You Won't See Me on TV

"Because I ain't shucking and cause I ain't jiving, some of these crackers won't stand beside me, And cause I ain't killing and don't support pimping, some of these niggas wanna call me a Cosby" -Phonte; Rapper, Singer, Songwriter

Remember when we Claire and Cliff AND Martin and Gina? Remember we had Will and the Banks family, but we still had Jazz? Remember when we had a majority black woman cast that were dating tastefully (You can pick Living Single or Girlfriends) while also being professional women? Remember when we had A Different World? Now ask yourself why these are such distant memories? Do we need these exact shows? It would be nice, but no. That's not the point. The point is we had representation. Broad representation. Respectful representation. So the real two questions are:

1.) Why don't we have an equal amount of balanced representation now?

and

2.) Why don't we care about it?

For all the trivial daily outrage I see on social media, why aren't we really attacking this issue. We, being black people, and the issue being, not having proper representation of us. Bias or not, black people are such a diverse people. But all I see representing us on mainstream tv is "ratchet-ness". I'm neither naive nor oblivious to the fact that we do have our "ratchet" side and I'm also not dismissing the fact that it can be entertaining in moderation. But there's no moderation. There's a landslide. More specifically, as a black man, I only can think of one positive representation of myself on a major network. A black man that cares about more than his next sexual conquest. One of honesty and integrity that prevents him from cheating on and lying to every woman he deals with. One with a career that doesn't involve working on his next mixtape (I love rap. Don't confuse my point). One that isn't, or once was, heavily involved in drug dealing. That one example is Dre Johnson. The father on the hit show, Black-ish, played by Anthony Anderson. I love Black-ish but I also know there's more than one type of cohesive black family in the world. I know there's more than one black man in this country capable of loving a black woman monogamously. I know there's more than one group of intelligent black kids that didn't come from a broken home!!! But "All I see is victims", to quote Pusha T. All I see is {no}Love and Hip-Hop and it's offspring. Is there a place for shows like this on television? Of course. I'm no monk, I have guilty pleasures. My biggest issue with these shows is the fact that they run year round, with entities in different major cities that rotate by season, and in essence, corner the market. If we had one Black-ish for every Love and Hip-hop entity, Black Ink, and Empire, you wouldn't hear a word from me. But the writing is on the wall. The very criteria of being on love and Hip-Hop isn't that you actually have to be a formidable working artist in Hip-Hop, you just have to have 6 degrees of separation from someone who WAS, and either be dogging and degrading black women or being one of the black women being dogged and degraded. You have to either be cheating or being cheated on. You have to be either a regularly drunk and belligerent and physically fighting black woman, or a gossiping naive one with poor taste in mates.  So news flash, you can't have a positive lifestyle and be on this franchise. Which again is fine, but if you don't live like these people, where's your representation?

Let's dissect another angle: other than "Bow" Johnson (Dre's wife, played by Tracee Ellis Ross) how many other positive images of black women on a major television show are dating a faithful black man? I'll wait. The closest thing to it would be "Cookie" played by the stunning Taraji P. Henson. However, Cookie dates black men on the show, but they're always temporary characters as she somehow always leaves them indirectly because of her ex-husband Lucious Lyon. Lucious and Cookie aren't bad representations of black people. While Empire is more of modern day Soap Opera, in my opinion, I wouldn't label them bad representations. They are successful and family oriented. But they had to be sullied. Both are former drug dealers who became successful off of drug money first, and then the music business. A common tale in the music business, specifically hip-hop, tho.   Lucious is a lying (Lyon), cheating, unethical, immoral, murderer that also is a shrewd, effective businessman. Ehhh. Then you have Ghost and Tasha. Another black couple, from the show Power that started in drug dealing. Not to mention, Ghost is cheating on Tasha with a white/ Italian woman, and Tasha was cheating with a younger black man. Cheating and drugs. We are more than that. While I love Power and love what the success that Empire quietly represents (and the amazing job Taraji P. Henson does), why can't we "get right" on TV? Olivia Pope, played by the beautiful Kerry Washington, on the hit show Scandal, only dates white men. I have no, absolutely no, problem with interracial dating, I just want them to stop putting the poison in the candy. I also want us to open our eyes to the subliminal messages.

As a black man, I constantly feel attacked, in the media. From the examples I just gave you I feel like the message is, I, a black man, will never be good enough (for the public). Because I can't be successful without a drug background or music career. And because I'll cheat on every woman that loves me. That Dre Johnson is an anomaly. Also, whenever we see a black man on the news who has allegedly committed a heinous crime, he's a thug. Or every rapper or fan of rap is a thug (See: Bill Blanton's comments). However, when a caucasian adult or young adult is guilty of similar acts they're considered "troubled" or "mentally ill". It's privilege at work. We are all aware of this; even the ones that don't care to publicly admit it. Personally, I'm not one of those people who try excuse, without accountability, crime just on the merit of "a white person would get away with it". But I don't think this perspective is extreme. I don't think I'm overstating. Somebody has to say it. Somebody has to change it. Somebody has to care. We need equal representation. We also need accountability. We air our dirty laundry proudly; and we support every second of the clothesline, it shows in the ratings. So why would they change the formula? When will we get tired of it? When will we wake and see the social engineering? Where's the writers? Where's the trailblazers? Where's the real activists and community organizers? I just want the balance. I want critical acclaim worthy representation. I want positive influences. I just want to see {me} on TV!

Just My Thoughts,

Travis Cochran