So last night I was in bed with my babe (who shall remain nameless) and we're watching The Color Purple (my first time ever and im 25), when we see a commercial for a new show on Black Exploitation Television also known as BET. The commercial was for a new game show called "Pay It Off" and in the ad the title was in front of a Credit card. Does anyone see the problem with this or is it just me being highly sensitive to black stereotypes. Well anyway this raised the question in my head, Have black people regressed since the swearing in of the first black president (actually bi-racial)?
I mean lately it just seems like there is less of African Americans during prime time and more of us on during news time. CW formally known as UPN (aka Under Paid Negro-Network) had a full line up of black sitcoms and the last one standing "The Game"was canceled in 2009. Although I did not personally watch the show, many of my friends were huge fans of the sitcom and not even countless petitions could save the show. Currently the only African American prime time show on network television is The Cleavland Show on FOX, a cartoon.
As far as the news goes African Americans as a whole are not really looking so hot. One of biggest stories in the news right now is about Derrion Albert, a 16 year old honor student murdered as a bystander of a gang fight in Chicago. As sad but common as this story is, for the media to plaster the video online of this young boy's murder is downright disturbing and disrespectful to the family of the victim.
Since Obama has taken office you have seen racism in a much more in your face manor than before. We all saw the McCain rally's with chants of "N-gger and Kill Him" during the election process. I my self endure racial slurs each time I go on Blog Tv a site devoted to video bloggers who want to chat live with their viewers. Being called the N-word and other racial slurs is all too common!
So I ask you this have blacks sacrificed integrity in the media spotlight in order to have a black (bi-racial) president? I think many people have had this false hope that with Obama taking office that everything would simply get better for African Americans, but as an African American I realize that in order for us to stop being stereotyped we must stop feeding the stereotypes. We need to start thinking its cool to speak proper English, read books, further our education, and aspire for better lives. It irritates me when I see my people settle for shows like Real Housewives of Atlanta, Tiny & Toya, Frankie & Neffe. Although they have money they still reflect a ghetto mentality that uneducated African Americans seem to pride them selves on. Where is today's Cosby Show?
