There has been so much in the news lately! From Bill Cosby to the non indictments of police officers and murders of other police officers. Honorable mention goes to North Korea for scaring the piss out of the US because of a fictional movie, and Bobby Shmurder. So many topics that I can talk about but I won't. I'm refusing because everyone that knows me knows my opinion on policing the police and black people and change etc etc. I have other things that happen to have been irking me.
I read a blog in which a woman was telling a story of how she would get together with her girlfriends on Thursdays nights and watch ABC. You know Grey's Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder. Without getting into details, the author states that she had an epiphany and analyzed what was happening on Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder. She felt OPPRESSED because of all the interracial situations in the story lines. Kerri Washington's character, Olivia Pope, is having an affair with two white men; one is the President of the United States and the other is a high ranked military man. On How to Get Away With Murder, Viola Davis' character, Annalise (who by the way is an attorney and professor) is married to a white man.The author goes on to describe different scenes from both shows and why they made her feel oppressed or whatever. Finally she said that she has stopped watching both shows.
Whats wrong with this picture? I see a few things. For one, Scandal has been on for what, five seasons now?? Has the same thing not been going on this entire time? Two, why is oppressed the appropriate feeling?
I understand right now that racial tensions are high and so many folks are on their black power kick. That doesn't mean that your daily activities/rituals have to turn into guilty pleasures or that you have to stop doing what you normally do. There are so many debates on social media in regards to how black people should handle their feelings and some are even afraid to voice how they really feel. There's a lot of pressure from what is called "Black Twitter" and Facebook to boycott this and only support that. What does not watching your favorite TV shows have to do with anything? Especially one that is written and produced by a black woman. If the show was written in book form would this same suddenly oppressed woman stop reading the book? What about a movie? I guess I just don't understand how a fictional situation would make you oppressed. Fiction does invoke a lot a feelings but I didn't know that oppression was one! And who feels oppressed by two successful, seemingly rich black women? Just to see black women on TV in Prime time should make us feel ecstatic!!!
After the Eric Garner verdict, i have heard so many people say that they are only going to support black business, buy black, start a black owned business, etc.That's all good, if that's what you want to do. To not entertain yourself is just a little ridiculous to me.
What is also bothersome to me is that these show's are fictional. This isn't Love and Hip Hop or any of those stupid Housewives. Those real people who have sold their souls and everyone else's to make money. I heard Peter Gunz say it himself; he needed the money. Or that staged sex tape with that Mimi the Shower Curtain chick. Those people would be a reason for me to say that I feel oppressed.
Now just in the last 10 minutes (literally) I just read a blog about a new show that is on Fox called Empire. The show stars Terrance Howard and Taraji Henson. Without being wordy, it's a show about a record label that was founded with drug money. The label is huge and everyone's demons are coming to haunt them. It also shows what the current state of Hip Hop is. Not even just Hip Hop; the industry itself. It's a musical...kind of. I've watched it, I love it. It's drama and it's FICTION.
The blog that I just read about Empire describes the show as "coonery". The author also posted a vlog to go along with it but I wouldn't even entertain it. From what I read, this author clearly cant separate fiction and non-fiction either. To me, the show is telling the story of what people really are behind the glitz. How many of these artists really have started record labels with drug money ( I can name three right now)? How many gay R&B singers are still in the closet and still don't know how to come out without being judged? We know how much drug abuse there is out there. That's been around since the 60s. The show also tackles ALS. It's telling people's real stories.
This blogger attacks the Lee Daniels stating that he is pretty much exploiting black people and shoving homosexuality down our throats. I would say exploiting if this was a reality show and I would say shoving if this were 1990.
He then goes on and starts talking all this pro black stuff. Listen people, it doesn't matter what someone puts on TV that involves black people someone will find something wrong. Where was this blogger when Breaking Bad was on? Clearly it oppresses chemistry teachers and Meth addicts. Or what about episodes Sons of Anarchy which exploits all the motorcycle clubs in the world? Where was he when these shows came out? Is it different when white people do it? Do we not need to bring these things up when a predominantly white show is on? Those equal rights arguments are out the window in my opinion.
We don't need to be offended every time a FICTIONAL show with predominantly black characters is produced because it isn't the Cosby Show. We don't need to feel oppressed when there's an interracial relationship. And don't get me started on all of the offended black men who were upset at Scandal because Olivia is attracted to tall, white and handsome (that's a whole other conversation).
The point is that we should be able to all share our creations with the world without someone overdosing on how bad black people are being shown or how there's not enough positive imagery. When I get off work I can care less about positive imagery. I want entertainment. If you watch ratchet TV on VH1, so what! If I wanna watch Scandal or Empire or any other ridiculousness, let me do it in peace. I don't need anyone to try and convince me that what I like is wrong. And if you think it's wrong, leave your pro-blackness in the closet for an hour and just laugh. It doesn't make you any less black.
After the Eric Garner verdict, i have heard so many people say that they are only going to support black business, buy black, start a black owned business, etc.That's all good, if that's what you want to do. To not entertain yourself is just a little ridiculous to me.
What is also bothersome to me is that these show's are fictional. This isn't Love and Hip Hop or any of those stupid Housewives. Those real people who have sold their souls and everyone else's to make money. I heard Peter Gunz say it himself; he needed the money. Or that staged sex tape with that Mimi the Shower Curtain chick. Those people would be a reason for me to say that I feel oppressed.
Now just in the last 10 minutes (literally) I just read a blog about a new show that is on Fox called Empire. The show stars Terrance Howard and Taraji Henson. Without being wordy, it's a show about a record label that was founded with drug money. The label is huge and everyone's demons are coming to haunt them. It also shows what the current state of Hip Hop is. Not even just Hip Hop; the industry itself. It's a musical...kind of. I've watched it, I love it. It's drama and it's FICTION.
The blog that I just read about Empire describes the show as "coonery". The author also posted a vlog to go along with it but I wouldn't even entertain it. From what I read, this author clearly cant separate fiction and non-fiction either. To me, the show is telling the story of what people really are behind the glitz. How many of these artists really have started record labels with drug money ( I can name three right now)? How many gay R&B singers are still in the closet and still don't know how to come out without being judged? We know how much drug abuse there is out there. That's been around since the 60s. The show also tackles ALS. It's telling people's real stories.
This blogger attacks the Lee Daniels stating that he is pretty much exploiting black people and shoving homosexuality down our throats. I would say exploiting if this was a reality show and I would say shoving if this were 1990.
He then goes on and starts talking all this pro black stuff. Listen people, it doesn't matter what someone puts on TV that involves black people someone will find something wrong. Where was this blogger when Breaking Bad was on? Clearly it oppresses chemistry teachers and Meth addicts. Or what about episodes Sons of Anarchy which exploits all the motorcycle clubs in the world? Where was he when these shows came out? Is it different when white people do it? Do we not need to bring these things up when a predominantly white show is on? Those equal rights arguments are out the window in my opinion.
We don't need to be offended every time a FICTIONAL show with predominantly black characters is produced because it isn't the Cosby Show. We don't need to feel oppressed when there's an interracial relationship. And don't get me started on all of the offended black men who were upset at Scandal because Olivia is attracted to tall, white and handsome (that's a whole other conversation).
The point is that we should be able to all share our creations with the world without someone overdosing on how bad black people are being shown or how there's not enough positive imagery. When I get off work I can care less about positive imagery. I want entertainment. If you watch ratchet TV on VH1, so what! If I wanna watch Scandal or Empire or any other ridiculousness, let me do it in peace. I don't need anyone to try and convince me that what I like is wrong. And if you think it's wrong, leave your pro-blackness in the closet for an hour and just laugh. It doesn't make you any less black.
