It was one of the most heavily marketed specials in CNN history. Emails circulated, videos were posted, and unless you were living under a rock, you knew it was premiering Wednesday night July 23, 2008. According to the Neilson’s (whoever they are) there were 2.6 million viewers.
This was Soledad O’Brien’s 18 month crusade to show America the truth about Blacks living in America. Many thought the timing was suspect. This special would air during one of the hottest presidential elections of our time. Many black people thought, “This will be good! Finally, someone will show how black people really live.”
To be fair, there were parts of the special I enjoyed. The opening story of the Rand family is a story familiar to many black families living in this country. Many of us, who research our family trees, will end up with ties to some white family from the 1600-1800s. Do a google search on Abraham Dugas. It’s not a new story. Most blacks have a white great great grandfather who also was a slave owner. I have the documents to prove mine. Let’s not forget the story of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings. Nothing new there!
What I felt after watching part I and II was that we are more than recovered drug addicts, lonely black women who are considering dating white men cause all of our men are in jail. I know several black men who are taking care of their children and holding down great jobs and businesses. According to the CNN special, we haven’t evolved at all. Was it just me, or is that the way you felt also? I really need to know.
We as blacks need to stop letting “other folk” tell our stories and start telling our own stories. I was curious as to what white America thought about the special. I went to IReports on CNN, and got my answer. NOT MUCH! The few that did review it gave the same reviews black stories always receive….”Blacks need to stop expecting a hand-out,” “Blacks need to get off of welfare,” “Blacks need to stop talking about slavery!:
I’ll admit, my expectations were higher than the editorial board of CNN. I was expecting to see more affluent black people in the piece. I started this post right after the special aired and saved it as a draft because I was busy at the time. I heard on the radio days later that CNN had to take down the comments on IReport because the special was so badly received. They have now requested people to upload videos and tell their stories about what it means to be Black in America.
So what is it like to be Black in America?
The following video reflects alot of my views. Being black in America for me means I have a sense of pride. I know the strong shoulders I stand on . I realize the depravating struggles my parents and grandparents endured so I wouldn’t have too, and to ignore their struggles and not try to change the game would mean it was all in vain. I will never do that! This video I found (Legacy – Being Black in America) did more for me in 6:30 than the 4 hour CNN special that I THOUGHT was going to give black people a fair shot.
Check it out! I’d love to know how others feel about it as well. I’ll say it again: We need to tell our own stories.
6 Comments
August 9, 2008 at 12:05 am
I love the video, let me say that first. This is something I would have rather watched instead of the two part series that a woman, who is really not black, spent a year and a half producing.
After watching part one I was to disgusted to watch all of part two. Phyllis, you’re right when you comment that we are a proud people. My parents who were married until death for 50 years raised us to be proud of who we were and where we come from. We went to college, we were never in any serious trouble and we learned respect. While our parents educated us about racism, we were never taught to hate.
I have to find the video. Is it a special for purchase? Where can you buy it. I would love to see the entire program. The people in this video are people with whom I too can relate.
Another good post Phyllis.
August 10, 2008 at 9:50 am
I honestly felt that all Black in America did was reinforce many black stereotypes that many of us fight very hard to shake off.
But I do agree…WE def need to tell our own stories…and stop allowing mainstream America tell “our” story
August 10, 2008 at 10:23 am
Shondra, It was a PBS special from February 2008. I found the website. Here’s the link:
http://www.legacybeingblackinamerica.com/
I’m ordering it and can’t believe I missed it. I’m usually a PBS fan and they produce great work.
Thanks for the post dadoc. That’s exactly what it was – the typical B.S. I’d really like to see more specials done by respected “Black folk” that tell a different story, a real story of being Black in America. What I don’t want to see is BET attempting it.
August 10, 2008 at 11:24 am
Specials such as the one CNN produced did not address any solutions, nor delve into the seriousness of racism which Blacks deal with on a daily basis. I agree we need to tell our stories and would like to offer part of an article written by Edmund Lewis a few days ago in the Louisiana weekly. We must begin to generate our own dialogue on the subject of racism.
Despite having made many strides over the past 50 years, Black people still often find themselves at the mercy of hate-mongering whites, murderous cops, indifferent or blatantly racist elected officials and a criminal justice system that is anything but colorblind.
Think about it. How often do you hear or read about white folks getting arrested for Driving While White, Shopping While White or simply Being White? When was the last time you heard about cops kicking down the door of an elderly white woman and shooting her to death? When was the last time you turned on the television and heard about a white man getting killed by police just hours before his wedding like Sean Bell did, or white men getting killed in a hail of 41 bullets for pulling out their wallets? When was the last time you turned on the evening news and heard about cops sodomizing a white man with a toilet plunger like they did Abner Louima?
Black people’s experiences in America have taught us a little something about racial hatred and oppression.
We know what it feels like to know that we can be gunned down or arrested for no apparent reason and that police are not above planting drugs on a suspect if it suits their purposes. We also know, as John Singleton pointed out in the 1997 film Rosewood, that “nigger is just another word for guilty.”
While CNN’s “Black In America” documentary told some important stories, it did not delve deeply enough into what it is truly like to be Black in America and born under the shadow of racism.
Racism is a cancer that eats away at the minds, bodies and spirits of Black people and moves this nation closer to a total collapse. One can see that very well in the negative responses to presidential candidate Barack Obama, who may very well represent America’s last chance to at least begin to make some steps in the right direction. Electing Obama obviously won’t undo centuries of racial hatred and discrimination, but it would certainly give a segment of the population tangible evidence that this nation is no longer hell-bent on choosing self-destruction over positive change.
Before this nation can take major steps toward becoming the republic this nation’s founders envisioned, it must first come to terms with racism and the damage racism has done to this nation and its inhabitants.
Racism means that elected officials can use key words like “deserving poor” to describe poor white people, the insinuation being that Black women who receive public assistance are “welfare queens,” a phrase first used by former President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Meanwhile, very little has been said about the men in the Texas commune federal authorities raided earlier this year where men father children by eight or nine women. These men are legally married to one of the women and the other women and their children receive welfare assistance. If these families were Black, Fox News would be all over it.
Racism means that people can rightfully fall out and get upset about former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick abusing and killing dogs but say absolutely nothing about the horrific ordeal endured by Megan Williams, the Black woman in West Virginia who was kidnapped, tortured, raped and forced to eat human and animal feces by several white people, including a mother and her adult son.
We see all of these things and know in our hearts and minds that racism is by no means a thing of the past. We are reminded of that sobering reality every minute of every hour of every day of our lives.
August 11, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Who was the man that said something like “we can never rise above the condition of our people?”
August 13, 2008 at 8:33 am
Thanks Mellow Yellow for the comment and the very true words by Mr. Lewis. I think my whole point is that, yes we do experience all the things we saw in the CNN doc, but we also are so much more than that.
Thanks again.