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?
I agree with the last paragraph 100%
ReplyDeleteI don't watch much televisio, basically none unless it's TV Land or Discovery Health Channel so I miss the slurs, satires and such.
I believe Blacks/African Americans (you know a lot feel being called African-American is derogatory)need to stray away from the negative things that they are doing that are holding themselves down. The phrase "the white man is trying to hold me back" is overrated.
I digress because no matter how anyone repeatedly says these things they won't listen until they for themselves realize the shit they are doing.
The quality of television programming has changed so much in the last decade. Cable has lots of wack junk and the shows that cater to the African American community is few and far between. I spend more time reading and online than watching TV. TV portrays too many people of color unfavorably. The actors need to take a stronger stance and stop allowing themselves to be exploited that way.
ReplyDeletePeople keep themselves back by not keeping themselves educated and growing and continually learning. Many people hold themselves back because they are not associating with the right people. Sometimes, the people we choose as friends can hold us back. Not only are we judged by the company we keep (birds of a feather flock together), but too many of the wrong people around us can cause us to behave like the people we keep close to us. Some people may be nice and all, but everybody doesn't need to be in our front row. Some of them need to sit in the back, maybe others don't even need to be in the theater at all.