Celebrating Black Television as Supreme Court Ends Equality

As the Supreme Court abolishes the Civil Rights protection that afforded us all the opportunity to achieve equal footing on a political landscape, I look towards television for representation of socio-economic equality.

Tuesday, June 25^th 2013, the Supreme Court struck down section 2 and 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which has helped to ensure fair voting regulations in southern states that have long been in bed with Jim Crow.

If equality could be made on the back of the politics solely, then Blacks and other minorities would have had a level playing field in education, health, and social-economic situations since the Fourteenth Amendment. We all know this is not the case. Therefore, in celebration of how far we have been set back politically, I would like to celebrate Black television, which hints at a more equal society.

One of my favorite quotes is by Chris Rock; I’ll paraphrase: Major League Baseball was not equal when Jackie Robinson was drafted. MLB only became equal when they let awful Black players be drafted.

Chris Rock believes, as do I, that true equality is the ability to suck and still proceed. If we only ever had The Cosby Show that would not be equality. To only glorify perfection in a race is as dangerous as a toddler sitting on a twenty-foot tall pedestal. True equality is financing a predominantly Black film for a hundred million dollars, have it gross 20 million at the box office, then have the same studio take the gamble again, and again, and again. Warner Brother’s and Disney have (to name a few) have done it over, and over, and over for White films. While some will not see my point, the fact that we have the “dysfunction” in the form of Love and Hip Hop, the “success” depicted by Olivia Pope, “wholesomeness” on Let’s Stay Together, and the “spiritual/intellectual” on OWN, allows others and ourselves (as Blacks) to realize our vast complexities, eliminating the monolithic notions that proceeded this new era. In the 70s, the perception was that we were all it the projects like JJ on Good Times. Family Matters and The Cosby show replaced the welfare nuance of Black family with wholesome two-parent households full of kids that generally obeyed their doctor, lawyer, stay-at-home, and police officer parents. The late 90s and early 2000s threw out the family and focused on the single Black woman and her quest of career and marriage. I cannot recall a single decade where more than two depictions of Black life were portrayed. Are these shows that are broadcast now all that we are? No. However, I do believe the socio-economic landscape television presents for us at this moment is an improvement from the time of the mid 2000s when the CW abandoned Black viewership. Olivia Pope has to be making a good six-figure salary (noted by her DVF coats) and Bravo illustrates how Black women are eager to diversify their portfolios. Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s (the best show) on OWN shows a family hustling, so there is something for every generation to own.

My recognition of television does not negate the exercise of racism the Supreme Court’s decision has just helped to facilitate. Protect your rights.

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