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One thing that always bothered me as a bi-racial american is the utter lack of successful black people being shown to the mainstream media. Only Tyler Perry seems to be on the ball about this. Every time you turn on the news, you see a "Minority" commiting a crime yet you never hear about successful AAs living the life or being middle class. This bothers me and I think this does more to fuel racism than anything else...
It's because being successful and living the normal life is not newsworthy...regardless of race.
Very true, and so well-known that it needs little comment. Happy, successful people living quiet lives just aren't "exciting".
Another "darker" side to this, is the extremely self-destructive strain running thorough some facets of inner-city "ghetto" culture, which hold that acting respectable, speaking correctly, and doing "all the right things" is somehow a REJECTION OF ONE'S BLACKNESS. I don't know how many people actually believe this, but as long as SOME do, it is the worst kind of a "no-win" situation.
The media are more than haqppy to tap into this "Bad boy" part of the culture, with GREAT enthusiasm, and to make huge profits, by depicting one-sided scenarios, in LARGE part at the expense of the respectable black community. As long as this goes on, and as long as people "buy into" this image, the negative side-effects will never go away.
One thing that always bothered me as a bi-racial american is the utter lack of successful black people being shown to the mainstream media. Only Tyler Perry seems to be on the ball about this. Every time you turn on the news, you see a "Minority" commiting a crime yet you never hear about successful AAs living the life or being middle class. This bothers me and I think this does more to fuel racism than anything else...
Anyone else feel this way?
Well, I think it the black community is partially responsible for this. A lot of black people seem to think that being middle class and black is "acting white" or selling out. Also a lot of black people seem to push more tougher black communities as being "true" black communities like Compton or Watts as opposed to upper- and middle-class black communities like Ladera Heights or Leimert Park (using the Los Angeles area as examples).
Not to say that whites don't play a major role in it as well. Spike Lee did an entire film about how black stereotypes are just as alive now as they have been throughout American history and how those stereotypes are still supported financially by whites. I have to agree to some extent. The gangsta rap industry is a good example, a vast majority of gangsta rappers were never criminals or only petty criminals, the two biggest legends of gangsta rap, 2Pac and Notorious B.I.G., both went to schools for the gifted, had good grades, were considered to be intelligent by their peers and teachers, and had minor criminal records before they became famous. Much like Spike Lee suggested, it's like a modern day minstrel show, intelligent black men pretend to be ignorant and violent to entertain their fanbase (which is made up of blacks and whites) and indirectly contribute to negative stereotypes.
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Your post also reminded me of something I saw about nine years ago when I was living in Winnipeg, Canada. A lot of cities have Crime Stoppers commercials about unsolved crimes along with a police hotline number, in Winnipeg they often have actors recreating the crime. This one commercial was about a serial car thief in the city that was targeting high-end cars and the description of the guy was something like "5'10-6'2, indeterminate race..." and they had a black actor pretending to be breaking into a BMW, not just a black actor, an unmistakably black actor, a man who would never be mistaken for being mixed race or Hispanic much the same way Carrot Top would never be mistaken for being Samoan.
Sadly, I doubt this will ever change. It’s much too ingrained into the mindset of this nation; and as mentioned -- stereotypical black images are profitable.
As a black woman, I am truly saddened by the sheer ignorance being perpetuated by many blacks. I am sure Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, George Washington Carver, Martin Luther King, Jr. –- to name a few -- would be turning over in their graves if they could see the level of self-loathing being indoctrinated in many black communities.
It’s as though all who fought to dispel such negative stereotypes, did so in vain. I hope I’m wrong.
Being from the inner-city, I can say that even the position that many blacks are believed to hold is a stereotype. The whole "acting white" thing isn't as big as many think. Most of the people who think moving away from the hood is selling out are racists. I know many people from the inner-city, Black, White, and Latino, who wish they could get out. It's nothing like you'd imagine it to be. In fact, I've seen more poor whites content with their life than poor blacks. I now live in a suburb after living in the inner-city for all but one year in my life. Although there are many negative things that can happen from living there, I must say I still miss it. They say living dangerously can be thrilling sometimes, and that is true. Once you leave, you feel homesick. You don't hear people yelling, fighting, etc, and you miss it, even though the outcomes were almost always bad. I could never turn my back on where I came from. That's the only thing I would classify as selling out: forgetting where you come from.
I think it's because too many decided that "victim" status got them something and so go for it. It's as though they don't want normal hard working successful AA's to be given attention because then people might stop feeling so sorry for AA's.
It doesn't matter that some of the most successful Americans are black -- if attention is brought to them -- then Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson lose their victim platform.
Sadly, I doubt this will ever change. It’s much too ingrained into the mindset of this nation; and as mentioned -- stereotypical black images are profitable.
As a black woman, I am truly saddened by the sheer ignorance being perpetuated by many blacks. I am sure Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, George Washington Carver, Martin Luther King, Jr. –- to name a few -- would be turning over in their graves if they could see the level of self-loathing being indoctrinated in many black communities.
It’s as though all who fought to dispel such negative stereotypes, did so in vain. I hope I’m wrong.
Your post made me sad.
I think all the great leaders you mentioned are proud of the progress...and see more in the future.
I hear you though. The inner cities are a tough nut to crack. Don't give up hope. Hey, I said that and I'm not even a Obama supporter!
Every vote for Obama is a vote against stereotypes.
Ohhhhhh. Catch me, I feel faint.
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