For some reason, when I woke up this morning and turned on the t.v., it was set on BET. Now anymore, I don't even watch BET, as it's programming now has become from what I have experienced lately a poor, darker version of MTV. Hell Date (akin to Next or any other MTV dating show?). College Hill (a direct rip off the now-lame The Real World)? All they need is a show called Shaker Heights to rip off Laguna Beach or The Hills or whatever the heck the PYWPWP's show is at the moment (if you can figure out that acronym, I will give you $100 CASH!). Unfortunately, Shaker Heights is the only affluent black suburb I can think of to compare. I know there is more, but I digress....
The point being is that I don't know how my t.v. landed on this channel.
Bleh. Anywho, perhaps the black universe wanted me to "come back home", as I had spent the previous night in a country bar where I was the ONLY black there, and a sushi restaurant where outside me and my cousin we were the only black folks there. So there I sat and watched...
The first show that I came in on the middle of was some sort of documentary on the preacher/profitess Juanita Bynum. It showcased her rise from a crack/cocaine addicted junkie to airline stewardess to becoming one of the premier speakers/preachers in the black community. Amazing story. It wasn't one of those documentaries that was slapped together, it has a nice flow to it. The only thing I wish they would've touched a little more on was why homegirl got plastic surgery and thus rendered herself UNRECOGNIZABLE from her previous self once she began to get more fame and money. How are you going to speak on empowerment to women (which is, I gathered, the cornerstone of her message) and loving yourself and then you go and get plastic surgery that makes you look a starlet in the making rather than a preacher? How is that empowering, if you can't even accept the very face God gave you? I don't know, to each their own on that, but I wanted to have that subject fleshed out more. But still....good little piece there, BET. I'm coming back.
NEXT, there was a talk show that came on called Keep the Faith (I know there is a theme here; after all, it IS Sunday). The host of this show was that Dr. Ian from Celebrity Fit Club. If you missed that, you may have seen him around, he is an articulate, kinda soft spoken black dude. I think he has made the rounds on Oprah and a few talk shows, too. Anyways, I think he's cool because he is showcasing another facet of blackmaleness, since so many times we are rarely showcased outside of a few stereotypical roles on t.v. Ironically, the topic of this show was about getting a "black card-why some blacks are forgiven and while others aren't."
I found that interesting because I had just read a book a few months ago relative to this very subject. The premise of this discussion is that famous blacks who subscribe more to "traditional" or accepted notions of blackness (R Kelly, Marion Berry, Jesse Jackson) are more apt to be forgiven for their respective transgressions of alleged child porn, crack-smoking while in office, and infidelity/secret baby making, because they have this so called "black pass" or "black card." Others, who did NOT subscribe to stereotypical blackness (Bryant Gumbel, OJ Simpson, Wayne Brady) did not get this pass because, as I deducted from the panel, they married outside their race! I was hoping they would have the author of that book, Losing the Race, on the panel to add some depth to this conversation. No; instead they had Paul Mooney (a comedian), some girl that does reporting for an entertainment show; and then some other woman who was a lawyer or something.
Anyways, I almost fell outta my chair. They could not delve into any reasons deeper than that as to why this rift exists. So the panel was lame. I thought Dr. Ian was going to hold it together, but instead, he lost his cool. After proclaiming his own admiration for Bryant Gumbel and Wayne Brady, he then angrily shouted, "why aren't they accepted into the black community..... because you don't see them eating CHICKEN??!!!" Again, thank god my chair has good balance, because I almost fell out of it again. The look that the panel members gave him after he had his hissy fit was price.less.
They prattled on a little longer....then I had to change the channel. Enough was enough. Good topic. Lame panel. Pissy host. In one fell swoop, BET had lost me as a viewer once again. It was that easy. I can't even run to TV One since they don't offer it with the cable here in Austin. Oh well.
**I MUST add, though, that I HAVE seen an episode or two of that Keysha Cole reality show. I hope to God that her family is just playing up for the cameras...because that is a hot, percolatin' mess if they aren't..
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