Be honest, have you ever asked yourself “what’s up with all of these Reality Television Shows featuring Black people acting like clowns?
I know that I have, and if you know me just a little, you will know that I’m always questioning “why” things are the way that they are in the world around me.
Well, this situation is no different and let me share my thoughts as openly and boldly as I always do.
How is it that Black people make up – give or take a percentage point or two – 13% of the population of the United States of America yet they appear to DOMINATE the airwaves with their “ready to act a fool” antics as though we don’t have enough negative imagery to influence our troubled youth for another 25 generations into the future!
Is it about getting money for these pseudo-stars who for the most part are not bums and do have some admirable careers outside of this dumbed-down version of a ghetto soap opera.
So why?
I simply find it so amusing that as a minority population in this country it can be so difficult to find the righteous avenues for anything that sheds a positive light on our lives as Black people but if we want to demean ourselves for the amusement of the public, the opportunities are there in abundance.
Sure, I understand that television and entertainment is an even bigger industry than it ever was before and high ratings rope in those high advertising dollars.
But you can’t tell me that in the Black community there aren’t talented individuals that have DIGNITY that could also be showcased to inspire those who are downtrodden and feel that their options are limited in life.
Let me tell you something that I had offered to me several years ago around 2007, I had the opportunity to get on the reality television show that went by the name “Wife Swap” because the producers were looking for someone like myself who was born and raised in the golden era of hip-hop yet was now a mature settled married man.
Now the title might suggest something very kinky but it wasn’t anything about actually sleeping with another man’s wife (although I am 100% certain that the many undercover freaks amongst us would love to secretly view a show like that), but it was really about two couples switching households so that the viewer can get an entertaining insight as to the clash of personal ideals that were sure to follow.
I mean, isn’t this what reality television is all about?
In my heart I truly believe – and feel that I know – that these confrontations are somewhat set up because the producers are well aware of the buttons that are available to push after the extensive interviewing process that transpires before the contracts are signed and the taping begins.
Lucky for me my wife did not want us to do it being the private low key peace loving individual that she is, as opposed to the “flamboyant life of the party” that I was known to be as a young man growing up in the Richmond Hill/Jamaica section of Queens New York.
I had no choice but to agree, but that $20,000 dollar check that the show producers offered us for our participation in a public forum that would amplify and broadcast to the world those unguarded moments that are best reserved for the private stage will forever haunt me.
But is $20,000 dollars worth your dignity?
Well evidently there are a whole lot of people that feel that it is as the financial offerings for the participation in today’s roster of highly advertised reality television shows would probably make my $20,000 offer look like mere pennies in comparison.
But why are these networks doling out the big bucks for these shows that do nothing except to reinforce childish behavior to the masses of immature grown people who watch them and make a spectacle of those who star in them?
Do we really have the time to watch and absorb someone else’s scripted and glossed over reality when most of us have the major issues of life delivered to us right at our front doorstep one right after the other?
And why are these shows showing a disproportionate number of Black people in them cutting up as though they have absolutely no sense at all?
So whether the action is staged or not, the effect is still the same as it causes those Black people who would normally reserve and control themselves when a provocative situation gets in their face causes them to react in the most undignified manner simply because they saw that it was okay to do so on the television.
It’s definitely a case of life imitating art when you understand that we as a people have always craved the attention of the spotlight and am now afforded the luxury of camera phones, the internet and the world as our audience for our decadent ratchet behavior.
But what is the larger agenda for us being so easily showcased as the perpetual class clowns of society?
We’ve got to understand that we are not the only ones viewing our embarrassing and ignorant actions as this misleading propaganda is broadcast all over the world for the planet to see.
We seem to not comprehend that negative opinions and stereotypes are formed by a medium that we feel is not that bad in the entire offerings of the entertainment industry.
How can Black people be taken seriously when the expectations of those who reside abroad are low when it comes to what they expect from us?
The way I see it, our images being tainted in the eyes of the world is an attempt to keep us as roped off mules who are not wanted by the world who are to remain as tools for the oppressor domestically when he needs us in his wars and other covert scams.
Can’t see the connection between the two?
Well this world is shrinking and many of us are seeing the opportunities to do business lucratively with the citizens of many far away exotic countries that we were never acquainted with growing up under such a narrow minded and limiting educational system of indoctrination.
Many of us see how we’ve been limited in our growth here in this ever diminishing American system and are not closed off to abandoning the sinking ship of the United States for greener pastures elsewhere.
Also, could you imagine the image makeover that the Black woman has gone through in the eyes of White America as anyone who remotely resembles a Nene Leakes or the cast of The Real Housewives Of Atlanta will automatically be accepted as a potential Drama Queen guaranteeing that they will never get the job or promotion that their expertise in a particular area of excellence would afford them.
So as the few of us who want what they think is true fame sell out the hard earned image of decency and moral uprightness for a paycheck, we all suffer, and this my friend could not be the result of chance but by design.
How foolish we are to see that our images are being smeared by our very own hands as we allow those who do not want to see our rise control how we are viewed the world over?
Yes, we know that there are many of us who are ignorant, low down and grimy just as there are those who are of that makeup in every race, but we overall are suffering on so many fronts that we simply cannot afford for the world to turn their backs on us because of the images of us that are promoted for the purpose to quarantine us from doing business with the world.
We are not that loved by the masses of people here in this country for them to want to see us at our worst every single night of the week.
But in my opinion it is important to “someone” for us to be seen as subhuman, hedonistic and straight 100% Grade A Ghetto to the world.
You just don’t get that amount of airtime and spotlight for absolutely no reason at all.
Mark my words: “It ain’t for anything good.”
Peace & Righteous Love Always,
LanceScurv
407.590.0755
