First, let me jsut say that in no way am i shunning or condemning our parents/ourselves...I'm just trying to bring your thought to a new area.....Now, that said....I feel that part of the blame falls on us when i t comes to raising the newest generation....I know not of yours, but MY parents raised me to believe that the world is my friend.....now thats all good and dandy...but it is truly NOT realistic...though most of the world has become TOLERANT of eachother, and many are genuine, honest, friendly people, there are still many who are not....But there are STILL many people who are not....People who are not to be trusted....Then what makes it worse, is that many of these are disguised in a "Friend's" clothing...Only forming bonds to serve their purpose and then throw you away at the end....They don't WANT you....jsut NEED you to do what they gotta do, and when u don't mean anything more than a canoversation and companionship.....They throw u away, just like that....WHO has time for a "friend" nowadays?....They only truly know 3 people in their lives..."ME" MYSELF" and "I"....These are Darwinistic-Sycophantic-"Only know you when I need you" people that we need to watch out for....That we haven't been taught about....and when we DO meet them....It's a slap in teh face....Not so much as to what they have done...For we truly know that the notion of the same type of attitude has crossed our minds one time or another.....But it's a slap in the face because we never knew there were people like us....Big Bird and Barney never told us that..As opposed to previous time.....the Television has become the Mother, Father, Brother, Sister, Baby-Siter, Best Friend that has always been there for them....It is the television that is teaching them to read...it is the televeision that is teaching tehm the difference between right and wrong (or the lack of difference thereof) and even teaching them what exactly is teh difference between boys and girls....My friends....Be nice, be corteous, be friendly....But beware as well......Cunnign as a serpent, Harmless as a Dove.......
Next level of damge done by the media is the world's view on the rest of itself as it gets older (the world meaning population).....Dear people....Take a look around you....Does it look familiar...sure it does....you live in it....Now....take a look at the world within the TV screen....Does that look familiar?....Sure it does....its what we have grown to know adn love....Now, does your world tha tu live in resemble the world within the Screen?....NO!!!....so why then do we allow ourselves to be fooled into believeing that they are one in teh same....Explain to me how you can have a whole televeision show, and the there is not one Black/Hispanic/Asian/Other-Minority character...yet its all fine....YET...oh boy...YET!!!....When we see an all minority cast....It's eye-openning....provocative....Ground-Breaking?.....It's propsterous....Take a look around you....this is not right...and we have been brainwashed so far down along the DAGGUM line, that we cannot see it...and when we do....it would SEEM that we could not do anything about it, but when you think about it...we are a sleeping giant...awaiting to be awakened......Does it not strike you as odd when a race of people....a WHOLE race of people, when portraying rolls in advertisement, entertainment, etc only play one certain group of rolls?.....How often must Blacks and Hispanics succumb to the redundant image they have been given.....My people....before I continue....Let me jsut say this....Reality is a relative statement....Reality is not so much based on actuallity....but, instead, on'es perception OF reality is based on what he/she knows/feels to be true....Therefore, take into considereation that MANY MANY MANY poeple are only exposed to the world through the media....So then is it any wonder why Blacks and Hispanics are percieved as Whore-mongering-money-hustling-gun-toting-gang-banging-sports-playing-frivilous-ignorant-troubled peoples?....
And what makes it worse, going baclk to the youth, they eat this up, cuz it's all they see when Daddy/Mommy puts them in froint of the TV....Now, see if you can handle this now....People tend to attract to people they relate with, big people have big friends, small people have small friends, veterans know veterans, teachers hang with teachers....NOW...When a child of such a young age actually grasps SOME recognition that some one with a greater skin pigmentation, such as his, is not very common upon the television....so teh ones that ARE are special....They did sumthing BEYOND normal to be granted authority to grace the screen....These are your Cash-Money-Millionaires....These are your peeps at Murder Inc....These are your Ruff Ryders....in the CHILD's reality, they are BEYOND average like this human child is...they are SUPER-human....so they are idolized....and imitated....SO much to the point, where they dress, act, and TALK like the PSEUDO-hero....it's sad....Nelly spoke on BET saying the Band-Aid under his eye was for a cut he recieved playin basketball....few days later...kids start running up to him with the same things under their eyes....THEY dont know why....but Nelly's doin it....it MUST be cool...It's a sad point in time when our nation's future knows so LITTLE of poeple like Malcolm X, yet can tell you all about Mia X.....
Then, dealing with perception still....we must look at ourselves....Now...(I'm not sure where to approach first, so i apologize in advance for any incoherence)....Lemme give a quick lesson in Black History....Looking back, you'd see that blacks were a form of entertainment for whites....Living Toys that sing, dance, tell jokes, etc....ANYTHING to please Massah and save their behinds from a day of whippin.....OK!!!.....Flash forward, and take a look at channels such as BET and UPN....With shows like Comic View, The Way We Do It, The Parkers, One on One, et al....Imagine having only those shows to judge Black folks by....Would you really take us seriously?....Would you give us the respect we fully deserve, or just acknowledge our presence?....Now...Don't get me wrong, I watch some of the shows, adn i do laugh at times...but at other times its jsut straight obvious when the line is crossed....We joke amongst ourselves such topics, adn at time won't EVEN jike such topics amongst ourselves....but either way, that is OURSELVES....not in front of a camera for a NATIONALLY viewed show....By doing such things, that is totally degrading the population which u represent....A person in front of a camera on televeision is an embassador....either to race, thought, religion, or otherwise, they are an embassador nonetheless.....What ever happend to telling a joke without oen of our brothers or sisters having to fall out and just straight act a fool in order to crack a smile and pay sume bills...Pleasing Massah CEO and saving his behind from a whippin from the bill collector?....Chuck D phrased it well saying that we've been "reduced from Black faces to blackface"....
It hurts as i type this, and i am VERY VERY VERY outrages when i think and recall hearing one of my own say that shows such as "The Cosby Show" was unrealistic....UNREALISTIC....that may be true if we look at realsitc in the light of the "laws" and "truths" set but the television/radio....Where we are always getting into SOME kind of "Wacky-Zany-HairBrained" situations....But in the ACTUAL world as we know it....Though extra hard and though with more trials/tribulations than our counterparts with lower melanin tones...it is STILL very much possible....it hurts to see that people have accepted the stance of subordination that society has given them in regards to the public view....we CAN become doctors....we CAN become lawyers....we CAN raise our kids within a home who's only worry is, despite the inevitable racial obstacles, who they're gonna take out on saturday night....
My people...this is a call to RISE UP....this is a call to TAKE A STAND for your right to PROPER portrayal.....your right to DECENT portrayal...your right to know that whoever is stepping in front of the NATION and the WORLD will NOT disgrace your people as they are stepping....My people, this nation is influenced by the Media, the window into whats going on....But the media can only be controlled with teh right monetary influence....And let me tell you this....40% of the nation's wealth is controlled by 1% of the population....HOW on earth is that possible?.....
NO MORE do i want to hear "but what can i do?"...NO MORE do i want to listen to "Its never gonna change"...NO MORE do i want to heaer utterance of "You take this too seriously".....PEOPLE...I am being looked at as a criminal, thug, ignorant, athlete as i walk down these streets down here....u know why?....You should know now....I am embarassed as I see people on TV, who look like me, talkin about Snoop Dogg's a sell out cuz he don't smoke weed any more.....Embarassed to hear an Ebony Queen equate herself to a "Happy slave tryna get some money" when she speaks of lookin for jobs from whites and blacks.....it BOILS my blood and CRAWLS my skin....My own people are showing those taht are NOT my own that THAT's what we all think....All on the televison....
And so I end this here, realizing the irony in something I once heard...They say taht the Television has brought so many things to people taht normally wouldn't be able to experience them, educating them more than they would have been otehrwise, and simply enlightening and openning the Mind's Eye....Well, let us not forget the age old phrase our parents told us time adn time again.....Don't sit so close to the TV, or else your bound to ruin your Vision.....
Open up your Eyes to what is being done....Open up your Ears to what is being said....Open up your Mind to what is being thought....and Open up your MOUTHS, so that your cause HASN'T gone to naught.....