Black in America on CNN--SOSDD

Being Black In America on CNN

Same Old Show, Different Day

Maybe that is too hard, then again maybe it's too light. Too Black Too Strong, What do you do, you integrate it with cream what use to be strong now is weak, what used to keep you awake now puts you too sleep. That is what happened with this special documentary. With all the hype about this "ground breaking" documentary, the folks who put the teasers together for this really should be lauded. That said the documentary was just pitiful. Not in the content. Lets face it, we've seen this content before. It's like every 20 years the groundbreaking documentary which places African Americans under the microscope for study must come out. Apparently, its like the Olympics with a 15 year lag. Lets see CBS did this possibly in the 60s, ABC did it in the 80s and now CNN in 2000. So by 2018, it will be NBC's turn. The tragedy that I can see is that what was talked about in 1968 hasn't really changed for the better in 40 years. Its like we are taking the same documentary off the shelf, re-packaging it for a new generation and passing it off as something that is GROUNDBREAKING!!! EARTH SHATTERING!!! For me, in a media sense, Groundbreaking and Earth Shattering is Star Wars 1977 or The Matrix 1999. Why, because those films represent evolutionary change. Something that has never been done before. That said, this discourse on race has been done to death. Please don't get me wrong. The dialogue needs to continue but that said, take the opportunity to do something different. For example, DO SOMETHING!!!! As one who studies media and did very little journalism, the rule of thumb is to be objective, be neutral and allow the story to happen. That said, lets go to the rule of the other four fingers and do something else. In one sequence last night, I saw an underground hip hop artist Obrian (Soledad) was highlighting. He didn't have the major deal, he didn't have all the fame of Curtis Jackson but he was progressive and making a positive contribution to society and incidentally, getting evicted from his house. Why is CNN/Time Warner sitting back on their A (you fill in the blank) and allowing this to happen in front of my very eyes? To me breaking the rule of thumb and becoming socially engaged, making sure this man was not evicted and partnered with an agency to give his program some stability would have been the more socially responsible thing to do. This angers me because as we saw earlier, where their was this brother who showed up 5 hours late to his daughter's birthday party, at the urging of CNN, he's put on blast to see his other child in front of a obviously pissed off sister, who is pregnant with twins from another person. To me that mirrors, the Maury Povitch show and played all into the "Baby Mama Drama" frame. That to me is not necessary. In fact it was a disservice all the way around.

Then I have to talk about sponsorship as well. It was good to see the McDonalds commercial her and therewith the little girl talking about owning a chain of McDonalds as well as the other commercials with the African and African American families in the airport. To me that resonated because the showed some degree of social connectivity to what the program was trying to do. But what about other sponsors like Allstate or Meryl Lynch, Met Life, IBM, Microsoft, Nike. It's this gross lack of corporate sensitivity to the issues that the program attempts to bring light which really says volumes. Though I can't say I agree with Michael Moore 24/7/365, I will say that the man not only talks the talk but he also walks the walk. They may be publicity stunts, going to Cuba for health care, asking the members of congress to enlist their children in the Iraq war, or taking bullets into Wal-Mart Corporate Headquarters, the symbolic gestures at least say force you to see you don't have to stand for the status quo. I'm not saying that CNN/Time Warner has to give out cash to solve everyone's problems but what I am suggesting is that corporate politics need to match their charter for social responsibility. An opportunity was missed to really make a difference and instead what I watched was the further exploitation of people's hard times and misery while bolstering high ratings.