Amy Alexander has posted a review of Soledad O’Brien’s documentary ‘Black in America’ (watch the previews)
Every time I see this series advertised on CNN, I ask myself the question “Haven’t they done something like this before?”
Certainly, the show shines a spotlight on the scope of blackness. But will black viewers see or learn anything that improves their daily lives or inspires new thinking or action? And will viewers unfamiliar with “the black experience” learn anything that will expand or positively inform their opinions of blacks, or—more to the point—spur them to reach out to blacks?
In the end, not likely, but maybe that isn’t the point.
Time Warner board chairman Richard Parsons told Newsday columnist Les Payne that he views the series as something other than a straight-up news effort.
“Things have changed,” said Parsons, who leads the parent company of CNN, in a July 21 Newsday column. In discussing Black in America, according to Payne, Parsons went on “sliming African Americans’ struggle to achieve parity as a ‘paradigm of victimization.’”
I am glad that they are going to show the other side of Black America (meaning the success stories and strong families) because there are far too many people who think that black Americans are a bunch of immoral animals.
Also watch these videos of interviews with black celebrities and thinkers on the issue. I particularly found Spike Lee’s comments to be interesting
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One thing about Black America, it is very diverse. Originally, our great-grandparents and grandparents generally all shared the same experience, but now Black America is becoming very unique depending on what set of people you look at.
Yet with this fact, we still share the same problems. HIV/AIDS is not a problem of a select few, but a problem of the greater whole. When we lose the connection we have as a people, we disconnect our problems and our success.
I see this documentary as keeping the connection of Black America alive. It is important for a family to acknowledge their blood relations no matter how different they have become. I also think this documentary will generally spark talk about those issues affecting the Black community…much like the panel discussion by CNN and Essence. I look forward to watching it.
Being “Black in America” is indeed a difficult task in itself. However, CNN’s portrayal of our struggle is unbelievably biased. Although the program did shed light on various aspects, the representation was inadequate. Call me shallow, if you will, but I noticed that most (99%) of the positive stories were portrayed by the “lighter skinned” members of our race. It might be a minor mishap, but it Inadvertently paints a negative picture of the darker members of our race.
To date we have over 38 responses to the CNN Special on the Black Men In America.com blog. It is a wide range of views. You can check them out at: http:bmia.wordpress.com.
I thought it was depressing as it focused on blacks as if we are an exhibit in a big top circus. It has the connation that our blackness is the problem. when the real problem is racism and prejudice against blacks. The show focused on the effect but not the cause and therefore it was biased. I know the statistics and that does not mean that represents me as a black woman. I would not chose to date a “white” man just because there is a “shortage” of brothers. Love is love and it is colorless. It is a private and individual decision. As are the choices that individuals made in their lives that may have landed them in jail, on drugs, pregnant without a husband (several times). Choices made without knowledge are still choices. The consequences are colorless too.
Think about this, 23-year-old immigrant Amadou Diallo shot 41 times unarmed at the time of the shooting, or the Sean Bell shooting, shot at a total of fifty times by a team of both plainclothes and undercover NYPD officers in the New York City borough of Queens. What would the Black people in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina say of their condition in lieu of the late response and incompetence of FEMA. Baron Pikes 21-year-old sawmill worker tasered nine times in handcuffs was jolted so many times by the 50,000-volt taser that he might have been dead before the last two shocks were delivered according to the coroner. Who is speaking for them and the countless others not so famous to include the Jena 6 or 92-year old Kathryn Johnston killed in her own house in Atlanta on a no knock search warrant. Unrepentant officials say they had the correct house and that the warrant they had was legal. Soledad and CNN had a chance to talk to these all too often repetitive incidents of police brutality, cruelty and state sponsored homicide against Blacks in America and they blew it!