Joseph…. when you hear “RUNNNN!” you will know it’s him. Ghettowaze is now watched and respected more than local news stations in Baton Rouge and we are thousands of people’s first choice when it comes to finding out what’s really happening in the city.
It works like this… Let’s say you are in Glen Oaks… (A section/hood in Baton Rouge) and you see the police setting up a roadblock…. in the hood where money is low… you snap a picture or a video and do it, or email it, or text it to @ghettowaze2.0, or ghettowaze@gmail.com or 225-397-5900, and one of a dedicated staff member will cross-check it, verify and post it.
Then the community knows not to go on silver leaf street if you can’t afford $200-$300 in tickets…. think about it like this… if my car is raggedy, my money is low, my gas is low, the check engine light on….. and inspection sticker bad….. how can a ticket or citation help me get past this rough spot. If the police would write tickets in the St. George area…. it would be more tickets paid because we usually get bench warrants and pay our tickets during income tax or when we go to jail. That’s what the ghetto goes through. The police make being poor even worst.
As of today, I have been researching other media formats to add to the Ghetto Waves Media company. We need our own everything. That way we can provide balance or at least fairness to the underdogs. I want to see Ghetto Waze national news with young community news reporters reporting straight from their areas. Giving their cities the news raw and uncut…. straight from the people…. not the politics or power.
If we insist on being on social media all day…. we can at least “Warn A Brother” to stay as far as he can from obstacles that only make their already hard life…. harder. If politicians and police were not so corrupt……. and traditional news wasn’t so racist and biased……. Ghetto Waze wouldn’t even exist. Community news will never die…. its the future and the most non-tainted way to get the truth out.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It has NOT been a smooth road. The news stations were stealing our pictures and saying “Anonymously Submitted” so we had to start watermarking. Ghettowaze gets reported so much that it usually is ineligible for monetizing. The majority of the city loves us but our hate comes all from power positions. Crooked Cops hate us, Council Members who are not doing their jobs hate us, we have been told that elected officials watch our pages 24/7, traditional news reporters and editors report posts on our page often to get us deleted because their retention and numbers are dropping.
Uneducated members of the community often get mad and take posts of their family more personally because they know me, but my kids have been on Ghetto Waze and I didn’t take it down. Nonprofits who get funding and only fund their pockets and their friends and family’s pockets hate us. Anybody who is not doing right by the people of the community hates us because we post both sides. We are the biggest urban media hub in the city of Baton Rouge…… the bad comes along with the good.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
We have started to film tv shows and podcasts and we have short films and more in the making. We also are very active around election time. We have interviewed Judges, Council Members, and even School board members. We work directly with many community leaders to get the most resourceful information to the community. Community News is the community itself reporting what’s happening around them. It’s the most raw and honest way to deliver the news, but it also comes with the most problems.
The truth has a way of upsetting the devil and his workers, and we don’t mind going to war with the devil to help the people of our community. One thing I’m proud of is our media house. It has a 2 personal interview set, a news desk, and a 10-person podcast interview room. I and the NAACP president Eugene Collins built it by hand. It has everything we need to get the work done. we even have a teleprompter.
So maybe we end by discussing what matters most to you and why?
What matters to me the most is the Children and The Senior citizens in the community. One is on its way in a crazy world and the other is on its way out. We should protect and nourish them by all means necessary. I also do everything in my power to help people who are incarcerated.
I don’t run behind the big shiny and bright big money situations… I come from nothing and I rather put my energy and resources into the underprivileged. I know for a fact that if you FREE THE MONEY to the bottom…. the economy thrives at its best.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ghettowaze.com
- Instagram: @ghettowaze2.0
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ghettowaze
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ghettowaze
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2Nsy7hGz_rtvhaBbL6uW-w
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/eugene-collins-66289237
