However, it seems the candidacy and somewhat recent induction of our first black President, and visibility of our first black "First Family" seems to have thrust the spotlight of our VERY white media to black families. This started to become more and more noticeable when CNN began showing their "Black In America" series. I believe there were 2 episodes. I saw the first but not the second. I thought it was as fair as could be expected. A lot of people felt there was a clear agenda to essentially defame black families, among other things. I dont agree.
Recently, media attention has turned away from the Black family and centered itself squarely on black women. This attention seems to center on marriage rates/percentages. I dont know the exact statistic but they say something along the lines of 40% of black women are married and presented it as a huge issue. Different media venues have consulted their own "experts," including Steve Harvey, to try to explain how this could possibly be. A good amount of attention was paid to the plight of the black women and how so many of them are uber successful, yet single, and how so many black men are...well...not. Even the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) got indirectly involved by publishing, and later rescinding, some VERY disturbing information concerning black women and herpes.
Predictably, these shows/articles have caused something of a maelstrom in the black community. Issues of interracial dating, availability of desirable black men, courting/dating, incidence of STDs, etc have been bandied about in these discussions. As someone that loves discourse, I've found the majority of this VERY entertaining. People seem to be in a frenzied state about trying to find "answers" to these "problems." Correction: Black women seem to be in a frenzied state on the topic. Other dynamics (races, genders) seem to be somewhat indifferent. As a black man, I'm among the indifferent, and at times, amused.
Like I mentioned earlier, black people are mainly ignored by the media. This is the first time I've seen black women be paid so much attention in so many facets of the media at once. That, in itself, is an interesting case study. This level of attention is pretty new to black women...and surprise, surprise...its negative. With the exception of in the music industry, black women getting NEGATIVE media attention is more rare than their getting any attention at all. And MANY of them seem to have been blind-sided by it. I think part of the reason so many black men are mainly indifferent is because we've received this type of negative media attention for a long while now. Granted, black women are experiencing a concentrated version of it but...black men got a good concentrated dose of this in the 90s.
Among the funnier "issues," to me anyway, is the constant questioning, by black women, of why they seem to have been assigned the burden of making relationships work. Simply put, women, in general, have ALWAYS been assigned that burden. This isnt a new complication nor is it racially significant. Its just the way it is. An interesting question would be whether or not that gender role was developed by society or by the population and thus designated as a societal norm. But thats more of a chicken vs the egg debate. However, the fact remains...when a relationship doesnt work, the woman takes the lion's share of the blame. Always has been, always will be. You'd be wise to accept it as so and move on.
Black women, it sucks to be in the spotlight, especially in such a negative manner...but hey, at LEAST the worst they can say about you is that you're single, successful, and MIGHT have the herp. Thats a little better than what I'm assumed to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment