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M.I.A.'s Super Bowl Finger: Have You Met Her?
Sunday’s Super Bowl XLVI was the most-watched show in the history of television. The New York Giants edged the New England Patriots in what could only be reasonably described as a nail-biter in one of the most exciting Super Bowl matchups in recent history. Yet the news story that has managed to trump the actual…
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'RHOA' in South Africa: A Cotton-Picking Shame
I thought long and hard about writing this post because frankly, I was so embarrassed by the last episode of Real Housewives of Atlanta I saw that I didn’t want anyone to know that I had actually watched the show. Clearly I’m not a fan and literally stumbled across an episode while channel surfing. Why…
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Is 'The Help' Racist? It's a Loaded Question
On Sunday night, Viola Davis won the Screen Actors Guild Award for best actress in the film The Help in an upset win over legendary actress Meryl Streep. E News correspondent Ted Casablanca asked Davis backstage at the show “why it took a Caucasian woman” (Emma Stone as Skeeter) “to get these African-American maids in…
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White Women and 'Blame a Black Man' Syndrome
Last week Bonnie Sweeten, a 40-year-old white woman, was sentenced to eight years in prison for a host of crimes including stealing money from her family and the law firm where she worked and lying about being kidnapped by two black men. Sweeten had actually taken her daughter to Disney World with her ill-gotten gains.…
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Black Network Adds Value to Cable Terrain
On May 9, 1961, former FCC Chairperson Newton Minow gave a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters, in which he lambasted television broadcasters for failing to produce programming that was in line with the needs of the public interest. In the historic speech, he referred to the television landscape as a “vast wasteland” and…
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'F-Bomb' on 'Modern Family' Reflects Modern Times
ABC’s Modern Family is a critically acclaimed television sitcom that has been the belle of the ball at awards shows, picking up where fan favorite Arrested Development left off after being unceremoniously canceled. Modern Family takes a comedic look at the shenanigans of a dysfunctional extended family, whose lives are interconnected either by choice or…
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'Love and Hip Hop': Where Is the Love?
VH1’s hit reality show Love and Hip Hop might want to consider a name change to Perverted Love and Hip-Hop, based on the dysfunctional relationships of the women on the show. The only thing worse than the negative portrayal of women of color on the reality show is their colossally messed-up “romantic” relationships with rappers. I’m…
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Cain and Scott Won't Acknowledge GOP Racism
This morning I turned on my television to watch Soledad O’Brien’s morning show, Starting Point, on CNN. Former GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain, South Carolina’s Rep. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and CNN/TV One’s Roland Martin were part of a panel discussing the GOP debates in South Carolina. During the discussion, O’Brien asked the panel about their…
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Spencer's Win: Evidence of a Hollywood in Need of Help
Last week I sat in on a lecture on the history of Barbados and how long it literally takes to create real change in a country, particularly following colonization. The lecturer highlighted other countries, including Brazil and the United States, both of which struggled with creating change in a postcolonial society. The common thread among…
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Common Bond: Mrs. Obama and Mother Sally
First lady Michelle Obama has been in the news of late because of her portrayal as a “frustrated” black woman in Jodi Kantor’s book The Obamas. ABC News recently ran a segment discussing Mrs. Obama’s struggle to fight against the negative stereotype of being an angry black woman, which was assigned to her from the…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
