As I sat here enjoying a nice day day off courtesy of our former Presidents, I ended up flipping thru the tv and realized something…black Television now really aint sh*t. Now before some of yall go hard and say we do have quality programming let me ask you this; name one quality show that doesn’t have us buffoning or extra dramatic? It’s ok….I’ll wait…
We used to have decent shows that actually reflected some true aspect of black culture and family, even when it was a comedy. We may have forgotten or glossed over them but here are a few:
• Good Times: The family unit remained strong even they didn’t have much of anything
• Cosby Show: Showed that middle class was nothing to be afraid of, and you could be well off and still stay true to being black. I admit they did push the boundries of what we could relate to as a whole, but the message was always there.
• Different World: College?? Yeah, that show made HBCU’s cool to aspire to going to, hence more of us wanted to go to college.
• Fresh Prince of Bel Air: Upper Class blacks that still had real issues, centered around the very real topic of family stepping in to raise a child when his own mother couldn’t.
These are shows that showed it was ok to struggle, and that content of character was more important than material gain or wealth. An entire generation grew up with these and went on to let these shows help shape them into the people they are now. You see them everyday, grinding hard to provide for their families, starting businesses, shaping policy, etc. That’s because their role models actually offered REAL lessons they could carry with them, unlike todays generation. I’m not exactly bashing current offerings of tv shows, but I will kind of smack them around a bit. We’ve become a generation of people that believe that wisdom and life lessons can come from people that were nobodies yesterday, but today are “stars”. These Antoine Dodsons of our time are allowed to perpetuate unscripted ignorance and we eat it up like it’s the best thing since fried chicken, when in reality it’s the appetizer of a ignorance buffet with a main course of mental genocide.
I’m not going to point a finger and say any particular show that began the downward slide of our televised media but I will say that WE are all complicit in it. We haven’t demanded better from the writers or the networks to put out quality productions, and we actually take whatever they give us ( WB Network anyone??? ). We have nothing to relate to except for coonery and buffoonery and bootleg versions of shows other networks did already. ( College Hill –vs- Real World…I rest my point ). Now I know some of you will point to “The Game” as quality drama programming, and while it might be…can we relate to that more than “The Cosby Show”, “Good Times”, or even “Family Matters”? Let’s see, most blacks live in a middle to low income status, yet “The Game” is one of the highest rated shows for our demographic. There are 1103 black players in the NFL, and 346 in the NBA that brings us to a total of 1449 for the both. According to the last census, there are 39,603,844 blacks in the US, which means that the best show we can ask them to give us is something that only .00003% of us can relate to…think about that.
We’ve been hoodwinked and sold out by networks that claim to be for “us” but could really give a damn less about anything other than our spending power. Look at these networks and tell me if any of “our” networks have a nightly news program, once again…I’ll wait. This partially rolls over to “our” movies as well, but I would require a whole different bottle of Ritalin for that one ( do we REALLY need another Big Mommas House…how about another Love Jones instead? ), and I just got to the point that I realized there is no good way to make Prozac Jello Shots…so I don’t want to have a setback today.
So unless we collectively stand up and demand better and more realistic shows, the revolution will not be televised….unless it’s on at 3am, cuz we’re too busy watching Real Basketball Wives and Real Housewives of ATL/DC/Orange County/Boise/Tupelo...etc...
Enjoy your evening...I'm going back to watching "Cooley High"...sigh
Oh but wait! The Cosby show and the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air were both unrealistic. Let's be toatlly honest...The Cosby's were a lawyer and a doctor in one household. Although the concept was to show that both parents could work and raise children in one household how many black parents do you know have careers in these fields and still have time to care for each other and the family the way it was demonstrated on t.v.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Fresh Prince showed Uncle Phil as the sole bread winner for the household but yet he was a lawyer who turned judge who was already in a mini-mansion before his career could flourish. Keep in mind he had to feed three children of his own and support a wife who wanted the best of everything passing that trait one to his children. Not to mention affording a butler who rarely did any work but found every opportunity to disrespect him about his appearance.
I agree with you that our programs are full shyt but if you think about it they always were.
Shows like What's Happening, Sanford and Son, and yes Good Times are the closed they've ever come to showing the truth.
Glad to see I am not alone, seems we are few and far between. I talk about this subject, quite a bit. Of course I get the 'your a hater' treatment for it too. You can't just not like something and that be OK to do today, you gotta be a 'hater'...??? Yet another label.
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