African American Families in the media

1.  Sunday March 22st, 2009

     3:30 p.m.

     Barber Shop 2

    USA-34 (Tulsa channels)

    African Family - relationship between son and dead father as well as "adopted" Barbershop     family

    Positive

2. Tuesday March 17th 2009

     1:30 a.m.

     Daddy's Girls

     MTV-39 (Tulsa Channels)

     African American Sisters - the two affluent daughter of Reverend Run who moved to New York to start their own company

    Positive

3.  Wednesday March 25, 2009

      12:20 p.m.

      KFC commercial

      T.V. in the union

      African American family - one can only assume husband & wife

      Neutral 

    

4.   Tuesday March 17, 2009

       Media goes to jail

       Trailer to movie in another film

       African American family - humorous, Medea is the main character but we see clips of her family

       Negative (funny, but negative)

5.   Thursday March 26, 2009

      Obama Grants First Family Interview to 'Access Hollywood'  July 8, 2008 

     ABC News.com

     African American Family - the White House Family, President Obama, his wife, and daughters

    Positive

6.   Tuesday March 24, 2009

       Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

       4:00 p.m.

       USA-34 (Tulsa Channel)

       African American Family - mother & son, mother was a hooker who was shot while son was in the closet

       Negative

7.  Wednesday March 25, 2009

     Local 8 News

     NewsChannel 8 @ 5:00 p.m.

    African American Family - Female bank robber

    Negative

The television in my apartment has been out up until recently, so I had to dig into my brain to images that I had seen at home during spring break (where I spent most of my time plopped in front of our T.V. with the TiVO remote).  I am a very visual person, it is the best way that I learn and I am also a person who probably wastes too much watching T.V. Having these two things in mind I began to think about images I have grown up with and see everyday on the television that represent the African American Family.  At first I began to pick out families I could think of and choosing to write about them; the Cosby Show, the Fresh Prince, Weeds, etc.  When I asked if I could do that Prof. Flippin-Wynn said that would selecting a specific type of image, which is true and an angle I had not yet considered.  There are so many mixed images I can think of when I think of African American families.  Many of the movies that I've seen, that are specified to my age group, show low income families - yet others show families that are well off, or just average.  One of my all-time favorite shows Law & Order:SVU had a marathon of old episodes and one of the ones that I was able to catch was about an a young black prostitute who was killed while her little boy was in the closet and heard the whole thing.  This is a negative image in general, however the fact that this story line includes a race changes things - subconsciously.  An image that ties along to this is Medea goes to jail. This is strictly based on comedy, but it's comedic because people can relate to seeing this.  What kind of image is this? I am not saying that there aren't movies about white people going to jail and it being comedic, but when people see this it sets up for perhaps a stereotype.   

I feel as if the issue of race in television and other media is an issue that is hard to touch on.  There are so many different types of images thrown at us and I believe it is the mixture of these images with our personal experiences that help us to identify ourselves and others with these images. 

Tying things back to seeking out specific images of the African American Family I started to think back on some of the movies that I owned and if I could use those for examples.  I noticed a common theme between two of my favorite movies "Save The Last Dance" & "Step Up 2". Both of these movies are about white girls falling into the hip hop culture, but does this mean it has to be ghetto? That is the case here. And even further Save The Last Dance is about an inter-racial couple and touches on the issues with that.  This is kind of irrelevant, but these are the kind of movies that I watched in middle and high school, so they had an impression on my childhood. The images that we show to growing children have a stronger impact on someone rather than someone who has fully matured and will probably not change their conceived notions of race.

While i think that these images play a part in how we identify or view races I believe that our experiences in the real world are what have the greater impact. If someone is sheltered and had no interaction with people different from themselves, then yes they will probably be prown to take these images more into account. But I think that I base my thoughts about race more on personal experience, but maybe I am wrong! 

     

Tulsa Race Riots of 1921

I am a native of Tulsa and the Race Riots are something that I learned about in school and I have even written an informative speech on the Riots for one of my previous communications classes. While watching the video I tried to recall upon the first time I learned about these riots, and I don't believe it was until the 8th grade when we took a "Tour of Tulsa" and even then I did not learn much. I believe if I had not attended my High School (Booker T. Washington) I would not have learned as much as I did about the tragic incidents that happened during those 72 hours. However this video presented a lot of information for me that I had never learned. The fact that Tulsa, Oklahoma, and even Congress denied compensation for the survivors is horrendous. While I understand the law is a very intricate and complicated thing, the fact that they claimed that the survivors had been "sitting on their rights" for the past eighty years is complete bull and even insulting. The defense counsel on this case made me mad to listen to; the lies and things he said were infuriating to listen to. One of the shocking things that I learned was how they made the black men clean the debris out of Greenwood, for no pay after their lives and homes had been attacked! They had to clean up what others had done them, under their supervision, for ZERO PAY. That was truly shocking.

I thought the video was very informative; it gave a thorough description of what happened as well as many visual aids to allow the viewer to try and completely grasp what happened. But at the same time the video's main focus was on how the survivors were not receiving compensation. They had only received a brass medal of honor, something that I can't understand why this is the only recognition they had gotten. But that was the main purpose of the video, to tap into the viewers ethos and recieve donations. Not that I am saying that is bad, because I fully support that mission -- they deserve recognition as well as compensation. It was just that when I was coming to view the film I thought it was more like an interview with the survivors, focusing on what happened during those 72 hours as well as the years that followed.
One of the most important points that they made was that American does not really recognize this incident. I am sure that the only reason I ever learned about it was because I attended a public school in Tulsa, and I did not really learn about it until High School. (This is one of the many reasons why I did an informative speech on it last semester, because I went to school in Kansas and in my class survey only one other student had learned about the incident - and she, too, was from Tulsa) No one likes to air their dirty laundry, but this incident cannot be overlooked, it needs to be addressed. Especially in Oklahoma! It happened here - we can't forget it. Another small example of this was that i was texting a friend who had lived in OKC their whole life and I told them I was at a movie about the Riots and they knew nothing about it, and I am sure there are tons of others stories out their similar to this. So the questions is - how do we change this? I think the answer lies in us. We have to make the change. By demanding our government officials to acwknowledge what happened, teach on it in schools, as well as give the survivors the respect they deserve. I am appalled that they have not done so yet.