Black In America Too
GENERAL By Contra™ on December 11, 2009 at 5:39 pm
In case you are part of the large unaware majority, Black in America 2, the sequel to the wildly successful 2008 CNN documentary of a similar name, aired this past Sunday.
No different from the first one, this consists of hours of inspiring stories and important information and insights. Also like the first one, it’s an obvious ratings pull that borders on being insulting. Black people are not magical clan to be demystified with a handbook and some documentaries. The Black in America series does not pretend to be a guide to Negrodom, but it straddles the line of filling in the racial divide and driving a widening wedge into it.
This time around, the focus is on the revolving doors of prison, the paralyzing misconceptions about education and healthcare and the hardships of maintaining long-term relationships.
Oh, and Tyler Perry.
The Video’s a good 17 minutes long, so grab some popcorn or something
I’ve been waiting on an excuse to speak on this man and here it is. Yeah, I know, easy target, cue Sunshine Anderson and let us know you’ve heard it all before. Join him in his defensive chants. “How dare we?” Who are we to criticize the man and his creations? Well, we are the viewers, listeners, readers, and people who get affected by his doing, whether or not we care to. Ergo the ire, sire.
Seriously. Why put the emphasis on the morals and messages in the films, plays and sitcoms when they all border on being minstrel shows? That’s like saying a slave auction would revitalize the economy. Besides, will the focus really be on whatever the message of the screenplay may be when the recurring themes and characters are so corrosively negative? You realize that without the foul mouthed, cross-dressing, weed-smoking, heat-packing, persistent felon of a grandmother bringing up all your characters, they would probably be normal people, right?
Why don’t we address how to get rid of the Madeas and Mr. Browns and the slew of other characters that could sneak on set in BlackFace and no one would notice? Instead of saying “How can you ignore the message of forgiveness?, riddle me this. How can you ignore the blatant promotion, embellishment and endorsement of stereotypes in your protagonists? How about how do we eliminate the shit-talking 6′ 5″ granny in drag and focus on what you claim to be the focus of your movies?
Now this is not to knock Emmit. He’s a kid from the asscrack of New Orleans whose big dreams turned him into a quasi-billionaire movie producer, director, actor, writer that owns his own full-scale studio in heart of Atlanta. Clap for him. And Precious was pretty tight so I ain’t completely mad at the kid.
But don’t make the man out to be the Black Jesus Christ meets Bill Gates. He, like the executives at CNN, realized that Black misery is an underdocumented story that just so happens to still be a tradeable commodity.
Posted in GENERAL, TV/Movies — Tags: Black In America 2, CNN, Soledad O’Brien, Tyler Perry
18 Comments
well put.
You realize that without the foul mouthed, cross-dressing, weed-smoking, heat-packing, persistent felon of a grandmother bringing up all your characters, they would probably be normal people, right?
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But they wouldn’t be on the big screen.
whens white in america commin out? cnn aint nothin but infotainment for people who think they’re smart. sensationalism at its finest
Latinos in America was a dud too.
-Latino In America
You basically wrapped up the series in this one. There are a couple of cool stories in it but the Tyler Perry segment made me put my hater cap on. I’ve never been a fan of Madea or anything related to it.
With that said I haven’t seen Precious yet but it’s on my to do list.
@ El Rosado, the Latino in America joint was just boring. I spaced out midway through haha.
Very well written post.
Didnt see any of this series, but to comment @El Rosado that Latino joint was fucked up in so many ways.
its no wonder instead of Obama worrying about the immigration reform, he decides to send more troops to afghanistan.
i bet if he gave every illegal/undocumented Latino a helmet and a m16, we would take over that shitty country in a week. Sunday we be smokin some afghan kush, grillin dog or whatever animals they got over there.
Tyler Perry perpetuates the “new” stereo type for Black Men…Successful & Gay….
….smfh…where’s Wesley Snipes when you need him…
Fuck that “latino in America” special. sometimes I feel like CNN doin this to make white folks feel better bout themselves.
And yea I’m a Latino in America
I don’t see why they aired Black in America 2 again. I didn’t like the first one and I didn’t like the second one (the initial time it aired in the summer)…
I fully agree about Tyler Perry and I’d be here all day scribing how I detest his messages and how his success doesn’t nothing but pigeon-hole black actors even more. Man, can a brotha’ get a Cosby-esque show on television. Even House of Payne, the least disgraceful of his material, clings to the same stereotypes we see white directors and producers portraying. The shiftless black male who thinks he can get by on looks, not work, the crackhead mother, the noisy black woman, etc…
Tyler Perry loses my respect because he refuses to acknowledge the BLACK PEOPLE who are offended by this. And I upset that Spike Lee is the only black person in Hollywood calling him out…
Enough about Perry…
Black In America 1 & 2 fail in two areas;
(1) It addresses racism too gingerly and (2) SLAVERY is totally ignored…
You can’t talk about “the black experience” without the WHOLE “experience…”
They need to re-run Roots on television…
@Sam C : yea they hit every cliche Latino story (Cuban migration/wealth, undocumented mexicans, puerto-rican second class citizenship, teenage parents, hs dropouts etc they really showed no creativity) and each story was one that’s already been done to death by journalists/scholars with way more credibility and knowledge than Soledad/CNN. They basically made it seem like the only way a Latino in this country could succeed is by being a celebrity (they were heavy on celebrities) or politician, not much about the rising Latino middle class of professionals or the working class that’s doing the jobs nobody else wants. Shit was like a remedial “Latino 101″ for the uninformed that prefer to learn through 2 hours of weak documentaries.
And for as fine as she is, Soledad lost a lot of her appeal to me for LIA. I knew she grew up bougie upper-class and wasn’t necessarily “down” so to say because of nature/nurture….but damn it’d be nice if Soledad didn’t constantly butcher the pronunciation of her own name
CONSTANTLY. It was both hilarious and sad at the same time considering she’s trying to pitch herself as a mainstream Latina voice in journalism but can’t even pronounce her own name correctly. I’m not one of these Spanish-language elitists types of Latinos but she needs to get it together or change her name to some shit she can pronounce correctly like Samantha.
Lmao @ Pancho.
@ Trill Smith: co-sign!
whens white in america commin out?
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Monday – Friday 6am-4pm ; 6pm-12am CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox.
You got some good points, Contra. I’m gonna sound like a Tom here, but I look at Perry’s films as just plain trite films. I mean yes there are a lot of stereotypes that he and other people portray of black people but you see that in a lot of other movies as well.
Tyler Perry isn’t the first man to dress in drag for comedy. In fact “Some Like It Hot” had two and it’s considered the greatest comedy of all time.
And as far as gun-toting, drug using smart-ass grandparents, we’ve seen our fair share of those forever. Hell Alan Arkin won an Oscar for it. Over the black guy might I ad!
“Man, can a brotha’ get a Cosby-esque show on television.”
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With all of the scream over negative bullshit on tv, it’s hard to find that on a white tv show. Thank “Married With Children” and “The Simpsons” for that, God bless em.
whens white in america commin out?
===================================================
Monday – Friday 6am-4pm ; 6pm-12am CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox.
^ dead lol
To me its just entertainment. Whats shown doesnt dictate what black folk really are. Imma black folk!
whens white in america commin out? cnn aint nothin but infotainment for people who think they’re smart. sensationalism at its finest
Co-Sign! Too many self-alleged “news buffs” who think they are qualified to talk politics all day because they read CNN.com every day.
^HAHAHA!! And the thing is CNN is as good as it gets if you must keep following mainstream/govt. disinfo/media. NY Times, Wall St Jou, aint no better!