Ebony's Mychal Denzel Smith says Basketball Wives and other outrageous television shows are pretty low on the list of things that cause him concern about the African-American community.
There have been calls for boycotts, for the show to be pulled, open letters written prophesying the demise of Black womanhood; some have referred to the show as 'embarrassing.'
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This is where I have a problem.
Iβve watched Tyler Perry dress in drag and mangle the English language as a supposed βodeβ to the Black women he loves. I read the news when Flavor Flav opened up a fried chicken restaurant. Via YouTube, I witnessed a young brother lick the bottom of a newly purchased Air Jordan in front of his local TV news cameras. I watched the BET Awards back when everyone hated them. Through all of that, and more, one thing I refuse to be is embarrassed over my people.
A lot of the embarrassment seems to be rooted in the false belief in a politics of respectability, in which weβre afraid of the white gaze and how weβll be viewed by society-at-large. Weβve convinced ourselves that presenting an image of respectable Negroes will eliminate stereotypes and discrimination. I regret to inform everyone that it doesnβt work that way. Racism is a system invested in perpetuating itself. It doesnβt disappear when confronted by truth, it simply concocts a new lie. No matter how many Cosbys we get on primetime television, so long as someone benefits from racism, we canβt respectable our way out of oppression.
Read Mychal Denzel Smith's entire piece at Ebony.com.
The RootΒ aims to foster and advance conversations about issues relevant to the black Diaspora by presenting a variety of opinions from all perspectives, whether or not those opinions are shared by our editorial staff.
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