Commercials

Have you ever noticed if there is a "black related" show or event on television the majority of commericals seems to be desginated to a black audience? Why does that happen? The recent McDonald commercials have really have done this too. They seem to make the whole commerical "black" by even changing the McDondald's jingle to a more hip hop vibe. They also feature all black damilies and have a focus on strereoptypical black trends like fried chicken, cajun spices and sweet tea. If commericals AND the televison shows are both negative how do we expect anyone to not assume these portrayls are true? There is no end the strereotypes.

An example demonstrated by KFC of extreme overt stereotyping.

TV's Portrayl of Middle Class Black Families

Television is main source of our media and also a main source of the perpetuation of stereotypes. Starting as far back "The Cosby Show," the majority of black portrayal on cable series seems to be false and also contributes to the desensitization of our society to racial issues.

"The Cosby Show" was a historical change for how black families were represented in the media, especially on cable television. It has been noted as the first attempt to portray middle class blacks in society, but there was a slight issue to this? Although The Huxtable family will always remain a household favorite the reality of their situation was not realistic of black families in our society. The Cosby Show presented this loving family in lifestyle that was not actually tangible, it was almost even unrealistic of white middle class families. An article by Lesile B.Inniss and Joe R. Feagin states, that the show's "view of Black assimilation fails to take into account the context of the world outside of the four walls of the Huxtable household and because it allows Whites to excuse institutional discrimination and to become desensitized to racial inequality."

A more recent version of black middle class portrayal is "Tyler Perry's House of Payne." In this cable series the black middle class family is presented in a more comedic manner, making it easier for white viewers to laugh "with" racial issues as opposed to take in the reality of its seriousness.

Cartoon shows such as Nickelodeon's "Hey Arnold" also use the common entertainment approach of the having the "token" black character, to avoid any claims of being racially unequal. It is strange that even though Jerald, Arnold's black best friend, plays a dominant role in the show we never learn about his family or much of anything personal to his life. It goes to prove that his black character was added to be just that-a black character.

In more recent television shows such as Disney "That's So Raven," it takes a different approach in representing black middle class families by portraying them as still very unrealistic to society. Raven can not just be a regular high student, instead to make sure the family is not just a "normal" family, Raven has to be enchanted with the magical ability to see into the future.

It seems that cable television will do anything possible to make sure that black families and characters are not realistically represented. It can be seen as an effort to continue to "brush off" discrimination while desensitizing our society.

Click here for YouTube clip that shows racism in children cartoons.

Charity and Community Efforts: Why haven't we heard?

Rapper Big Boi and Nike paired up to create a 50k diamond embedded Nike shoe with all donations going to Big Boi's Big Kidz Foundation

Rappers Bow and Nelly recently held and participated in charity basketball game with the losing team donating $100,000 to charity.

Atlanta natives, T.I and Young Jeezy, have taken the holiday of Thanksgiving to give back to their local community by donating and running a soup kitchen/food bank that feeds the community.

At the beginning of this month, music artist Common teamed up with a charity event that helped cancer patients in Montreal, Canada.

Rapper Akon has his own charity that gives back to many communities in his home country of Africa. The charity foundations makes many efforts in helping kids across Africa.

With the recent disaster in Haiti, native Wyclef Jean took on damage control by creating numerous events and opportunities for the Wyclef Jean Foundation, Inc. to help in Haiti.


Mike Jones and Paul Wall have also held charity basketball game.

Bow Wow has created a community skate rink with money he raised and donated. The idea was to give community a safe place to get away from the street life.

Snoop Dogg has many sports related charity efforts. He has a whole youth football league that he financially supports with donations and personal money. Also he continuously holds sports events with all donations going to his youth foundation.

Atlanta Radio Host Ryan Cameron partnered with rappers T.I and Ludacris to donate $166,000 to the aid of the Hosea Williams Feed The Hungry and Homeless Foundation. They did it all in less than three hours!

Positive News on Rapper Ludacris's Efforts

Now why don't we see stuff like this all over the news? If Ludacris were going to jail every American would be hearing about it already, but instead he is making a postive effort for the African American community and it is no where to be found in the media. Rapper, Ludacris, is participating in a $300 million dollar campaign to travel to cities with high populations of African Americans and explain the importance of the 2010 Census. Luda has already visited Dallas, New Orleans, Atlanta and Washington D.C. This is the type of news that needs to be flooding MTV, VH1 and any news network, as opposed to gun charges and jail visits.

By:ahgrimes