CNN will premier a series, ‘Black in America with Soledad O’Brien’
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2008/black.in.america/
Wednesday July 23 at 9pm – Black Women and Families
Thursday July 24 at 9pm – Plight of the Black Man in America.
I’ve heard it said that you should watch it with your children (or record it, if they have to be in bed!). It might make a good showing and discussion piece for a youth group. We may not all be American but there are sure to be commonalities that affect us all. I’ll be back on the blog to let you know my thoughts after the series. I hope you also do the same. Let’s keep the lines of communication open. Visit the site too, it’s powerful.
I watched Black in America. I did not like what I saw.
Black Americans are the only people to air their dirty laundry on TV as a whole community. I am not going to comment on the special, I will talk about what is real.
The Black man is a part of our families. Most of the black households that I know have a good father figure.
Black single mothers are working and raising their children in beautiful homes, because they are educated young women. Whether or not the parents are together the father is a part of the child’s life in a big way.
Black women don’t sleep with every man out there, we know who our children’s fathers are, and have known for generations. Most of the children in the black race who are in single parent households are the result of divorce.
I have seen the most important race in turmoil and trouble, that’s the human race. I am a black woman and a retired police officer.
I didn’t like the special. I found that it focused too much on Stereotypes, comparing blacks to whites or comparing upper and lower class blacks. These types of comparisons happen all the time. What they should have discussed is how Blacks are affected by social and economic systems and government in America. Instead it pits one group against the other.
For example, how was the black community affected by Vietnam? Drug use and single parent homes began to soar after the war as Veterans returned to our community. We are still impacted today and are slow to recover from this. This was a government failure and it impacted people of all races returning from that war.
How are lower class families affected by welfare? The system does offer support to single women but it doesn’t offer support to the family. It actually promotes men leaving the home. Is it possible that it can do both? This is done for Military families. They receive more support if they are married, not less. Instead of welfare why don’t we consider eliminating income tax and the Federal Reserve?
How does the high incarceration rate of black men for non violent offenses, affect the crime rate, the rate of AIDS in the black community, and the state of the black family? Do these policies help anyone except for the criminal justice system?
The education system is failing all Americans of all races. Standards are lower in America for all Americans; whites score better in comparison to Blacks but not in comparison to students in other countries. I don’t think its good enough to compare us to other Americans in respect to education. The system of education needs to be drastically reformed.
As Blacks our problems are not attributed to other Americans, we need to reform the systems that bind us all. Including our corporate owed media, this is failing us all as well.
Shows like this always seem to reinforce stereotypes and they fall short of the bigger picture. You can never resolve these issues if you only focus the blame on “racism” or the notion that you are “under-privileged”. This is equivalent to fighting a War on Terror. It can’t be fought this way. There are remedies if we can cease being divided and clearly see the source of our predicament. Our policies and government intervention has failed us. It is a myth that we do not have control and that we are intrinsically the source of all of our problems.
The key is to understand our constitution, the proper role of government, greater political participation and activism on an individual level and not at the behest of a “savior”.
I was not impressed with the special. In fact, I don’t think it presented anything that was “news” to me. It dealt with the same topics that people have been discussing for many years regarding Black people: absent fathers, drug abuse, AIDS, slackness (or should I say, promiscuity), crime, incarceration, the so-called “shortage of good Black men,” interracial dating, race relations (embracing those white relatives that came out of the rapes from white men during slavery), poverty, the list goes on. I’m not sure why it was described as “groundbreaking.”
A good friend asked me a wise question: Who was the intended audience for that “special.” Was it something to teach Blacks something about ourselves? It certainly was no “call to action.” Or was it to give Whites and Others a window into what they think is going on in our world? I’m not sure what it was really supposed to accomplish but it did not resonate with me in the least. I am very much past dwelling on the problems, even as twisted out of proportion as those problems may appear. I am about solutions, but I guess it it not CNN’s job to provide any.
I was interested in Michael Dyson’s relationship with his incarcerated brother. At one point, Soledad O’Brien asked Dyson why one brother should become a success and the other a failure when they received the same upbringing (or something to that effect). Dyson commented that he likely received more encouragement from his family, and better opportunities as a result, because he is light-skinned and his brother is not. It was noticeable to me that Soledad O’Brien seemed to avoid exploring that topic in any detail and quickly moved onto something else. My wise friend also told me of an interview with O’Brien later on when she became defensive when speaking about her own light-skinned status, and perhaps privilege. Did anybody else see this interview? I didn’t watch any of the post-show commentary.
As a Black woman living in Canada, I know that many of us will be inclined to say “Well, that is not about us, that is about Blacks in America.” But the way that Blacks are portrayed on TV, especially in highly publicized specials like this one that are touted as “real life” on a highly-credible news source like CNN (this was no Ricki Lake!) — that portrayal affects the way that society views Blacks on a whole. No matter where we live or no matter how separate we think we are, somebody who saw that special will be looking at me now, thinking that I am probably pregnant with twins for a man whose name I don’t know and looking to the welfare system to support me because it is obvious that a black man never would, right?!
What’s the bottom line? For me, I guess it’s “don’t believe everything you see on TV.” We have to define and believe in our own realities. Was that YOUR reality on CNN? It is a reality for some of us, and we have to work together to overcome that, to change those negative situations. But we should never believe that what we saw is what is always is for Black men, women and families.
I would really love to hear your thoughts. –NOJ
As an African living in the West, history has taught me that everything in the Western Media has an underlying agenda. We must begin to ask ourselves what was the PURPOSE of CNN presenting this “special report” at this time in African-American history? The other question is why do we need to learn about our reality from outside media? I find that many of our people unwittingly rely on their media to educate us about ourselves. As a youth worker I can’t tell you how many parents do not know their own children and often see them as the gangsters, drug dealers and video ho’s that mainstream media say they are. One of the most important lessons from our ancestors is KNOW THY SELF. I saw nothing new or extremely insightful about this program. In fact I was greatly disappointed in the family who was overjoyed with the discovery of their European lineage but made no search for their African lineage. Again we must strive to KNOW THY SELF – especially our African selves.