Discuss: CNN’s Black in America
CNN aired a two part documentary entitled “Black In America” over the past few days and it captured the attention of millions of people around the country…especially Black folks. So…I watched it and although I think there were some good aspects of the program…it really missed the mark on being something groundbreaking. The documentary was essentially one about racism and the racial disparities between Blacks and Whites. The fact that every single segment had to have some racial statistic or the conclusion always had to have a racial basis wore really thin with me. YES we deal with racism, YES racism is a problem…but this whole notion that EVERY problem can be attributed to racism is a bit ridiculous. Although racism is very important subject to address, it has been done plenty of times before so I was hoping that this documentary would bring something different to the table. This was really a missed opportunity to show that the reality is that being Black has both its benefits and drawbacks, but it is not a 400 pound gorilla on our back holding us back from living a happy and fulfilling life.
There were several flaws that were blatantly obvious in the construction of the documentary. For one, they tried to kill entirely too many birds with one stone with the families and people selected to be profiled in the series; which led to a real disparity between the reality of being “Black in America” and what the documentary tried to convey. For instance, the most financially well to do family they choose to profile consisted of two out of three sons dating or marrying a White woman and a convicted criminal…huh? Is that what we are supposed to believe is representative of the average financially successful Black family? They couldn’t muster up one wholesome well to do Black family in allll of the country? The documentary let the people they chose for the project frame the narrative of what it is like being “Black in America” rather than seeking out a VARIETY of opinions and experiences…and that I think really hurt the balance of message.
Second…why did just about every story have to have some sort of tragic arc to it? In their attempt to, like I said before kills several birds with one stone, they really lost a sense of NORMALCY in the Black community. I’m in no way marginalizing the struggles that many people go through, but dammit a more than fair percentage of us just live normal lives and deal with the same normal issues that everyone else in the country deals with. And here is a newsflash…life isn’t a cakewalk, people have to deal with issues everyday and it usually doesn’t have much to do with skin color.
What I would’ve really appreciated is if they would’ve just spent 4 hours following different Black folks from around the country…showing people at all stages in life, showing the ups and downs, successes and failures…and injected some informative statistics in the programming. THAT would’ve been far more enriching than this. The one thing you would never know from watching this documentary is that being Black in America doesn’t suck. I didn’t see any sense of pride in being Black at all. I don’t see how you can do an honest documentary and not convey that despite the hurdles we have to overcome, being Black is also a beautiful and wonderful thing?! That is what was clearly missing and they never even began to touch on. Anyway…I could say more, but instead I will get off my soapbox and turn it over to you all out there to share your thoughts…
What do you guys think of the documentary? Do you think they could’ve delved deeper into the topics? Did they do a good job of representing a wide enough variety of perspectives and experiences of being Black?
Posted by Reecie
I thought the discussion forums were enlightening. I really loved Sheryl Lee Ralph’s comments on AIDS within the black community.
For the most part I can see where you would disagree with CNN’s depiction of a certain persons within the black community, but I really think they hit a lot of original stories. One biracial couple in particular was really eye-opening. When the woman (who is black) said that if she’s dating a white man people expect her to talk or act a certain way… well, all I can say is Wow. That’s true. I’ve always been in that mindset and never adressed it. Or the brothers who were two different shades, one being incarcerated and the other a Dr. and teacher.
I think that CNN’s anchors (not CNN as a network) always do a good job in fair reporting. =] For example, Palestine is always depicted as the bad guy, but the anchors always manage to say “What about Israel’s actions?” That’s a common thing that is not always looked at through both lenses in most major news stations. Israel is always the champion and Palestine is the enemy. lol sorry for the rant!
Automatically when you hear that the title of the documentary is “BLACK in America” I would think of the Black race obviously and racism shortly after. So I wasn’t surprised with the correlation of racism in most of the stories thus far.
I definitely agree Reecie, that they didn’t portray the average Black person in America, but with that said we know what gets huge ratings in the media. It’s not the story of life on Primrose Lane, but it’s the tragedy to triumph, crackhouse to the whitehouse stories that really catch our interests.
Considering that the Black culture is one of the hardest to define in terms of what we learned in elementary: customs/traditions, religion, food, etc., I might dare to say that it is the history of our struggles that make us who we are, versus the English who settled here. With the exception of slavery and its affects, what does the White American do different from the Black American in terms of the basic cultural principals I mentioned above?
So just to restate my response, I’m not surprised that there was a victim-like protrayal of the individuals chosen in the documentary. Things can change though.
One thing I also found missing from the series was a definition of
racism. The word was used a bunch, but it was assumed that viewer
would be able to self differentiate between true acts of racism as
opposed to blanket discrimination, or simple prejudice. All are very
different terms that are, and were in this series, used out of context
or just incorrectly. It is a misuse of language that begins the often
pointless debates over so called racism when race is not a central
part of the particular issue in question. If we are going to have
discussion, we must be able to language about things in a much better
way. And when we don’t, we have to stop and correct. If we don’t we
will continue misunderstand and be misunderstood.
LP good point.
Ryan…Soledad O’Brian did a great job reporting…but CNN definitely has its own biases in their reporting. I think Anderson Cooper was totally USELESS in covering the topic. I don’t get the hype around him at all.
Q…I agree that racism had to be a part of it, I just think that focusing on the racism aspect really did a disservice to the documentary because it overshadowed everything else.
You know what this documentary kind of reminds me of? My freshman year at UCLA I was in an English class and we all had to be a persona. Well this one White dude decided that his persona was going to be “Jerome”. When he “introduced” himself he said “Hi my name is Jerome. My father is in jail and my mother is on crack so I have to steal in order to put food on my table”. I sat there totally in SHOCK! This guy was not trying to be funny…he was totally SERIOUS! He genuinely in his heart thought that the average Black person has a jailbird father and a crackhead mother and he had genuine sympathy. His whole intent was to try and give “Jerome” a pass for his way of living because he “had no choice”. I couldn’t f*%king believe it! But deep down inside there is something about this documentary that is unsettling in that same way that it was unsettling listening to this ignorant ass dude rant on. I ask myself would that guy who sat in that class watch this special walk away feeling more or less correct about his preconceived notions? I highly doubt it.
I guess my point is…what do you think is more appropriate and more beneficial…to try and explain why there are disparities between Blacks and Whites or to show that the Black experience is stretches beyond drug dealers, crackheads, and criminals? Better yet…why can’t we do both?
I think it was well put together, however I expected the negativity. Every time we have these types of discussions, you never hear anything positive. I told my family yesterday before the airing… Tonight they are covering the black male, you know it is going to be negative.
..As others stated, they did not cover cultural aspects of the black community, in addition I would have liked them to cover the broad ranges of “blacks” in america (carribean, african etc), in addition, regional differences, trends, migration (to atlanta, south etc. )
“Hi my name is Jerome. My father is in jail and my mother is on crack so I have to steal in order to put food on my table”.
…WOWOWOWOW…
I thought i heard some ignorant things in college.
Their was a point in time when someone would ask if I was an Athlete every week. (b/c i’m a tall black male).
And a guy asking me if I had both parents in my household (based on the stereotype).
I think we all have one of those stories. One day this white girl comes to me for approval on her costume. The purpose of the costume was to deliver her speech for her communications course in attire that was comparable to the theme of the speech.
Her speak dealt with black culture or something along those lines, so when I open the door of my dorm room she’s standing there sagging some sweats, one pant leg rolled up, hat backwards, with gold chains on, and she added a mean limp to her walk. Not only was she coming to me on approval for her outfit, but she asked if she could borrow my du rag. SMH…
See…that’s exactly what I’m saying…people have this idea of what Blackness is and I would like a real honest attempt to show poverty and crime are just one facet, but there are many other facets as well. Almost all of their discussions about college had some sort of negative slant on it. If you’re an educated Black woman you can’t find a man…if you’re an educated Black man, you’re no better off than a less educated White man….vs…showing that a lot of people get their degree without incident, get a job without incident, and live a happy life without incident. Is that so hard to imagine or convey?
For me I guess it depends on the intent. The show says it wanted to provide a glimpse into what it means to be Black in America. Under that goal, I completely agree with you Reecie in that there is so much more to us that what was shown. Even in terms of the negative aspects, they missed so much. There was no mention of child abuse (male and female), or definitions of gender roles in relationships, or sexuality. All of which are huge right now in our community.
I think I would have preferred a more solutions-based approach which would mean that there would have had to be a great focus on a few particular issues then climb all up into those topics. To just want to provide “a look inside” may prove to be more detrimental simply because you can’t account for all of those nuances in 2 hour time period. People leave confused and partially aware and a lil bit of knowledge is a very dangerous thing.
Once again this program missed the mark to show the many facets of black life and I’m surprised at CNN because they have had outstanding investigative and journalistic pieces. This was not one of them and seriously incomplete as to being Black in America.
In the year 2008, there are plenty of black folks that grew up in middle class neighborhoods in homes purchased by parents/parent(remember the GI bill), completed high school, went to college (remember affirmative action in the 70’s)and have NOT been incarcerated but have taken advantage of opportunities that have been available to a wide range of black folks. These same black folks have established themselves in the job market and communities, and bought homes, etc as single, married, divorced, straight, gay, live-ins, etc.
Yes there are many of us who DO have health insurance and struggle with health insurance co-pays, prescription drug co-pays, day care payments, raising children together, or apart, or as singles, long work commutes, high fuel prices, and utilities, rent, mortgage payments, but we get the job done and get our bills paid. This may be a surprise to Soledad O’Brien and the producers of CNN but we are just like most other Americans. I know this world because I have lived in it for 48 years and most of the black folks I know have too. Other than the few minutes where “Black in America” covered the single black women who have made it and can’t find the right black man because of economics, lack of education, and being incarcerated this special was not at all inclusive of the black folks I know, and with a black/bi-racial man running for President who has also done very well, although better than many, for himself it was an opportunity to expand the boundries of the negative stereotypes that are always displayed to and by the media and fill in the blanks for the rest of us.
No, we are not all living like this and it was a miserable failure at communicating this fact as not everything that happens to you is a result of being black but moreso the decisions you make no matter what color you are.
I’m just tired of hearing about the same topics and the stuff we already know. When are programs like this going to have a sitdown so we can change things and have solutions to these problems. We know more black males are dropping out of school, we know there are a wide array of black single mothers, we know that successful black women are dating outside their race to find love, but when are we going to start broadcasting what can be done to get black boys back in school, and to raise more families where a black mother and father are in the same home
I like the topic the program touched on, but the deliver was a bit flat. I was a bit disappointed with some of it. I still put more faith in CNN than BET when it comes to doing a show like this.
Soledad laughed at blacks thru out show. I read Soledad bio and it says that she is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists. I wonder why maybe to help her with affirmative action job. I was shock to see how unprofessional Soledad behaved. She had no clue, I will never watch her show after this disaster.
^^ How did she laugh and were unprofessional.I thought she is and always is professional. And how is her job a affirmative action job?
DON’T BE DUPED!
BOYCOTT CNN
CNN’s piece, Black in America, was grossly negative and completely offensive….so offensive at times it became comical.
Rather than call it ‘Black in America’, they should have called it ‘The Problems Afflicting Blacks in America’ That way we would all know it wasn’t designed to be fair and balanced journalism.
1. Here’s a fact - Not all black men are cracked out, crack selling, absentee dads with criminal records.
2. Another fact - Not all black women are single, poor, desperate souls looking for a mate…any mate.
3. And another fact - Not all black people who have ‘made it’ come from families of crack selling, cracked out absentee dads and single, poor desparate mothers.
Soledad O’Brien must be desperate for air time…or maybe she got DUPED… or maybe she doesn’t care about the Black experience given she’s Cuban.
After seeing the Black in America “special”, I don’t know if I can continue watching CNN.
And….let’s face it, the timing of that piece was no coincidence… the general election is less than 100 days away.
DON’T BE DUPED!
BOYCOTT CNN!
1) Soledad’s father was half black I guess she is CNN’s representative for race relations. She spoke at my alma mater, flawless credentials, well dressed and afterwards she chilled. Classy Lady! You’re misinformed about her she is on point.
2)Michael Eric Dyson is hilarious.
3) Did anyone notice all of the succesful Black guys kids were married to white women except the youngest with the afro? lol
4) Wow so much emphasis was put on absentee fathers, I guess there point was if you do not have a father you’re fucked. lol How ridiculous.
5) How about the black woman who could not find a man? Something New was impressively average.
6) I could go on all day (rofl) but what took the cake was the black dude arriving late to his kids birthday. He was like um I didn’t know what time, they kept changing the time. I almost fainted.
What a shitstorm!
4) Wow so much emphasis was put on absentee fathers, I guess there point was if you do not have a father you’re fucked. lol How ridiculous.
Hee hee hee!
“Hi my name is Jerome. My father is in jail and my mother is on crack so I have to steal in order to put food on my table”.
Ha ha ha! That is so sad.
Not only was she coming to me on approval for her outfit, but she asked if she could borrow my du rag.
She could borrow mine.
Seriously, who are these people?
“3) Did anyone notice all of the succesful Black guys kids were married to white women except the youngest with the afro? lol”
Yes I noticed and pointed it out in the post. But…you actually got it a little wrong, the oldest (a D.A.) was married to a White woman and the youngest who is in college is dating a White woman. The only one who doesn’t appear to have a White woman ended up getting convicted of a crime. That whole part really pissed me off, because I can’t help but feel like there was some subliminal messaging going on. You can’t tell me that 1) they couldn’t find one “successful” Black family in which none of the kids ended up getting convicted of a crime and 2)where 2 out of 3 sons didn’t end up with a White woman (keep in mind less than 15% of married Black people are married to someone who is not Black). It’s almost as if the message from that segment was “marry a White woman or end up a criminal”. I’m not hating on anyone’s choice on who to date, but I would’ve still liked to have seen more profiles on Black love in the show. They talked about how Black women prefer to date Black men, but never showed why Black women find Black love so much more fulfilling. Of course many Black men are more than happy to dip outside of Black women…but there are also some (probably much fewer than Black women) that only date Black women…why not profile some of them?
My Question,
Why was the whole show (well most) was based in Arkansas
Probably because they were too damn lazy to actually talk to Black folks from across the country and they had enough material to craft the narrative they wanted.
I liked and disliked the special like a lot of Black people do. Reecie I can see how you disapprove of how they didn’t show the Black people who lived a normal life but I don’t think that was their point. I can’t say that it should be common knowledge that there a plenty of black people doing well in America especially after these college stories I’ve read on here but they tried to take the 2 hours to show all of our ‘problems’ and our ‘struggles’ and there was no time to show the normality. I personally wasn’t worried about that too much. I DID however think that the special was going to take time out and go deeper into the issues that black people face. Do the research and tell us why and where these things came from. Whether the root of each issue dates back to slavery or it only dates back to the 80’s we didn’t make these problems ourselves. We’re just living through them and I think it would’ve been a great benefit for Blacks and other cultures to see that we aren’t just angry and bitter. We got here because of so many reasons and it’s going to take more than us [Blacks] to pull ourselves out of this hole. I was also a bit salty after I saw the story with the accomplished black family that had the sons that married/dated white women and one was a convict but I had to realize that the were trying to show a many Black issues in one family as possible. This family had a curve ball and they were able to cover many aspects with this one family so I can see why they did it. Just like the story with the Black woman that had 5 children with the same man and was a single mother. That story was a bit extreme to me also but they had to be like that given the 2 hour time period. I just don’t see how people who aren’t Black think they can organize a series showing what it is like to be Black. Not saying they didn’t have good intentions on trying to enlighten the nation but I don’t think there is a Black person here that would’ve made a show about our people that was 95% negative. I personally didn’t think that it was a show for me to watch because I wake up Black in America everyday. I didn’t think that it was a show for other races to watch because it was like a bullet list of problems with no cause and effect to it. Informative to a point but as a whole I guess it can be summed up to ‘they tried’.
I think Tyra Bank does a better job on trackling these types of issue. I regret missing her show today.
Reecie - Do you think Tyra Bank does a great job trackling these issues on her show?
Stallion…I never watch Tyra’s show.
Fool’s Good…I feel you on the whole “they tried” thing. PERHAPS with the solid ratings the show received, it will open up the door for a more thoughtful and accurate portrayal of what it is really like to Black in America.
I agree with… they tried
thats the best youll get from CNN
I always accept the inevitable biases of any such reports
im african
i have to
Honestly, to tell you the truth. I am tired of seeing Black men with white women. As if Black women aren’t worthy enough. I am a Black female in college and I work hard to maintain my self image and self respect. white women are no different than Black women. If a white girl grew up not in the suburbs and rich…well you know the rest. Black men have to stop thinking that dating a white women is better, less problems-less issues. I don’t see why any brother or sister would give some white person the time or day. Lets dig deeper for a minute people. One way or another white people will turn against you. white women date Black guys to spite Black women. That’s why I can’t stand to see a Black man think he’s dating gold, when in reality he’s dating trash. But that won’t make me go out and date a white man. Never. I don’t care what anyone says…white and Black dating is just for attention. It is also to reproduce so-called beautiful kids…why because they have light eyes and brown hair. They all come out the same way. I am tired of seeing it! No mixed kid is better than me. I am sorry! Anyways I don’t see why shows have to show interracial dating. I see it enough and I am sick of it. No I did not see the CNN THING. I don’t plan on seeing it now, because I will dislike white people more than I do now.
I did not get a chance to see the documentary on CNN, but I heard from some of my associates about the disparity between black and white men and I decided to go to CNN to read the article and also read the individual posts in order to get a sense of how each person felt about the documentary. From what I have read so far and based on my own feelings before even reading the article on CNN is overall we are so messed up as a people. We have took everything that Europeans have told us for the truth and look at us. Everybody knows who they are as a people except us. My own people are saying forget about the past; slavery no longer affects us? Why should we forget about the past and why do you think slavery no longer affects you? Let me ask you a question; what language do you speak? Did your ancestors speak English prior to coming here? Whose god do you serve? Was that the god your ancestors worshipped? Get my drift? Believe it or not slavery still affects us. Many Europeans today will say they had nothing to do with slavery. Now, I can’t dispute that you directly had something to do with the Atlantic Slave Trade, but today you are fighting tooth and nail to hold on to the interest my ancestors broke their backs for. Most of you will do anything to keep Blacks from getting ahead and to keep the current “structure” in place. Now, what disturbed me the most is why are we sending our children to school in expectation that the Europeans are going to give us a job. Right now, the European economy is having a hard enough time providing jobs for their own people so why do we thing they are going to give us a job? We as Black people create so many jobs for everyone but ourselves. Now isn’t that interesting we create jobs but we are begging for jobs. We need to start thinking like a nation. If we combine our capital, our economy would be the 7th or 8th largest in the world and may be even higher. We need to change our mind set and stop believing Europeans are going to help us and stop thinking we need to merge with these people to survive. For one, it is a fallacy to think we are going to merge with Europeans and if we could you would then have to question your motives for doing so.