So, recently i started up & conducted
a pettition to shut down an online parody series, entitled Real Baby Mothers Of Brixton.
Within 3days we hit 300+ signatures, from just over 400+ people who'd even seen it, within my local network,
from within the UK Black Community, opposing not only it's release, but any further similiar narratives.
However let's be clear, this is much bigger than any one parody show....
Whilst a minority of you view Empire and housewives of Atlanta as purely entertainment & parody, & banter
There are many members of the black community who actively stand against these shows & sign petitions across the black diaspora, vehemently opposed to all coonery and any further existence....
And here's why...
My attack wasn't (and won't be) exclusively against Real Baby Mothers Of Brixton, 300+ didn't sign to personally attack the young black female producer/actors, nor their craft -
But rather we supported out of genuine frustration and antipathy towards media portrayals of cliche, same old, same old, story lines, that aren't only repetitive but non-reparative, Negative and Limiting,
with often devastating and severe reprecussions within our community!!
Limiting firstly to our actors, actors who have to go to the US to get slightly expansive roles, Idris and David odeyewelo being prime examples,
David who got little or nothing in the UK, and smashed MLK (selma) in the US,
and idris we all agree is deserved of the James Bond role, based on work ethic, yet heavily criticised and denigrated, well quite simply because white societies stereo type says, NA....
Black men and women, are now near type casted into a very one dimensional role, actors who are only recognised as 'fitting' when they either play the tyranical, transgressive or subservient role in film & media.
The Gangsta, Pimp, Convict, Baby mamma, Big momma, Maid, Slave, Thug, Currupt cop, Evil enemy (so on)
Then there's the detrimental effect this has on me and you.
Walter Lippman once said:
"We (goverment/white media) have created propoganda as a defence mechanisim, we propogandize images of people we are conquaring and oppressing, creating the idea these people deserve what they are going through"
It's Propaganda, and it's setting black people up for a massive fall.
- Prime example, Mark Duggan, were Mark a she, and she were WHITE and middle class, the police officers would have undoubtably been charged, or permited due to mental illness, either way no way in hell, she'd be legally killed.
Because see for a white middle class girl shot or even brutalised by police it just doesn't match up, the mind doesn't associate White - Woman - Middle class and 'deserved death' together.
Societies cynicism immediately redirects the blame at the police officer, who even then isn't a murderer or sexist, or tottally accountable, its MUST have been accidental? or mistake?
the gun must have slipped?
or maybe he was mentally ill?
Where as Mark Duggan positioned into an underclass, deserved to die right? he was in a gang, and had tattoos and when the political rhetoric is WAR ON GANGS, it's politically acceptable, and sociaities perception of black gangsters is undesirable and expendable, because of the re enforced, SET, stereo types, then it isn't hard to pass verdict as a lawful killing, of a human being.
So my assertion is, and numerous studies show, were you not who the media continually reaffirm you to be for your ascribed status,
...maybe you would have got that job, or not been expelled from school, or the old lady wouldn't have crossed the road when she saw a group of black guys, and then walked right through a group of skateboarding white boys.
Because you see, the image society internalise, of the people they don't spend much time around, comes from the most powerful method of indoctrination ever -
- The media. (Games - TV - Internet)
An important study to note, that contributes heavily to this whole conversation is that of - implicit bias,
which is a preconceived notion we make about different groups, and actively operate under, biases that are stored in the sub conscious, whether the person is an out right racist - prejudice or not.
These very biases are maintained and renforced by the sterotypes we allow to exist through the greatest form of indoctronation ever created, our Media
And when that is what they continuously see, that's what they expect, even we as black people buy into the false perceptions of ourselves!
- DMX once said,
"If you feed people dog shit for so long, they just go ahead and put bbq sauce on it"
People learn about black people and our 'purported' one dimensional thug, weed, gansgter, baby daddy, baby mum culture by what they see through the media they view.
These universally accepted projected roles, justify the exploitation of black people on every level!
Tv specialises in a method called
'Normative Socialisation' - where by attitudes & action with enough reproduction of the same thing, end up being attributed to a particular individual or group / defined as standard behaviour.
And let's be fair, white people are stereo typed too, skin heads for example, we as black people think them all racist, it's a real shock to meet a cultrually sensitive and appropriate skin head with hells angels tattoo on his head back, right?!
But the difference is this, whilst some of them are un-justly stereotyped, they in the media, as GROUP, of white people have a far more diverse spectrum of representation.
Thus not making it so harsh on the sporadic negative stereotypes, even giving space to transition & play the alternative angelic white lover or the expected white hero, saviour type role.
Whilst for our (black peoples) limited representation, 9/10th of whom play either negative or subservient roles, our lack of diverse representation, suggest the few shows and depictions we have got - representative of us all. Black baby mothers of brixton,
plays right into that!!!
As if to suggest there an epidemic of single black mothers, when in actual fact that stereo type is a near myth, STUDY SHOWS....young black families are on the rise, marriage in our community has increased, most black dads are actively apart of their childs life!!
(not all, but most)
But see what happens when we regress back to re-enforcing the black single mother stereotype, we suggest ALL, not just some. The empire transgressive gangsta narrative we imply ALL, not just some.
Society loves black culture because of what they expect us to be, need us to be to justify our high incarceration rate,low economic status and hey, these cliche shows are all we ever do, so it must accurately portray black peoples, one dimensional, genuine nature?!
- So when white people assume all single black women are LOUD - RAMBUNCTIOUS - ATTITUDE - NECK SNAPPING - BROKEN HOME - UN EDUCATED - BITTER!
Remember it's because of media they've fed into, by what lf we've aloud to exist.
So i say, STOP attempting to romanticise the struggle, the transgressive aspects of our culture, were only ever born out of 'short term' strategy for survival,
a stepping stone, so; it's ok to chronicle events, but becomes unproductive the moment we passively, consistently GLORIFY, survival.
START, putting out visual, imagery, film, art, depicting and narrating our great achievers, or fictional stories of succsess's, cast black males as scholars and conquarers, our females and presidents and proficent mothers & wives.
STOP, using banter & parody as an excuse to tear down your own people, to exploit blackness and instead maybe experiment with humouring the ignorance of WHITENESS.
It's important, we PROTECT our IMAGE.
it's important, we PROTECT our IMAGE
it's important, we PROTECT our IMAGE
t's important, we PROTECT our IMAGE
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